2019 International Conference on Computing, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies – iCoMET 2019

Integration of IoT and Smart Grid to Reduce Line

Losses
Hafiza Palwasha Tauqir and Aamir Habib
Department of Electrical Engineering
IST Institute of Space Technology Islamabad, Pakistan
palwasha10ist@ist.edu.pk aamir.habib@ist.edu.pk

Abstract—The local, commercial and industrial demand for

electricity in Pakistan is increasing day by day that is why it
is important to improve the existing methodology of supplying
electricity to fulfill the demand. IoT is one of the fastest growing
research areas in which the internet is involved to connect
people and machines for better communication. Integration
of IoT and Smart Grids is an increasingly important area in
applied linguistics. It is an effective approach to improve the
methodology for the transmission of electricity in Pakistan.
Therefore, by proceeding the concept of IoT and Smart Grid
this paper describes how to minimize line power losses. Two-way
communication between electrical utility and consumers will use
to inform that which electrical device or devices needs electricity
then according to the demand power will supply otherwise
the electrical path will remain unsupplied. The time in which
electrical paths will not supply electricity will cause to reduce
permanent losses. This methodology will help to minimize power Figure 1: Regional based Internet Users in the World
losses in transmission and distribution Lines.

Index Terms—Internet of things (IoT), Smart Grid, Line Power

Reduction, Electrical Devices.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Pakistan is facing a severe crisis of electricity and it can
be minimized by two ways; either by developing the power
production stations or by minimizing losses. To focus on the
production of power will increase the cost that is why this
paper will focus to minimize losses to achieve maximum
power. For a developing country like Pakistan, it is important
to focus on both but to minimize the losses should be on
priority. This paper covers how to minimize line losses using
IoT and Smart Grid. Although some research has been carried
out to resolve this issue but to implement the new methodology
will create compatibility issues. This paper focus to reduce the
line losses on the existing methodology using in Pakistan to
supply electricity.
According to the research report of 2014 average demand
for electricity in Pakistan was 17,000 MW whereas shortfall
between 5,000 to 6,000 MW. From 2000 to 2010 the average
production of electricity in Pakistan was 50,000 GWh whereas
the average demand was 62,000 GWh which emphasizes to
improve the existing methodology. On the other side, online
assets are also growing day by day. Fig. 1 gives a clear picture
of internet users in recent 4 to 5 years which shows that
Asia is the largest Internet User. Among SAARC countries
Pakistan has the second highest growth rate of internet users
in accordance with its population. According to ISPAK (Inter-
net Service Providers Association of Pakistan) internet users
reached 25 million. A growing population in Pakistan will
not only increase the power demand but also increase Internet
users. Therefore, by linking both will propose an efficient
methodology to reduce the line power losses.
A. Existing Methodology to Supply Electricity in Pakistan.
Fig. 2 gives an overview of an existing methodology to
supply electricity in Pakistan. There are several types of power
generation plants to produce electricity in Pakistan few of them
are Hydroelectricity, thermal, coal, nuclear and Natural Gas.
Produced electricity is supply to the Transformers to step-Up
voltage for transmission. Transmission lines carry electricity
for long distances which is divide into Sub-transmission lines
to supply power. Then Distribution Lines carry electricity and
further supply to the Transformers on the poles to step-down
electricity before supplying it to the residential, commercial
and small industrial consumers. This system has a lack of
power management and is not able to understand the environ-
mental behavior to supply electricity accordingly.
II. PROPOSED MODEL
Smart Grid in an intelligent way of energy Management
[1], [2]. In the proposed methodology shown in Fig 3 shows
that two-way communication using IoT will continuously send
the request of power demand from the consumers to the
smart meters and energy distribution units. Whenever the
power request sends the transmission path will close to supply

