IoT Based Load Management Control and Theft Protection from DISCO’s Side

Abstract

Electricity serves as the primary power source that fuels our modern world. Without it, the functionality of everyday devices and appliances would cease. However, the relentless growth of populations, economies, and industries has led to an alarming disparity between energy demand and supply. Furthermore, power companies face a significant challenge in the form of electricity theft, resulting in substantial losses from the grid each year. To prevent electricity infrastructure from collapsing, utilities resort to load shedding, cutting off power to specific areas during shortages. To address this issue, the proposed study aims to develop a load management system that allows users to operate essential loads during shortfall hours, mitigating the impact of power cuts. Additionally, this study addressed electricity theft by introducing a theft control system by employing an automatic control unit that injects frequency-distorted voltage into low- voltage lines. As a result, the illegal consumers' loads will be malfunctioned upon detecting thefts and notifies utilities of theft occurrences, enabling them to penalize offenders. ensuring the utility's ability to act while the legal consumers will have the retention of power supply with normal frequency as due to the action of step-up cyclo-converter installed in smart metering infrastructure. The study implements a simplified design for a single-phase distribution system using the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. This IoT-based solution sends consumer data to a web page accessible via an IP address, facilitating efficient monitoring and management of the system. Overall, the proposed study offers a load management solution and theft protection system to address the challenges posed by increasing energy demand and electricity theft.