SMART METER

INTRODUCTION:

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Smart metering generally involves the installation of an intelligent meter at residential customers and the regular reading, processing and feed back of consumption data to the customer. A "smart" meter has the following capabilities: real-time or near-time registration of electricity use and possibly electricity generated locally e.g., in case of photovoltaic cells; offering the possibility to read the meter both locally and remotely (on demand); remote limitation of the throughput through the meter (in the extreme case cutting of the electricity to the customer) interconnection to premise-based networks and devices (e.g., distributed generation) ability to read other, on-premise or nearby commodity meters (e.g., gas, water). Usually, a smart meter is considered for registry of electricity and gas use, but also water consumption registration is a possibility.

How do smart meters work?

Smart meters record the amount of the product (electricity, water, etc.) consumed over time. They differ from traditional utility meters in that they are electronic and can talk to a central computer system. Smart meters talk to their central systems using RF transmissions, based on either cell phone, pager, satellite, radio, power line (PLC), Wi-Fi or Internet (TCP/IP) communication methods. Internet and cell phone applications have become the preferred options because of their flexibility and ease of deployment.

Protocols:
ANSI C12.18 is an ANSI standard that describes a protocol used for two-way communications with a meter. The C12.18 standard is written specifically for meter communications via an ANSI Type 2 Optical Port, and specifies lower-level protocol details. ANSI C12.19 specifies the data tables that will be used. ANSI C12.21 is an extension of C12.18 written for modem instead of optical communications, so it is better suited to automatic meter reading. IEC 61107 is a communication protocol for smart meters published by the IEC that is widely used for utility meters in the European Union. It is superseded by IEC 62056, but remains in wide use because it is simple and well-accepted. It sends ASCII data using a serial port. The physical media are either modulated light, sent with an LED and received with a photodiode, or a pair of wires, usually modulated by EIA-485. The protocol is half-duplex. IEC 61107 is related to, and sometimes wrongly confused with, the FLAG protocol. Ferranti and Landis+Gyr were early proponents of an interface standard that eventually became a sub-set of IEC1107. IEC 62056 - is a more modern European meter protocol and superset of IEC 61107. The Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) is a family of specifications published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) used in conjunction with the ISO/IEC 14908 control networking standard for smart metering and smart grid applications. Millions of smart meters based on OSGP are deployed work wide. There is a growing trend toward the use of TCP/IP technology as a common communication platform for Smart Meter applications, so that utilities can deploy multiple communication systems, while using IP technology as a common management platform. Other solutions suggest the use of a single, universal connector separating the function of the smart grid device and its communication module. A universal metering interface would allow for development and mass production of smart meters and smart grid devices prior to the communication standards being set, and then for the relevant communication modules to be easily added or switched when they are. This would lower the risk of investing in the wrong standard as well as permit a single product to be used globally even if regional communication standards vary. The UCA International User Group discusses and supports real world experience of the standards used in smart grids. Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), NIST is charged with overseeing the identification and selection of hundreds of standards that will be required to implement the Smart Grid in the U.S. These standards will be referred by NIST to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This work has begun, and the first standards have already been selected for inclusion in NISTs Smart Grid catalog. However, some commentators have suggested that the benefits that could be realized from Smart Grid standardization could be threatened by a growing number of patents that cover Smart Grid architecture and technologies. If patents that cover standardized Smart Grid elements are not revealed until technology is broadly distributed throughout the network significant disruption could occur when patent holders seek to collect unanticipated rents from large segments of the market.

SMART GRID:
A smart grid is an electrical grid that uses information and communications technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.[1] Smart grid policy is organized in Europe as Smart Grid European Technology Platform. Roll-out of smart grid technology also implies a fundamental re-engineering of the electricity services industry, although typical usage of the term is focused on the technical infrastructure .

REFERENCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter#Protocols Smart Metering by Rob van Gerwen, Saskia Jaarsma and Rob Wilhite, KEMA, The Netherlands

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