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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies – iCoMET 2019
Figure 2: Power Transmission system in Pakistan
electricity. When the power demands terminate transmission
path will open.
A. CNU: Consumer Network Unit is a wired network frame
which user plug in the device then the socket connects to the
Wi-Fi router and sends the message to the SM which is placed
at every power consumption area.
B. SM: Smart Meter is replaced by existing Meters. It con-
tains a complete database that how many electrical devices
are placed in the homes, buildings or any commercial and
industrial area. This database has complete information about
how much power is consumed by each device and the record
of average power consumption of the electrical devices in
accordance to its providing services to the respective area.
SM connects to the Wi-Fi router to receive messages of power
demand coming from the consumer side and sends to the LNU.
C. LNU: Line Network Unit contains the Transmission, Sub-
transmission and Distribution Lines. In the existing methodol-
ogy, these Lines has the chain of sensors which is continuously
monitored by the service providers of the respective area. In
the proposed methodology the only need is the Wi-Fi connec-
tivity of LNU with CNU and automatic switching systems.
III. POWER CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS IN BUILDINGS
In CNU building is the highest power consumption station
and it is widely used in educational, residential, commercial
and industrial purposes. Buildings consume almost 40% of
total power [3]-[6] that is why power consumption analysis
on a building will be more suitable as compare to any other
small power consuming units like homes or small buildings
[7], [8]. Fig. 4 gives a general overview of power demand in
a common building of Pakistan which is used for residential,
official or educational purpose. This data will be helpful to
categorize the power for further analysis.
Power consumption analysis in buildings is divided into
three parts as shown in Fig. 5: Static Power Consumption
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(SPC), Dynamic Power Consumption (DPC) and Occasional
Power Consumption (OPC).
A. Static Power Consumption
There are some devices which are considered to be the basic
requirement of any category of the building for example in
residential buildings lights, fans, heaters, A.C, refrigerators,
UPS are the appliances which are considered to be continuous
power consuming devices. In Educational buildings computers,
printers, educational equipment, comfort appliances are the
major continuous power consumers. Similarly, in an industrial
and commercial area heavy machinery, security equipment,
streetlights will consume power continuously. Therefore, SPC
will maintain the record for those devices which consumes
power on daily basis. It contains a complete database and store
in the SM for the devices which are considered to be always
connected in the electrical network.
B. Dynamic Power Consumption
Some of the devices having random behavior in power
consumption because they depend on the dynamic power
demand of users. For example in residential buildings charging
of a mobile or laptop or home appliances use for cleaning
and cooking are consider to be the most random behavior in
power consumption. In educational, industrial and commercial
buildings experimental equipment and occupants behavior is
responsible for dynamic power consumption demand. DPC
maintains the record of total power consumes on weekly basis.
Due to this dynamic behavior, DPC contains the information
of average power consumption in its database which stores in
SM.
C. Occasional Power Consumption
Seasonal and climatic change effects on the power consump-
tion demand. In buildings, temperature maintaining appliances
consume a large amount of power as shown in Fig. 4.
Changing in occupants behavior according to the occasions
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Figure 3: Power flow Model using Smart Grid
Figure 4: Power consumption in a building
Figure 5: Database of power consumption
will also change the trends of power consumption. Therefore,
OPC provides a complete database of the average value of
power consumption which stores in the SM on yearly basis.
IV. ONLINE POWER MONITORING IN BUILDINGS
Power monitoring system is the brain of whole architec-
ture. Continues two-way flow of communication using IoT is
responsible of online power monitoring which splits into five
stages shown in Fig. 6. In a building one or number of devices
are switch-on at the same time that is why for monitoring
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Data Collection is the first stage which collects the data
from the consumers and send information to SM through the
internet connectivity. After analyzation of switch on devices,
it will convert it into programmable language that is why
digital conversion of the data known as Digitization. SM must
take intelligent decisions that power demand of which device
or devices should be on priority according to the building
category and occupants behavior. Therefore set of Decision
Protocols will take decisions according to the prior demand of
the consumer and send it to the Processing stage to process.
SM will send power request to the monitoring a system of
LNU and at the same time SM sends the signal to the main
switchboard of the building to activate respective electrical
paths automatically. The monitoring system of LNU and SM
will communicate with each other through the internet. It
helps the automatic switching system of LNU to turn-on
when it gets the signal from its own monitoring system. It
will automatically close the paths of the electrical network to
supply power which it receives from the Power Generation
side. Main power supply switches of a building will start
receiving power and they send it to the socket-boards to all the
respective power-demanding appliances to provide Services.
SM maintains complete information of the amount of receiving
