Design and Implementation of an Unbalanced Load Monitoring System Using Lora-Based Wireless Sensor at State Polytechnic of Malang

Abstract

Load imbalance in three-phase electrical systems remains a common issue, particularly in educational environments such as laboratories. This is caused by uneven load distribution across phases, which can result in power losses, excessive heat, and equipment damage. Currently, there is no monitoring system capable of automatically and real-time detecting load imbalance within a local scope. This research aims to design a load imbalance monitoring system for three-phase electrical systems using LoRa-based wireless sensor technology. The system is designed to read voltage, current, and power in real time using the PZEM-016 sensor and transmit data wirelessly using the LoRa RFM95W module. Testing showed that the system successfully transmitted data from the transmitter to the receiver with a 100% success rate, and the average reading error of the PZEM-016 sensor was 0.842% compared to a standard measuring instrument. The received data was successfully stored in Firebase and displayed as tables and graphs on a website dashboard. This system has been implemented in the Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory of Politeknik Negeri Malang, and the monitoring results indicate load imbalance across phases exceeding the PLN (Indonesian national utility) standard threshold of 10%, thus enabling the system to automatically provide warning notifications.