  The demand for power has increased exponentially over the last century. One
avenue through which today's energy problems can be addressed is through the
reduction of energy usage in households. This has increased the emphasis on the
need for accurate and economic methods of power measurement. The goal of
providing such data is to optimize and reduce their power consumption. In view
of this, the present manuscript focuses on the design and implementation of
precise and reliable load monitoring system using PIC microcontroller chip
(PIC16F877A). This involves an accurate sensing of voltage, current and power
factor of the load. A clever utilization of in-built ADC and timers of the
microcontroller reduces the design complexity of the system. The proposed
system monitors the load continuously on a real time basis and displays the
parameters such as voltage, current, power factor, active, reactive and
apparent powers in an LCD module. The use of microcontroller reduces the cost
and makes the device compact. The proposed system has been implemented and
tested in the laboratory for single phase loads.
