Development of load shedding web-based monitoring and control system

Abstract

Electricity as an essential part of modern life has in recent times experienced a surge whereas the quantity generated and transmitted is quite lower than the consumption rate. This calls for load shedding to manage the available power. This 
research, therefore, develops a web-based load monitoring and control system which allows users to perform load shedding 
remotely via a web server. This work unlike previous works gives a load profile of various appliances within a household 
in order the know the appliances consuming more energy than others to manage the use of such to conserve energy. The 
hardware components include sensors and NodeMCU microcontroller that are interfaced with web applications. The test 
results indicate that the device can remotely monitor the energy consumption of each of the connected appliances in real
time on a mobile phone or web interface where load-shedding is implemented.  When the developed system is integrated 
with a smart meter, it has the potential of providing information to consumers about their power usage and enabling them 
to make an informed decision (load shedding) that would reduce their electricity bills. 

Keywords: Load Shedding, Monitoring and Control, Smart Meter, Energy Consumption