SMART ONLINE ELECTRICAL BILLING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SOEBIMS)

USING GSM

WONG YING YIN

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

SMART ONLINE ELECTRICAL BILLING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SOEBIMS)

USING GSM

WONG YING YIN

A report submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Computer Science (Computer System & Networking)

Faculty of Computer Systems & Software Engineering

University Malaysia Pahang

JUNE, 2012

ABSTRACT

Nowadays the billing system integrated with smart meter is used by staffs, residents and those
who use electricity to retrieve the price rate and meter value of power consumption. There are several
billing system integrated with smart meter invented in Italy, Sweden, UK, USA and so on. However,
the current metering system in Malaysia is not capable to measure variable time price and it is gradually
replaced by digital or smart meters. The purpose of this study is to develop a prototype of Smart Online
Electrical Billing Management System (SOEBIMS) using GSM. SOEBIMS is an online web
application as it can reduce human errors and save time to key in the data from keyboard. SOEBIMS
helps to retrieve the real time meter value via GSM and send it to customers mobile phone through
GSM. The staffs allow modifying the variable package price in specific duration. The administrator can
analyze the customers power consumption data and generate the report from the data online. The
prototype is developed using waterfall model as the prototype can be implement and develop by
followed the sequential phases. The prototype will be able to introduce the billing system to the
customers, get the power consumption data from smart meter, keep the data in centralized database and
generate the report. It will help the user to access the data and report easily through online.

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ABSTRAK

Pada masa kini, sistem bil bersepadu meter pintar digunakan oleh kakitangan, penduduk dan
orang-orang yang menggunakan elektrik untuk mengambil kadar harga dan nilai meter penggunaan
kuasa. Terdapat beberapa bil sistem yang disepadukan dengan meter pintar yang dicipta di Itali,
Sweden, United Kingdom, Amerika Syarikat dan sebagainya. Walau bagaimanapun, sistem pemeteran
semasa di Malaysia tidak mampu untuk mengukur harga masa berubah dan ia beransur-ansur
digantikan dengan meter digital atau pintar. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk membangunkan satu
prototaip Smart Online Electrical Billing Management System (SOEBIMS) using GSM. SOEBIMS
adalah aplikasi web kerana ia boleh mengurangkan kesilapan manusia dan menjimatkan masa untuk
memasukkan data dari papan kekunci. SOEBIMS membantu untuk mendapatkan meter masa nilai
sebenar melalui GSM dan hantar ke telefon bimbit pelanggan melalui GSM. Kakitangan membenarkan
mengubahsuai pakej harga berubah-ubah dalam tempoh tertentu. Pentadbir boleh menganalisis data
penggunaan kuasa pelanggan dan menjana laporan daripada talian data. Prototaip yang dibangunkan
dengan menggunakan model air terjun sebagai prototaip boleh melaksanakan dan membangunkan oleh
diikuti fasa berurutan. Prototaip akan dapat memperkenalkan sistem bil kepada pelanggan,
mendapatkan data penggunaan kuasa dari meter pintar, menyimpan data dalam pangkalan data berpusat
dan menjana laporan. Ia akan membantu pengguna untuk mengakses data dan melaporkan dengan
mudah secara online.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

TITLE

PAGE

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

iii

LIST OF FIGURES

vii

LIST OF TABLES

ix

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS

LIST OF APPENDICES

xii

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objectives

1.4 Scopes

1.5 Thesis Organization

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Manual System

2.2 Current System

2.3 Existing System

2.3.1 ASI EasiBill System

2.3.2 Rural Billing System

2.3.3 BillMaster System

10

2.3.4 Comparison between the existing systems and

11

SOEBIMS using GSM

2.4 Technologies

12

2.4.1 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)

12

2.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

12

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2.4.3 Comparison between GSM and CDMA

