406

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 37, No. 3, AUGUST 1991

INTEGRATION OF CEBus WITH UTILITY LOAD MANAGEMENT AND AUTOMATIC METER READING
J. Mike Surratt IEEE Member Duke Power Company P.O. Box 1006 Charlotte, North Carolina 28201-1006

ABSTRACT The writing of the CEBus standard will provide utilities with exciting new concepts in load management and Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) . It will be possible for homeowners to have an important influence in the load management responA s homeowners begin to purchase sibilities. appliances outfitted with the CEBus option, such a s water heaters and air conditioners, utilities will be able to communicate with the appliance by power line carrier through a CEBus meter. A s a value added benefit to the utility for installing an intelligent meter, the utility will be able to obtain a monthly meter reading.

INTRODUCTION The driving force for providing an intelligent meter in the electric utility is load management. Without load management, the only alternative for meeting the demand is to build more electric power plants. In this paper, electric utilities will be discussed in more detail than gas and water utilities; however, the CEBus Standard the concepts it provides apply to all public and private utilities in general. BACKGROUND Electric utilities, like all businesses, are constantly analyzing cash flow, income revenues, and operating expenses. The building of power plants, for example, are particularly expensive capital ventures, ranging in cost from $1500/KW for a coal fired plant to well over an estimated $3000/KW for nuclear. Utility commissions, which are regulating bodies, require electric utilities to provide resources greater than their peak load, typically 10%to 20% of the peak. In order to slow electric rate increases to the user, utility commissions have ordered many electric utilities to initiate a number of strategies including conservation, load shifting, and load management programs that con-

trol or shed electrical load a t peak demand. These programs have shown that significant reduction of electric reduction is possible. Load management in particular will help control the building of additional power plants by balancing the "demand side" and "supply side" (3) strategies of the business. For years the utilities have studied how loads can be reduced. Most of these, however, have to be implemented during emergencies. This has been from reducing voltage, to public pleas through the media to reduce loads during the emergency. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), research arm funded by the electric utilities, has researched load reduction over the years, including voltage reductions and their effects on the load itself. A s fewer plants are built and the load continues to rise, the possibility of emergency reductions occur more often. The public will not be sympathetic and will ask why the utility cannot control their loads. The up and coming concept is Demand-Side Management (DSM) where certain activities by the utility influence the electrical demand.

Potential Impact of Demand-Side Management on Peak Electrical Demand

000
900
DEMAND WITHOUT DEMAND-SIDE HANAGEMENT

E X I S T I N G SUPPLY

I
NEW U T I L I T Y PROJECTIONS WITH DSM

:q
400
~

,
1995

,
2005

100 1990

2000

Fig-

Source: EPRI 1987 (1)

Manuscript received June 7, 1991

0098 3063/91/0200 00406$01.00 1991 IEEE

Surratt: Integration of CEBus with Utility Load Management and Automatic Meter Reading

407

Fig. 1 shows a graphical representation of the possibilities of DSM. The existing supply line decreases in time from the level in 1990 due to plant retirements. A s can be seen,the top line is peak electrical demand without any controls in place. However, the demand, with demand- side planning initiated, is shown on the second line down. The area shown by net reductions is the amount of new power supply not required due to DSM. There have been many ways the electric utilities have tried to influence the electrical demand in the p a s t . For example, the utility promotes the use of high efficiency heat pumps verses strip heating and encouraging high insulation for homes and businesses. Most of these have been heavily promoted during energy crisis. However, the most effective approach to DSM is through cost. Time of Use (TOU) rates, when managed properly, can have a significant impact on consumption.

MAKING USE OF AN INTELLIGENT

METER WITH CEBus

TYPICAL LOAD MANAGEMENT METHODS Typical methods of reducing peak power have been for the power company system dispatcher to send a signal, at peak t h e , to shed water heating and, in particular, air conditioning loads. This is direct control load management. The user has set up an agreement with the local utility to control these loads and, in return, he receives a credit amounting to a certain percentage of his total bill. Unfortunately, the utility has difficulty insuring the load indeed was shed by that particular user at exactly the same time the command was sent out. The answer is feedback systems; however, the cost f o r these systems and maintaining their operation, has been very high. In some instances, the cost approaches the amount of savings it was intended to offset with the load reduction. Popular communication mediums for sending the load management commands have been-with r a dio (800 Mhz or -150 Mhz bands), or with Power Line Carrier (12Khz on power distribution lines). The residence is outfitted with a receiving device which receives the proper signal and sheds those loads wired to it. At a later time, typically 30 minutes, the dispatcher sends a connect signal to re-connect the load and, if necessary, continues shedding loads at other locations. What we have then is a load management system totally owned and controlled by the utility. The customer may not want his air conditioner or water heater off at a particular unannounced time. This can create customer dissatisfaction for the company. The power company meanwhile has problems of their own maintaining the system. A s the load curve progresses upward through the go's, power companies are running closer to the top of their allowed power margin and will have to overcome problems they have with direct load management devices. They will have to insure the devices indeed operate and shed the load for their margin and load demand and, a t the same time, insure the load is re-connected for their customers.