power in building for billing and other records.
V. OPTIMIZED IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTURE
Wireless Sensor Network refers to understand the activities
of consumers which helps to operate the electrical devices of
the building accordingly to get an optimized system. Several
types of sensors are used to sense temperature, motion,
light intensity, sound, humidity, rainfall, directions of wind,
motion, fire alarm system and so on. These all sensors are
connected to the electrical devices which belong to SPC
because SPC is the category which has continues power
consumption devices and mostly irritate the occupant to
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Figure 6: Power Monitoring Flow
operate these appliances manually. Sensors receive data from
the environment and they send it to the microcontroller for
further monitoring and processing. DPC and OPC will send
their data through switchboard directly for further processing
because their usage is random.
Following are important parameters to get an optimized
system:-
• Correct placement of electrical devices and sensors.
• Use energy efficient devices. Replace old home appliances
with the latest ones because they consume very less power to
do the same tasks.
• Improve the quality of cables especially in ruler areas
where the inferior quality of power cables are pumping more
power.
A. Communication Architecture
Power Input Module (PIM) will collect data from sensors
and Power-Socket and then transfer it to the Communication
Layer Model (CLM). CLM will start to create a communica-
tion link between PIM and Wi-Fi router placed in the building.
This link is as similar as the smartphones connect with the Wi-
Fi router of the homes. In the proposed architecture of CLM
shown in the Fig. 7 Data Layer will define the format of the
data. In this model electrical devices will send data in the
form of text/binary and Data Layer will store the port number
of respective electrical device from where the data originates.
Further Transport Layer will define the protocols. This model
will use UDP IPv6 protocols as it contains small packets of
data which is not restricted to maintain its order. Local gateway
needs fast and multicast transmission to operate whole building
data in parallel which does not need the proper sequence of
data because it is taking real-time data from the environment
according to the demand of consumers. Now there is a need
to create specific addresses called IP Addresses of source
and destination ports to send the data packets therefore for
this model Network Layer will attach the IP Address of the
building router to send data packets. These packets contain the
payload of the respective ports of electrical devices which are
switched-on in the building. Now the unique MAC addresses
will use to create a physical link with Home Area Network
(HAN) of SM. HAN and WAN are the two wireless networks
of SM. SM will take data from the building using its HAN
system and send it to the Wide Area Network (WAN) to create
communication links with LNU.
B. Switching and Power Flow Control
An automatic switching system is directly related to the
flow of power control which is shown in Fig. 8. Whenever
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PIM generates the signal of power demand it will be an
indication for the main Electrical switches of the building to
close its Electrical paths. Then respective Electrical switches
of LNU will turn-on automatically to complete the electrical
network when they received signals. A complete link created
from input side which will start receiving power from the
Power Generation unit. This power will supply to the chain
of Electrical Switches towards PIM as shown by red arrows
in Fig. 8 and a power meter is attached in the SM which will
start to measure the receiving power.
C. Technical Losses and its Reduction
22.5% of total losses in transmission and distribution Lines
are technical losses which depend on the characteristics of
electrical network and operation modes. Technical losses are
subdivided into two types of Permanent losses and Variable
losses [8]-[10]. Almost 25% of technical losses are permanent
losses which depends upon the following factors:-
• Open-circuit Losses
• Corona Losses
• Continuous load of measuring and controlling elements
• Leakage current losses
• Dielectric Losses
These factors can be controlled by following the proposed
methodology discussed previously. There will be no permanent
losses for the time in which no data originates from the
consumers. (1) defines the total losses in the transmission lines
and these all losses should be minimized but only for that
time duration when the Lines will not carry electric power.
Open circuit Losses will be extremely minimized because the
electrical network will only be close to supply electricity when
the consumers request. Corona losses become zero because
according to (2) it depends upon the voltage supplied. If the
voltage becomes zero for the time when there is no electrical
energy in the Lines then for similar time corona losses will
also become zero because from all the parameters of Table I
only the parameters v and vo in (2) will zero.
TL oss = HTL oss + LTL oss + CuL oss + IrL oss KW h (1)
CL oss = 242(f o+25)/d (r/s)1/2 (v−vo)2 10−5 KW/Km/phase
(2)
VI. C ONCLUSION
This work provides a real impact on the minimization of
Line Power Losses. Power consumption is highly correlated
with the occupants’ behavior, therefore, the proposed method
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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies – iCoMET 2019

Figure 7: Input and Communication Architecture

system which is described in this paper will minimize the fac-

tors of permanent losses which has fewer compatibility issues
with the existing method of supplying electricity in Pakistan.
This research supports energy management and downgrade
transmission and distribution Line losses to improve power
supplying system for better growth of electricity production
in Pakistan.
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