An Open Hardware Design for Internet of Things Power Quality and Energy Saving Solutions

An important challenge for our society is the transformation of traditional power systems to a decentralized model based on renewable energy sources. In this new scenario, advanced devices are needed for real-time monitoring and control of the energy flow and power quality (PQ). Ideally, the data collected by Internet of Thing (IoT) sensors should be shared to central cloud systems for online and off-line analysis. In this paper openZmeter (oZm) is presented as an advanced low-cost and open-source hardware device for high-precision energy and power quality measurement in low-voltage power systems. An analog front end (AFE) stage is designed and developed for the acquisition, conditioning, and processing of power signals. This AFE can be stacked on available quadcore embedded ARM boards. The proposed hardware is capable of adapting voltage signals up to 800 V AC/DC and currents up to thousands of amperes using different probes. The oZm device is described as a fully autonomous open-source system for the computation and visualization of PQ events and consumed/generated energy, along with full details of its hardware implementation. It also has the ability to send data to central cloud management systems. Given the small size of the hardware design and considering that it allows measurements under a wide range of operating conditions, oZm can be used both as bulk metering or as metering/submetering device for individual appliances. The design is released as open hardware and therefore is presented to the community as a powerful tool for general usage.