Typical Smoll Substation Summer Load

~~

Peak Rate

8am

10

12

8pm

Fig. 2

408

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 37, No. 3, AUGUST 1991 Application Language (CAL) tables that addresses utility meters and functions. A structured table approach of specific metering root objects were submitted to the standards committee a s a logical approach to defining metering functions such a s measuring, logging data for historical information, billing information and a host of other functions supporting these such a s clock/calendar declarations, input functions, codes, e t c . With the table's definitions included in the CEBus protocol, the utility can use these objects to directly communicate with the meter. No other translation is r e quired. For example, the utility sets up communication with a meter and sends a command in the CEBus protocol to directly dump the history buffer for Kilowatt-hour readings. The actual command may look like STORE <ARGl> <ARG2>, where ARGl and ARG2 would be the specific commands for history of kilowatt-hours and a time interval defined in CEBus. The meter receives the command and interprets the command to read the memory a t a specified location that was defined when the program was compiled. The advantage here is the utilities central control station did not have to know the exact location where the data is stored; they simply sent out the request knowing the met e r ' s internal program was compiled within a standard structured for meters. A s for the manufacturer of meters, also using an open standard saves him development of a communications protocol. A good possible standard is one the Automatic Meter Reading Association (AMRA) has seen. This is a list of tables with the same definitions as the CEBus. This table is written in Pascal. With its highly structured nat u r e , i t is easy t o implement an executable program to r u n the meter. There are 29 tables which include functions such as history buffer, communications control, clock and calendar functions, spot pricing (TOU for load management), encryption, e t c . just a s the CEBus tables. Consider a manufacturer who decides, for example, to build not only a meter with standard killowatt- hour readings, but also one which includes hardware to read voltage, current and its subsequent power factor. He then provides the electronics to accept the inputs from the hardware for these various readings and provides the microprocessor. Then, after referring to the tables, he provides sufficient memory to handle the functions he wants. After including devices to operate the CEBus OS1 layers and required components, his meter is ready. The internal program which r u n s the microprocessor in the meter makes use of the Pascal structured tables and compiles the tables and procedures using ANSI's "C" language. The manufacture, or utility, makes assignments in table 0 (see Fig. 3) which is the maximum values table, which defines the limits and function declarations for the r e s t of the tables. After these assignments a r e made, the program is complied and loaded into processor's operating system and executed. Though this is a simplistic approach to describing the process of the meter manufacturer and ideas, many other IEEE papers no doubt will be written, describing the details of operation of each

It is $ossible for this utility to charge a premium (peak) rate for use of load during these times. See Fig. 2 . The utility sets a dynamic level for their peak charge rate. Whenever the load begins to approach it, then a peak signal is sent out. In this way, consumption during this time would be a t a high rate; users would t r y to reduce their consumption thereby decreasing the load and the peak. The utilities will have to inform the user when the peak r a t e will be in effect and allow him to make decisions on his energy consumption, especially if he doesn't have CEBus appliances. At other times he can operate a t off peak rates. W e are now building motivation for the customer to participate in controlling his energy consumption-that is, a lower bill. This is load management now becoming demand-side management. A bill that line items both peak rate charges and offpeak charges can be generated. A simple calculation would reflect the savings he could realize if this control was made a s automatic a s possible. With C E B u s appliances in the home, the homeowner pre-programs the appliance to follow peak commands as applied by the utility. For example, a customer would preset his CEBus thermostat on his air conditioner to increase the temperature setting when the utility sends a signal that peak rates a r e being applied. He can have this setting occur between 9am and 3pm for instance while he is a t work. While he is at home, he may choose to ignore it--he is willing to pay the premium. In this way, the customer is directly involved with his energy uses. With an intelligent meter available on the C E B u s network, the home owner can, on demand, take a personal reading of the current bill and make f a r t h e r decisions. Though, this type of scenario will not be totally effective in controlling loads through the 199O's, it is a method that becomes win-win for both the utility and customer and can't be overlooked especially for homeowners. EPRI studies and reports (1) demonstrate that 25% of the load shedding that will be required, can be done realistically by DSM. A combination of this and conventional means for load control a s outlined above, most likely will be the load control methods for the 1990's. The challenge for the utility is to provide incentives to the customer, encouraging load relief consistent with utility system requirements.

