Smart Metering in Electric Power Distribution System

Karan Gandhi and Hari Om Bansal

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, India reduced by substituting materials involved in supply with materials having desired properties. Administrative losses are those losses which are given by unknown connections and missing meters in the system. The third kind of loss is illegal use of electricity which is done in several ways like tampering with meters to make it record lower consumption reading, tapping (hooking) on LT lines and arranging false readings by bribing meter readers etc. According to a survey in most of the developing countries including India also, 32% of produced electricity is wasted as losses; approximately 47-48% of this loss is due to electricity theft. This problem of theft can be addressed to a certain extent by installing smart metering system. The gap between peak demand and the available power is big, if time-wise consumption readings and thus variable tariff is imposed to encourage consumers to use their appliances during off peak hours then this gap many minimized without establishing any new power plants as depicted in Fig. 1. This needs improvement in the current metering system. Distributed Generation is becoming popular nowadays. DG is defined as an electric power generation source connected directly to the distribution network or on the customer side. As penetration of DG is increasing its grid interconnection is going to be a challenging task. Utilities may impose different tariff for this. Metering of this is further going to be tough with the current meters [8]. This paper speaks about evolution of smart meter, its various components & working, few case studies, benefits and challenges in its implementation.

AbstractElectric Energy is a vital resource in everyday life and a backbone to the industry. Being limited its proper use and measurement is very important. Restructuring of power system, penetration of distributed generation and power theft are going to be the key challenges in the near future. The operational information will be crucial for the functioning of the power distribution networks. One of the information sources is going to be the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Smart meter is an advanced energy meter that measures electrical energy consumption and provides additional information as compared to a conventional energy meter. It aims to improve the reliability, quality and security of supply. Integration of AMI into electricity grid needs implementation of a variety of techniques, controls and software, depending on the required features. This paper discusses the need of smart meters, their working, benefits and challenges in implementing them. The paper also presents few case studies and cost benefit analysis done earlier. KeywordsElectric Energy, Power Theft, Smart Meter, Power Distribution System, Advanced Metering Infrastructure

I.

Introduction

The development of human society depends on the proper and wise utilization of all resources whether natural resource or a man-made resource. Electricity can be categorized as a manmade resource but its production depends on the availability of natural resources like coal, water, wind and gas etc. Per capita consumption of electricity is directly proportional to the economic growth of the country. Electricity is first Generated (G) then Transmitted (T) over long distances and finally Distributed (D) to consumers. In this process of GTD energy losses take place. Energy loss is defined as the difference between energy generated and billed on consumers on consumption [1-2]. There are three types of losses, namely Technical, Administrative and Theft incorporated with transmission and distribution of electricity [3-7]. Technical losses are those losses which occur due to properties of materials used in transmission and distribution system. For example, energy dissipated due to resistance of conductor used in supply lines. It also includes Dielectric losses, Induction and radiation losses. These losses can be

Fig.1.

Saving in demand peak after implementation of Smart Metering System

II.

Evolution of Smart Meters

Being a limited and very important resource the metering of electricity consumption is essential. Generally people dont care for the consumption of electricity in their day to day processes and are concerned about it when they get their electricity bills or in case of power shortage. Measuring of electricity consumption was started with Electromechanical Induction meter which operates by counting the revolutions of a metal disc rotating at a speed proportional to the power. The number of revolutions is proportional to the energy usage. Later in 1990s Electronic meter was introduced which use LED or LCD displays and can also transmit readings to remote places but they could use only one sided communication. This process is also referred as Automated Meter Reading. Further to improve the communication between utility and costumers and for time wise billing first generation of Smart meter was introduced in 2005. Smart meters are the new generation devices which are used by utilities for electronic measurement and to remotely communicate information for billing customers and operating their electric systems. These meters can take the reading and send the information to the control office repeatedly in small time intervals. Control office can monitor the meters because a two-way communication is used in smart metering system which is commonly known as AMI. AMI is capable of detecting power outages and monitoring voltage profiles [9-10]. Being two way communications, the consumers will have the information about their daily electricity consumption along with its cost and thus they will try to minimize it by its sensible utilization. This will also help in protecting our valuable Mother Nature and environment. III. Components of Smart Metering System The main components inside smart meter are [11-13]: A. Advanced Measuring Device: It consists of the following A small transformer that steps down the voltage to 10V ac A microprocessor core, a real-time clock, flash memory, and an LCD driver A low power dual operational amplifier and a medium power amplifier IC Around 1 GHz SOC with a microcontroller and some bytes of flash memory Time differentiated registers, Connect/disconnect switch and LCD/LED display In home display: It is a device which details the usage of data in a graphical and user friendly manner. B. Communication Network Management: Electricity meter communicates with LDCs using the low voltage power supply cables between the meters and the transformers which come under Local Area Networks (LANs) and it is used for short distance communication. Communications between LDCs and the Central System Controller may be provided virtually by any standard Wide

