A Power Sharing Scheme for the Yaka Prepaid Power System in Uganda

Abstract

UMEME is the dominant power distributor in Uganda. The legacy Yaka system, UMEME's prepaid service for customers, does not support transferring power credit between different power meters. This paper outlines the design and implementation of a Yaka-based power sharing scheme that enables customers to transfer power units from one meter to another. This is achieved through an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) application operating on Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) networks, facilitating service access via token generation. A MySQL server hosts a database for customer account information, while a scripting program manages the USSD-server communication. Developed in Visual Studio (VS) using PHP, the system encrypts customer data into a 20-digit token before response. Testing the system on Africa's Talking sandbox showed a secure, efficient, and user-friendly power sharing scheme. UMEME's ongoing transition from offline to online meters with realtime server communication can potentially enhance service deployment.