MAKING USE O F CEBus STANDARD AND A METERING STRUCTURE Over the years many utility companies have been experimenting with various vendors for automatic meter reading of power meters. The primary motivation for A M R i s the reduction in cost of personnel and support for this function. With AMR, accurate meter reading can be done one day earlier, thus revenues can also be received a day earlier. With almost 10 years background with electronic meter design, manufacturers will find the CEBus standard is not difficult to implement into a meter's internal protocol. The CEBus standards committee are currently writing into the Common

Surratt: Integration of CEBus with Utility Load Management and Automatic Meter Reading component for load management. Provided the utility has sufficiently included security for themselves, they can allow the homeowner to view a few of the data registers; for example, their current bill could be viewed in dollars verses a Kilowatt number. O r , for demand-side management, allow them to view the rate table and times and how much of each s t r u c t u r e they have used. The utility can also send messages to the customer about the peak rate s t r u c t u r e s , o r information concerning power outages. The combinations of information provided to the customer are a s diverse a s the customer wants i t . The point is everything is in software and can easily be manipulated. COMMUNICATIONS ISSUES HOW CAN IT BE DONE? One of the greatest challenges for the utility is how a r e they going to communicate with millions of meters and load control appliances. Some method or combination of methods need to be used. Some may be communications from the substation (gas or electric) to the u s e r s . I t may be communications from a wide area data network connecting radio transmitters for packet radio. It may even be a combination of many methods. See Fig. 4, this suggested method may be the otherwise best alternative for the present. The left hand side is the home base control center where t h e load readings a r e measured. A s the load increases a decision is made to send a peak rate out. The PC's initiate the request and logs in the appropriate times levels the signal went out into the main frame computer for auditing. From there a Wide Area Network through a controller broad-

409

Table 1 Clock/Calendar Table Table 2 SmaLt Mete1 Device Control Table Table
0

Maximum Values Table Table

29

Encryption Table

Fig. 3
facet of the functions. Of f a r greater importance a r e the implications of using open standards. The CEBus, which is a n open standard, will allow many vendors to competitively provide equipment to the utility to help meet load management and A M R requirements. The utility simply establishes communications and doesn't need to know the manufacturer of the meter they need to communicate with. In actuality, they even do not need to know anything about the meter they need to communicate with. Everything is defined within the meter itself, including i t s features. Also, since the meter has the CEBus structure, it is merely a component on a network in the home, just a s the water heater and a i r conditioner a r e also a

Communications Controller

Central Site

U
Area 2

Residential Community Fig. 4

410

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 37, No. 3, AUGUST 1991

receive the signal, even though it is tuned to that station, because they derive their signal from the F M station's 19Khz pilot signal. The SCA does not use this pilot. The FCC only allows the SCA to deviate the transmitter carrier a maximum of 20% the total signal. Therefore, the effective coverage may not appear to be a s great for the SCA a s the main signal. The service for the F M station is treated a s a common carrier service by the FCC and comes under those regulations. The station must apply for the appropriate license and obtain authorization to operate the service. There a r e advantages for the utility to use for this in DSM. Communication can be made to a great area with a minimum investment in equipment. Most of the time, an F M station can be found in an area that transmits 24 hours. Reliability for some pilot projects has been shown to be good, with minimum maintenance by the utility. There a r e also some disadvantages. The SCA is only one way. Automatic meter reading would not be possible. Messages from receiving units would have to use another method for meter readings, possibly using the customer's phone lines. There a r e always lease charges, which include the contract with the station, and usually a leased circuit from the telephone company. Though the reliability is high, the transmitter is operated and maintained by the station owner and utilities may not feel totally comfortable. POWER LINE CARRIER Power line carrier (PLC) is a technique where an RF signal is coupled to 60hz power lines. This is similar to the CEBus PL standard for power line carrier but is not spread spectrum and operates a t 12Khz. A t 12Khz, the signal easily passes through transformers. CEBus PL is a t 140Khz through about 300Khz and is stopped by transformers. Power line carrier technology has been used since the ~ O ' S , where it was used primarily for voice circuits. It is used extensively in relaying for power circuit breaker control. The power lines can be any type, from those a t 500KVac to llOVac in the home. EPRI has done much study on loadcontrol. The most recent report by EPRI (2) outlines PLC in detail for load control. There are somc good reasons for the power utility to consider PLC. There is a conductor path for the communications already present, therefore the equipment and communications medium is in complete control of the utility. Once a distribution system is in place and properly designed for PLC, it can be a reasonably reliable medium, though t h e r e a r e some peculiarities with i t s operation a s listed below: Power line carrier characteristics and considerations in distribution lines:
1.

