Smart meter
A smart meter is an electronic device that records information—such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor—and communicates the information to the consumer and electricity suppliers. Advanced metering infrastructure differs from automatic meter reading in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the supplier.
Description
The term smart meter often refers to an electricity meter, but it also may mean a device measuring natural gas, water or district heating consumption. More generally, a smart meter is an electronic device that records information such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor. Smart meters communicate the information to the consumer for greater clarity of consumption behavior, and electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing. Smart meters typically record energy near real-time, and report regularly, in short intervals throughout the day. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but do not themselves constitute a smart grid.Advanced Metering Infrastructure differs from Automated Meter Reading in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the supplier. Communications from the meter to the network may be wireless, or via fixed wired connections such as power-line communication. Wireless communication options in common use include cellular communications, Wi-Fi, wireless ad hoc networks over Wi-Fi, wireless mesh networks, low power long-range wireless, Wize Zigbee, and Wi-SUN.
Similar meters, usually referred to as interval or time-of-use meters, have existed for years, but smart meters usually involve real-time or near real-time sensors, power outage notification, and power quality monitoring. These additional features are more than simple AMR. They are similar in many respects to AMI meters. Interval and time-of-use meters historically have been installed to measure commercial and industrial customers, but may not have automatic reading. Research by the UK consumer group Which?, showed that as many as one in three confuse smart meters with energy monitors, also known as in-home display monitors.
History
In 1972, Theodore Paraskevakos, while working with Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama, developed a sensor monitoring system that used digital transmission for security, fire, and medical alarm systems as well as meter reading capabilities. This technology was a spin-off from the automatic telephone line identification system, now known as Caller ID.In 1974, Paraskevakos was awarded a U.S. patent for this technology. In 1977, he launched Metretek, Inc., which developed and produced the first smart meters. Since this system was developed pre-Internet, Metretek utilized the IBM series 1 mini-computer. For this approach, Paraskevakos and Metretek were awarded multiple patents.
The installed base of smart meters in Europe at the end of 2008 was about 39 million units, according to analyst firm Berg Insight. Globally, Pike Research found that smart meter shipments were 17.4 million units for the first quarter of 2011. Visiongain determined that the value of the global smart meter market would reach US$7 billion in 2012.
H.M. Zahid Iqbal, M. Waseem, and Dr. Tahir Mahmood, researchers of University of Engineering & Technology Taxila, Pakistan, introduced the concept of Smart Energy Meters in 2013. Their article, "Automatic Energy Meter Reading using Smart Energy Meter" outlined the key features of Smart Energy Meter including Automatic remote meter reading via GSM for utility companies and customers, Real-time monitoring of a customer's running load, Remote disconnection and reconnection of customer connections by the utility company and Convenient billing, eliminating the need of meter readers to physically visit the customers for billing.
over 99 million electricity meters were deployed across the European Union, with an estimated 24 million more to be installed by the end of 2020. The European Commission DG Energy estimates the 2020 installed base to have required €18.8 billion in investment, growing to €40.7 billion by 2030, with a total deployment of 266 million smart meters.
By the end of 2018, the U.S. had over 86 million smart meters installed. In 2017, there were 665 million smart meters installed globally. Revenue generation is expected to grow from $12.8 billion in 2017 to $20 billion by 2022.
Purpose
Since the inception of electricity deregulation and market-driven pricing throughout the world, utilities have been looking for a means to match consumption with generation. Non-smart electrical and gas meters only measure total consumption, providing no information of when the energy was consumed. Smart meters provide a way of measuring electricity consumption in near real-time. This allows utility companies to charge different prices for consumption according to the time of day and the season. It also facilitates more accurate cash-flow models for utilities. Since smart meters can be read remotely, labor costs are reduced for utilities.Smart metering offers potential benefits to customers. These include, a) an end to estimated bills, which are a major source of complaints for many customers b) a tool to help consumers better manage their energy purchases—smart meters with a display outside their homes could provide up-to-date information on gas and electricity consumption and in doing so help people to manage their energy use and reduce their energy bills. With regards to consumption reduction, this is critical for understanding the benefits of smart meters because the relatively small percentage benefits in terms of savings are multiplied by millions of users. Smart meters for water consumption can also provide detailed and timely information about customer water use and early notification of possible water leaks in their premises. Electricity pricing usually peaks at certain predictable times of the day and the season. In particular, if generation is constrained, prices can rise if power from other jurisdictions or more costly generation is brought online. Proponents assert that billing customers at a higher rate for peak times encourages consumers to adjust their consumption habits to be more responsive to market prices and assert further, that regulatory and market design agencies hope these "price signals" could delay the construction of additional generation or at least the purchase of energy from higher-priced sources, thereby controlling the steady and rapid increase of electricity prices.
An academic study based on existing trials showed that homeowners' electricity consumption on average is reduced by approximately 3-5% when provided with real-time feedback.
Another advantage of smart meters that benefits both customers and the utility is the monitoring capability they provide for the whole electrical system. As part of an AMI, utilities can use the real-time data from smart meters measurements related to current, voltage, and power factor to detect system disruptions more quickly, allowing immediate corrective action to minimize customer impact such as blackouts. Smart meters also help utilities understand the power grid needs with more granularity than legacy meters. This greater understanding facilitates system planning to meet customer energy needs while reducing the likelihood of additional infrastructure investments, which eliminates unnecessary spending or energy cost increases.
Though the task of meeting national electricity demand with accurate supply is becoming ever more challenging as intermittent renewable generation sources make up a greater proportion of the energy mix, the real-time data provided by smart meters allow grid operators to integrate renewable energy onto the grid in order to balance the networks. As a result, smart meters are considered an essential technology to the decarbonisation of the energy system.
Advanced metering infrastructure
Advanced metering infrastructure refers to systems that measure, collect, and analyze energy usage, and communicate with metering devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, either on request or on a schedule. These systems include hardware, software, communications, consumer energy displays and controllers, customer associated systems, meter data management software, and supplier business systems.Government agencies and utilities are turning toward advanced metering infrastructure systems as part of larger "smart grid" initiatives. AMI extends automatic meter reading technology by providing two-way meter communications, allowing commands to be sent toward the home for multiple purposes, including time-based pricing information, demand-response actions, or remote service disconnects. Wireless technologies are critical elements of the neighborhood network, aggregating a mesh configuration of up to thousands of meters for back haul to the utility's IT headquarters.
The network between the measurement devices and business systems allows the collection and distribution of information to customers, suppliers, utility companies, and service providers. This enables these businesses to participate in demand response services. Consumers can use the information provided by the system to change their normal consumption patterns to take advantage of lower prices. Pricing can be used to curb the growth of peak demand consumption. AMI differs from traditional automatic meter reading in that it enables two-way communications with the meter. Systems only capable of meter readings do not qualify as AMI systems.
AMI implementation relies on four key components: Physical Layer Connectivity, which establishes connections between smart meters and networks, Communication Protocols to ensure secure and efficient data transmission, Server Infrastructure, which consists of centralized or distributed servers to store, process, and manage data for billing, monitoring, and demand response; and Data Analysis, where analytical tools provide insights, load forecasting, and anomaly detection for optimized energy management. Together, these components help utilities and consumers monitor and manage energy use efficiently, supporting smarter grid management.