An integrated IoT-enabled fuel monitoring system: design, implementation and analysis

Purpose Telecommunication industry is one of the important industries in today’s modern society, allowing people around the world to connect with each other by providing seamless communication and data exchange. Lack of access to power grid in remote site locations and frequent power outages has resulted in telecommunication industries in Fiji heavily relying on standby generators as a power source for cell towers and base stations. However, fuel theft and fuel mismanagement has become a growing concern, leading to unplanned network outages due to power outages at these stations. The purpose of this research was to design an IoT-based system that can be used monitor the volume of fuel in the storage tank, and the fuel consumption rate in order to allow timely re-fueling to prevent power outages while also generating important alerts. Design/methodology/approach To address this problem, this paper presents the design, implementation and analysis of an Internet of Things based fuel monitoring system. Investigation and analysis of different level and flow sensors were carried out, and it was determined that ultrasonic flow meters and magnetostrictive level sensors were the most suitable sensors to gather fuel level and fuel flow information. An Arduino microcontroller was used for processing and analysing the sensor data, which is then uploaded to the database. A website has also been integrated to visualize real-time data. Findings Experiments have been carried out to test and analyse the sensor measurements. Results showed that the level sensor has a relative error of less than 0.25% and the flow sensors had a relative error of less than 1.05%. Originality/value The proposed system is a reliable fuel monitoring system that will aid the management of fuel for standby generators by providing real-time data and alerts, ensuring efficient planning and operation and preventing costly outages not only for telecommunication industries but also for utility companies.