casts a simulcast signal to the operating area. Each secondary transformer powers a small CEBus radio box mounted on the pole; this box bridges the signal from RF to power line carrier and is then coupled back on to the secondary side. The meters receive the signal and begin logging in the usage data into the high peak rate register. CEBus appliances, where ever they a r e mounted, receive the peak rate command; a n d , if the homeowner has preset the appliance, the appliance decreases or cuts off its energy consumption. When the load has returned to manageable levels for the company another signal is sent out for low r a t e s . The same broadcast is made and usage data begins to flow to the low rate registers and the appliances r e t u r n to their normal s t a t e . In this scenario, the utility has sent out a message, via peak r a t e , that they a r e encouraging the homeowner to decrease his usage to save the building of costly power plants.

Below a r e some of the other possible methods and ideas for transmitting the peak rate to the meters and devices in the field. As shown each have their own advantages and disadvantages : FIBER OPTICS FIBER TO THE CURB With the growth of fiber optic interconnecting central offices, fiber has been shown to be a very effective way to handle large amounts of data. Bellcore, research arm of the telephone companies, have demonstrated that the gradual replacement of copper wire to the u s e r with fiber optic will be cost effective to the phone companies in the long term. This is based on the cost of copper, and the maintenance required to keep it operational. This replacement is recommended to be gradual and will be most effective in metropolitan areas. This is called fiber to the c u r b (FTTC) or fiber to the home (PTTH) . With this available, utilities may communicate using the ISDN control channel for a moderate cost using packet data tariffs. CEBus standards committee has commissioned a work group to generate a fiber optic medium for the s t a n d a r d . This will be the last standard chapter to be implemented since it is not expected that fiber will be used to any great extent in the near f u t u r e a s power line carrier is. As this is implemented a direct fiber connection can be possible to the home from the phone company. Unfortunately, the best estimates for the wholesale implementation of fiber will not be until 2000 to 2015.

SUBSIDIARY COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES Subsidiary communications services, often called SCA for subsidiary communication authorization, is a service provided by the local commercial F M broadcast station. The service is secondary in nature for the broadcast station and is used for additional revenue. This would be a method for broadcasting peak rate information to homeowners for DSM. Normal commercial F M receivers cannot

Generally operate within 4Khz to 140Khz. Above 140Khz, the lines tend to radiate RF e n e r g y , especially near the transmitter where the levels have to be higher for long lines. The FCC has rules and regulations on the r a -

Surratt: Integration of CEBus with Utility Load Management and Automatic Meter Reading Spread spectrum was originally developed for military communications, since it is resistant to interception and interference. The first application was a HF radio communication over the Atlantic between President Roosevelt and Churchill late in the war. In 1985 FCC allowed companies to commercialize the technology under Part 15. Sections 15.245 - 15.251 describe the technical criteria for use of the different band of frequencies allowed. For example, operation is allowed a t 902 Mhz, 2.4 Ghz, 5.7Ghz, 10.5 Ghz and 24.0 Ghz boundaries. There are three popular methods currently developed for spreading the spectrum for the transmitter : Frequency hopping was the first method developed. Consider a channel to be a small carrier frequency. It works by making the signal jump A s an from channel to channel a t high speed. example, consider a person pronouncing the letter "B" that lasts for half a second (500 milliseconds); a pseudorandom digital code determines the sequence of channels that will be used. The first 10 milliseconds may be on channel 5, the next 10 on channel 9, the next on channel 4, and so on completing the full half second. Both the radio transmitter and receiver know the code, which describes the sequence of channels that will be sent. With this type of coding, however, there a r e problems with multiple users. When too many transmitters operate in the same band, a receiver may t r y to decode parts of other messages, which will corrupt the original message. The second method is called direct sequence. I t was developed to allow more users in the same band. In this case the signal is digitized, then randomized, before being directly imposed onto the RF modulator in the radio. The spectrum is therefore broadened by extremely narrow pulse widths of the bits in the digital sequence. The radio receiver must correlate the signal by a despreading or bandwidth-collapsing procedure. A third method is the chirp method. This is similiar to the method adopted by the CEBus standards committee for their Power Line carrier spread spectrum method. Its implementation is somewhat different, but generally , it takes the digitized signal and quickly sweeps in frequency for modulation, thus a chirp. I t sweeps up, for example, and represents a digit "1" and down for a II 0II . The transmitter and receiver otherwise operate similar to the direct sequencing method. This method offers even more privacy in the bandwidth, allowing for many users. Currently, spread spectrum is still used in the military. One is the GIobal Positioning System, which is a satellite system for ships to locate their position. More recent applications are in the home automation arena. Possible uses in the utility would be in the 900 Mhz range for distribution automation. Low power transceivers could be located in the substation communicating to power meters feeding from i t . The operation can be duplex and could allow for multiple meters to communicate. On the negative side, even though many users can be on the

41 1

diation; part 15 describes these regulations. Generally, a t frequencies above 55Khz, the carrier begins to have trouble passing through a transformer. This is because the RF impedance of the transformer rises proportionally a s the frequency increases. l2Khz to l8Khz typically are used on distribution lines.
2.

Power factor correcting capacitors and regulating transformers greatly attenuates the signal. Correction capacitor isolators, and occasionally repeaters for signal boosting, has to be done to keep the signal a t good levels across these devices. Designers of PLC systems need to be familiar with electrical noise and interference coming in on distribution networks. Also, an understanding is needed of the standing wave phenomenon, which is caused by impedance mismatches of the lines and transformers a t RF frequencies. Power line carrier signals on one branch substation circuit can be induced on to other circuits, interfering with both signals. When there a r e changes in line configuration and taps, field crews need to understand that the characteristic impedance changes, sometimes dramatically, on the distribution line a t radio frequencies.

3.

4.

5.

A t lower PLC frequencies, such a s 12.5Khz,

signals propagate a t an optimum level; however, effective data throughput is low, typically below 100 BPS for good communications. This rate will be agonizingly slow for automatic meter reading.

6.

Two way communication of PLC is possible for automatic meter reading but has not been shown very reliable. Trouble is usually with the transmitter equipment a t the residence. This equipment needs to address the same problems a s the substation unit transmitter, such as noise on the line and characteristic impedance changes on the circuit.

SPREAD SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY I N UNLICENSED FCC PART 15

Another possibility is making use of spread spectrum technolog-y in the 9OOMhz. The utility places transmitters in various locations for sending out peak rate signals and other information. Spread spectrum technology is, a s it sounds, a technology where the intelligence or signal is spread over a wide radio spectrum. Whereas typical radio transmits over a narrow bandwidth a t relatively high powers, spread spectrum transmitt e r s transmit a t lower levels (measured in milliwatts) over a wide bandwidth. Depending on the method used for spreading the spectrum, bandwidths of up to 500 kHz a r e allowed by the FCC.

412

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 37, No. 3, AUGUST 1991

same band, a substation can have thousands of meters on it. There would probably be a limited number of simultaneous meters transmitting a t a time. A polling mechanism would more than likely be used. Another downside is that i t is unlicensed; future Personal Communications Networks (PCN's) will coexist in these bands, further adding to the volume of traffic.

CONCLUSION Load management in the form of Demand-Side Managment will be an important method of controlling the electric and gas industries rise in peak load. This control will help defer the expenditures required to build new plants just to rrieet the peak load. Studies show capacity exists to handle the base loads for a number of years to come. The use of the CEBus standard into home appliances in existing homes to automatically control those appliances and their energy use, is of great importance to the utility industry. One of the most important challenges for the utilities is to support the home automation arena and promote the use of energy control appliances, The other challenge is the communications for automatic meter reading from the millions of meters that need to transmit their signals. No one method is both cost effecient and effective; however until fiber to the curb by the phone companies is available, a combination of methods such a s a radio broadcast (the same broadcast station that sends out peak rate signals and load shedding commands) and the use of the customer's phone for the return meter reading is the most promising. References :
1. EPRI EM-5019, Project 2279-3, January 1987, "Annual Review of Demand-Side Planning Research: 1985 Procedings"

J . Mike Surratt (Member '72) received his BSEE degree from the University o f North Carolina a t Charlotte in 1972. He has been with Duke Power Company since 1972. He started in the Design Engineering Department working with Power Systems in power plant design for nine years. He joined the Communications Department at Duke in 1980, where he engineered communications systems and managed area maintenance. Currently, he is in communications planning. Mike is a registered engineer in both North Carolina and South Carolina and lives in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

2.

EPRI EM-5392, Project 1940-13, Final Report, October 1987, "Residential Load Control and Metering Equipment : Costs and Capabilities" "Future Metering Techniques for Commercial and Residential Customers", 1991, Duke Power Company, Donald K . Fisher, P. E. , Distribution Services.

3.