13

2.4.4 Conventional Meter

13

2.4.5 Smart Meter

14

2.4.6 Comparison between a conventional and smart meter

15

2.4.7 Current Projects on Smart Metering

16

2.4.7.1

Italy

16

2.4.7.2

Sweden

17

2.4.7.3

Netherlands

17

2.4.7.4

Australia

18

2.4.7.5

Canada

18

2.4.7.6

USA

19

2.4.7.7

Notrhern Ireland

19

2.5 Techniques

19

2.5.1 Real Time Data Transmisssion

20

2.5.2 Modes of Data Communication

20

2.5.2.1

Parallel and Serial

21

2.5.2.2

Synchronous and Asynchronous

21

2.5.3 Types of Communication System

22

2.5.3.1

Simplex

22

2.5.3.2

Half duplex

22

2.5.3.3

Full duplex

23

2.5.3.4

Comparison between types of

23

communication system
2.6 Network Types

24

2.6.1 Local Area Network (LAN)

24

2.6.2 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

24

2.6.3 Wide Area Network (WAN)

24

2.6.4 Comparison between the types of network

25

2.7 Methodology

26

2.7.1 The Waterfall Model

26

2.7.2 Prototyping Model

27

2.7.3 Spiral Model

27

2.7.4 Comparison between methodologies

28

2.8 Summary

30

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3

METHODOLOGY

31

3.1 Introduction

31

3.2 Justification of Chosen Methodology

32

3.3 Requirement Definition

33

3.3.1 Overal Product Perspectives

34

3.3.2 Functional Requirements

34

3.3.3 Non-Functional Requirements

35

3.3.4 Interface Requirements

35

3.3.5 Hardware Requirements

36

3.3.6 Software Requirements

36

3.4 System and Software Design

37

3.4.1 System Design

38

3.4.2 Database Design

44

3.4.3 Interface Design

48

3.5 Implementing and Unit Testing

54

3.6 Integration and System Testing

55

3.7 System Operation and Maintenance

56

IMPLEMENTATION

57

4.1 Introduction

57

4.2 The Functions

57

4.2.1 Customer Registration Function

58

4.2.2 Login Function

59

4.2.3 Setting Tariff Rate Function

62

4.2.4 Meter Reading Function

64

4.2.5 Bill Payment History Function

66

4.2.6 Report Generating Function

67

4.2.7 User Profile Maintenance Function

69

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

72

5.1 Results

72

5.1.1 Justify the first objective

72

5.1.2 Justify the second objective

73

5.1.3 Justify the third objective

73

5.2 System Constraints

73

5.3 Further Research

74

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CONCLUSION

75

REFERENCES

76

APPENDICES

80

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO.

TITLE

PAGE

2.1

House energy meter

2.2

Main page of TNB

2.3

E-services page of TNB

2.4

Login page of TNB e-services

2.5

ASI EasiBill System

2.6

Rural Billing System

10

2.7

BillMaster System

11

2.8

Conventional Meter

14

2.9

Smart Meter

15

2.10

Difference between Conventional Meter and Smart Meter

15

2.11

Market growth of smart metering in EU

18

2.12

Data Transmission Modes

20

2.13

Types of Network

25

2.14

Waterfall Model

26

2.15

Prototyping Model

27

2.16

Spiral Model

28

3.1

Stages of Waterfall Model

32

3.2

SOEBIMS Context Data Flow Diagram (DFD)

39

3.3

Data Flow Diagram (DFD) Level-0

40

3.4

Process Flow for User Module

42

3.5

Transmitter Module

43

3.6

Receiver Module

43

3.7

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

44

3.8

Logical Database Design

45

3.9

Home Page

49

3.10

Login Page

49

3.11

Forget Password Page

50

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3.12

Register Page

50

3.13

Change Password Page

51

3.14

Account Information Page (Customer Module)

52

3.15

Self Meter Reading Page (Customer Module)

53

3.16

Check Status and Make Payment Page (Admin and Staff

54

Module)
3.17

Edit Staff Page (Admin Module)

54

4.1

Registration Interface

58

4.2

Function Code for Registration

59

4.3

Login Interface

60

4.4

Function Code to Login

62

4.5

Tariff Rate Interface

63

4.6

Function Code to Store Data

64

4.7

Meter Reading Interface

65

4.8

Function Code to Retrieve Data

66

4.9

Bill Payment History Interface

66

4.10

Function Code to Retrieve Data

67

4.11

Report Interface

68

4.12

Function Code for Report

69

4.13

User Profile Interface

70

4.14

Function Code to Maintain Data

71

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO.

