The project aims at designing a net energy meter (NEM) which is a special billing arrangement that provides credit to customers with home grid systems for the full retail value of the electricity their system generates. Under NEM, the customer's electric meter keeps track of how much electricity is consumed by the customer and how much excess electricity is generated by the system and sent back into the electric utility grid. Power plays a great role wherever man lives and works. The living standard and prosperity of a nation vary directly with the increase in the use of power. The electricity requirement of the world is increasing at an alarming rate due to industrial growth, increased and extensive use of electrical gadgets. According to world energy report, we get around 80% of our energy from conventional fossil fuels like oil (36%), natural gas (21%) and coal (23%). It is well known that the time is not so far when all these sources will be completely exhausted. So, alternative sources should be used to avoid energy crisis in the nearby future. The system consists of two input blocks. One is the Energy Meter getting for the measurement of energy supplied to the grid. The customer gives this electricity to the utility. This amount of electricity will be billed by the Microcontroller with the help of Energy Meter Reading. The other input block is the Energy Meter from the normal Mains supply through which the Microcontroller calculates the number of units the user has used and does the billing work. The Microcontroller now displays the Net amount to be paid by the customer i.e., the net amount of electricity the customer exported to the utility subtracted from the net amount of electricity the customer has consumed during that billing period. The net amount is displayed on LCD.

The main objectives of the project are:  

1. Intelligent power sharing system with electricity grid.
2. Net billing on LCD after deducting energy given to the grid

  The major building blocks of this project are:  

1. Regulated power supply.
2. PIC Micro-controller.
3. Solar panel.
4. Inverter.
5. Two energy meters.
6. Crystal oscillator.
7. Reset Button.
8. LED indicator.
9. Home grid system
10. LCD with driver

  Software’s used:  

1. PIC-C compiler for Embedded C programming.
2. PIC kit 2 programmer for dumping code into Micro controller.
3.  Express SCH for Circuit design.

       

Block Diagram:    

video: