AN939, Designing Energy Meters with the PIC16F873A

The deployment of electronic energy meters has gained a great deal of momentum over the past several years. This is due to their two main advantages over the traditional electromechanical designs: improved accuracy and an expanded set of features. Current microcontroller technology allows designers to build meters that are competitive in price with traditional devices, while maintaining the required IEC 1036 Class 1 accuracy of ±1% for domestic applications. Microcontrollers also allow the easy incorporation of added features, such as rms voltage and current and peak demand metering, as local electric utility companies desire to implement them.