TITLE

PAGE

2.1

Comparison between the existing systems and SOEBIMS using

11

GSM
2.2

Comparison between the GSM and CDMA

13

2.3

Comparison between the parallel and serial transmission

21

2.4

Comparison between the synchronous and asynchronous

21

2.5

Comparison between the types of communication system

23

2.6

Comparison between the types of network

25

2.7

Comparison between the methodologies

29

3.1

Developer Software Requirements

37

3.2

Main Process Descriptions

41

3.3

Table of STAFF

46

3.4

Table of CUSTOMER

46

3.5

Table of ACCOUNT

46

3.6

Table of CATEGORY

47

3.7

Table of METER_READING

47

3.8

Table of TARIFF

47

3.9

Table of PREMISE

48

3.10

Table of BILL

48

3.11

Test Process in Unit Testing

55

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

3G - 3rd Generation
AC Alternating Current
AMI - Advanced Metering Infrastructure
AMR Automatic Meter Reading
ASI Associated System Incorporation
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CD-ROM - Compact Disc-Read Only Memory
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CIS - Computer Information Systems
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
DFD Data Flow Diagram
ENEL - Ente Nazionale per l'energia Elettrica
ERD - Entity Relationship Diagram
EU - European Union
GB GigaByte
GPRS - General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
IC Identity Card
kWh kiloWatt hour
LAN Local Area Network
LED Light Emitting Diode
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MB MegaByte

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Mhz Megahertz
PLC - Programmable Logic Controller
RAM - Random Access Memory
SABS - South African Bureau of Standards
SDLC Software Development Life Cycle
SDM Systems Development Method
SIM Subscriber Indentity Module
SMS - Short Message Service
SQL - Structured Query Language
SSGC - Sichuan South Gas Compressor Company
ST - Singapore Technologies
TNB Tenaga Nasional Berhad
TV Television
US United States
USA - United States of America
USB - Universal Serial Bus
WAN Wide Area Network

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX

TITLE

PAGE

Gantt Chart

80

Interview Transcript

81

SOEBIMS Data Flow Diagram (DFD) Level-1

82

Recommendation Letter

83

SOEBIMS User Manual

84

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The overview of this research will be briefly discussed through this chapter. It
contains five parts; which are introduction, problem statement, objectives, scopes, and
thesis organization.

1.1

Introduction
Since 19th century the monitoring of electricity is performed using

electromechanical meters or electrical meters. Even though these meter are a master art of
engineering designed a hundred of years ago measuring in kilowatt hour (kWh) but still
they are not capable to measure new rates structures i.e. variable time pricing and are unable
to provide awareness to users about their power consumption pattern. In traditional
monitoring, human labour i.e. a lineman plays a significant role in the collecting and
managing field data. However, due to the size increase of consumption areas, this
conventional practice is considered time consuming and labour intensive. Around hundreds
plus of the linemen and other supporting staff are required for this manual data collection
process (Anderson, 1998). This process always has chances of human error. The current
metering system in Malaysia is not capable to measure variable time price and it is
gradually replaced by digital or smart meters.
Power management system provides high quality alternating current (AC) power to

control the flow of power (Dudas, 2002). It allows monitoring and delivering electrical
power in more efficiently and accurately (Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., 2011).Examples
of electrical appliances are computers, mobile phone, printers etc. When the electrical
appliances are inactive, the power will manage the system and able to turn off to a lowpower state automatically (Domingo & Landmann, 2010).
The trend change for smart metering also affected the Asian region. Sichuan South
Gas Compressor Company (SSGC) who is responsible for more than 80% of power
networks in China announced huge investment in term of smart grid. Smart meters will be
an integral part of these change programs. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) which
utilizes two-way communications to enable real-time monitoring and control of energy use
in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings will be an important tool for utilities to
accomplish their smart grid objectives. According to a new forecast from Pike research
group, China will represent more than three-quarters of the installed base of smart meters in
Asia Pacific, and the government has declared plans to continue a large-scale meter
deployment through at least 2020 (Ovel, 2011).
Singapore is also competing in this technology, the authorities signed a deal to shift
to advance metering. ST Engineering's electronics arm, ST Electronics, on 13th Sep, 2010
announced that its subsidiary, Telematics Wireless Ltd has been awarded a contract worth
US$21.5m (about S$29m) by Arad Technologies Ltd (Arad) to supply Automatic Meter
Reading (AMR) radio transceivers for Arad's DIALOG 3G AMR solutions. The supply
cooperation agreement between Arad and Telematics Wireless takes effect immediately
and extends to 2015 (Business News, 2010).
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) is the largest electricity utility company in
Malaysia that providing excellent services to the customers. There are approximated
RM71.4 billion worth in assets and approximately 28,000 staffs serve seven millions of
customers. In order to raise the economic growth and develop the social in the country,
TNB continues to lead the effort (TNB, 2011). It shows that Malaysia being a rapidly
growing developing country towards adaptation of technologies. To adopt and change with
changing technologies is a healthy approach to keep ourselves up dated. But if a careful
analysis is not taken into consideration this change may result into drawbacks rather than
making some solid contribution and achievement. Malaysia in 2007 signed a deal with
International metering supplier company for installation of a number of smart meters that
was expected to be a move towards technology in metering infra-structure (AMI, 2007 and
NTDW, 2007).

Smart Online Electrical Billing Management System (SOEBIMS) using GSM is an

online system that keeps track of customers power consumption by using GSM. GSM is
one of the digital communication technologies that allow sending and receiving voice and
data services at anywhere and anytime (GSMA, 2011). By using GSM, the system can
receive the customers power consumption information hourly. Besides that, it saves the
electricity, energy and battery automatically when the GSM is not activated. By using this
system, TNB can save costs on hiring staffs and may reduce the use of paper to print the
electrical bill. The system can read and retrieve the value of meter then send it to TNB
database via GSM. The centralized database of the system allows the TNB staffs to manage
the billing statement easily. The report generation of power consumption by hourly allows
customers to be aware of the power usage and it can help the customers to reduce cost by
planning the usage of the electrical appliances. The system uses the variable package price
rate to do calculation, so it allows saving time for entering the meter value and help to
reduce human error made as the system is done automatically and more accuracy. This
system also allows the TNB staffs to monitor and modify the variable package price rate
based on the peak hour without hiring programmers for modification of the system.

1.2

Problem Statement
Nowadays, the monitoring of electricity is still required the human to record the

meter value from the house customers have to receive the electricity bill then able to make
payment without knowing the accuracy of power used by the house owner. The value of
meter may not be very accurate as the meter value is entered by human and sometimes
human may make mistakes when entering the meter value. This leads to the serious problem
when the workers have to go to the house again and re-enter the meter value in order to
correct it. Furthermore, it is difficult to keep track the customers value of meter and
calculates the usage of power for large resident area. Besides, the customer cannot keep
track of the usage of the power consumption hourly and cannot plan on the power
consumption. It is also difficult to manage the price of customers power used in meter
without centralized server.

1.3

Objectives
This research consists of several objectives as stated below:
i.

To develop an online system to manage electrical billing for the

administrator and customer.

ii.

To collect the power consumption information and integrate with

centralized database system via GSM device.

iii.

To calculate the electrical bill and generate a report on the power

consumption information through online.

1.4

Scopes
The scopes of this project are:
i.

System Platform and Architecture

The system collects the power consumption information and send to the
centralized server every hour through GSM.

ii.

Data
The system can generate the reports based on the power consumption
information received from GSM for customer respectively.

iii.

System Functionality
The system allows the customers to access and view the value and the
accumulate cost of power used through online with centralized database.

iv.

System User
The target users of this system are the customers and TNB person in charge.

1.5

Thesis Organization
There are four chapters in this thesis. Chapter 1 will introduces the system by

showing the basic concept, problem statements, objectives, scopes, and thesis organization.
Chapter 2 describes the manual and existing systems. Besides, it also depicts the technique,
method, equipment, and technology that had been used in those existing systems and also
those will be used in this research. Chapter 3 elaborates about the overall workflow in the
development of the project, which includes the method, technique or approach that has been
used while designing and implementing the project. Chapter 4 summarizes the project.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the research on Smart Online

Electrical Billing Management System (SOEBIMS) using GSM. This chapter reviews
the manual system, current or existing systems, technologies, techniques and methods
used.

2.1

Manual System
In traditional monitoring, human labour which is a lineman plays a significant

role in collecting and managing field data. Around hundreds plus of the linemen and
other supporting staff are required for this manual data collection process (Anderson,
1998). The current metering system in Malaysia is not capable to measure variable
time price and it is gradually replaced by digital or smart meters.

Figure 2.1: House energy meter (Wan, 2010)

2.2

Current System
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) is the largest electricity utility company in

Malaysia RM71.4 billion worth in assets and also the largest power company in
Southeast Asia (TNB, 2011). It serves over seven million customers throughout
Peninsular Malaysia and also the eastern state of Sabah through Sabah Electricity Sdn
Bhd (Yahoo Inc., 2011). TNB's core activities are in the generation, transmission and
distribution of electricity. Other activities include repairing, testing and maintaining
power plants, providing engineering, procurement and construction services for power
plants related products, assembling and manufacturing high voltage switchgears, coal
mining and trading. Operations are carried out in Malaysia, Mauritius, Pakistan, India
and Indonesia (Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 2011).

The current system for this research is TNB online billing system which is
known as e-services. Figure 2.2 shows the screenshot of the current TNB system.

Figure 2.2: Main page of TNB

Figure 2.3: E-services page of TNB

Figure 2.4: Login page of TNB e-services

2.3

Existing Systems
There are several current or existing systems in the market. Three of the systems are

ASI EasiBill, Rural Billing, and BillMaster have been chosen for the comparison.

2.3.1 ASI EasiBill System

ASI offers one of the most effective, flexible and complete billing systems
available to the utility industry, called EasiBill. This utility billing software provides
the tools to improve the billing process while boosting efficiency and productivity to
better serve to the customers. Those benefits include the unlimited number of services,
multi dial and multiple meters per service locations, penalty or delinquent and cut-off
processing, online credit processes and hand-held meter reading interface (Associated
Systems Inc., 2010).

Figure 2.5: ASI EasiBill System

2.3.2 Rural Billing System

Redline Data Systems Rural Billing utility billing package remains one of the
most simple-to-use, expandable and affordable applications available today. Unlike
billing systems that are too complex, too limited or too expensive for the smaller
utility company such as 3,000 numbers of customers or less. Rural Billing is packed

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with all the necessary features for running a small business including unlimited rate
schedules, meter reading verification, individual user security settings and much more
(Redline Data Systems, Inc, 2011).

Figure 2.6: Rural Billing System

2.3.3 BillMaster System

BillMaster is a complete Computer Information System (CIS) for billing and
management program which includes service orders, meter maintenance history and
scheduling in addition to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and billing
process. BillMaster features customizable account records, flexible reporting options,
and unlimited rate schedules and charge calculations. Complex rate structures are
supported. Every facet of the billing process may be adjusted to meet the specific
needs (Data West Corporation, 2010).