Area Network (WAN) medium, including PSTN telephone lines, GSM, X-25 packet switched radio and microwave links [11-13]. C. Meter Data Management (MDM): It should be able to collect at least following information. Meter registrations: serial numbers, meter types, location and programmed data. Local Data Concentrators (LDCs): location, serial numbers and programmed functions. Meter data extraction: Customer details, Customer transaction records, Peak demand and load curve Tariff structures and prices, Invoice generation, maintenance and Payment transaction records Error logs and message texts, System activity and maintenance logs. System administration records. The architecture of the smart meter is shown on Fig. 2.
Data concentrators Central System Control Center

Meter and Communication Hub

Asset Management

Billing

Multi utility Fig.2.

Home Automation

Hand Held Devices

Architecture of Smart Meters

IV.

Working of Smart Metering System

Smart meters operate on two-way communication process and should have a memory segment. Two way communication is done through Radio Frequency (RF) mesh networking or PLC [14-15], allowing the creation of LAN and WAN. DLC can be used as WAN for meter reading, tariff & programming updates and for load control. PLC can be used as Home Area network (HAN) for home automation and short range communication. Such mesh networks allowed the AMI to have a data collector hub that would then transmit the collected data via GSM, broadband or another means from an end user to the utility office. This customer data was then transacted automatically into customer billing. The AMI capable meters also includes a HAN, such as Zigbee. The most suitable way of communication is through RF. The typical memory footprint to support RF LAN/WAN is around 256 KB whereas Zigbee is around 128 KB of embedded flash memory. These requirements will rise significantly in near future [10, 12, 14]. If same mesh network is also used to provide firmware updates for smart meters then MCUs should have dual banks of flash memory. This dual bank architecture allows the meter to run continuously. The block diagram of smart meter working is shown in Fig. 3 [16].

Fig.3.

Block Diagram of Smart Meter

The working of some of the blocks is detailed below. A. Power Source e consumer A two line connection is provided to every comprising neutral line and load line. There e are many ways in which a meter can work, one of which is mentioned m here. For supplying power to the system a rect tifier is needed, which can be a combination of four diodes as shown in figure 2. The rectified signal is then transm mitted to PWM and AC/DC through a MOSFET circuit. Th he main work of PWM is primary side regulation along with special features of HV Start-up, Input Line Monitoring, Leading Edge Blanking, Light Load Efficiency, Low Power and Soft Start. B. Metrology The current flowing in the load line is allowed to pass through a resistance in order to measure read ding. For proper and cost efficient reading system, analog sig gnal needs to be converted to digital signal. For this purp pose Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) is used. Samples or snap shots of the analog signals at discrete instances of o time and then converted to numeric values using ADC. Th here are various types of ADC, some of them are: Successive e Approximation

d Half Flash, Integrating (Dual (SAR), Flash (Parallel) and Slope), Voltage to Frequency y and Sigma Delta (-). - ADC is generally us se because it overcomes most of the disadvantages of other sy ystems. In this system ADC can be combined with DSP funct tions on one mixed signal VLSI chip. This has very low reso olution at a very high sampling rate. By using over-sampling g techniques in conjunction with noise shaping and digital filt tering, the effective resolution is increased. The processed signal s is then transferred to a MCU for utility or other end d customer calibration purposes [17]. C. Application Processor or is required to interface with An application processo home appliances and automa ation. It can be an ARM cortex A8 microprocessor with on ne of the following operating systems Linux, Android or windows w embedded CE. Its main function is to connect vending machines, building automation. V. RF Exposure in i Smart Metering System One major threat in imp plementation of smart metering system is its radiations. Th his system generally uses RF

radiations for wireless communications. RF radiation causes two types of effects, thermal and non-thermal. Out of these two, thermal effects are injurious to human health [18]. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an organization which keeps a check on RF radiation producing devices which are harmful for environment and human health. According to FCC Smart meter comes under the low power, unlicensed criteria as the radiations are very less and not a serious issue to health. FCC has imposed a limit on Maximum Permissible Error (MPE). MPE values are measured by taking an average of RF exposure on different parts of body as all the parts are at different distance from the meter and thus power is different at various parts. RF exposure to a person at 3 to10 feet away from a continuously operating smart meter is 125 to 1250 times less as compared to a person talking on a cell phone. The measurements have shown that RF exposure behind meter sockets is lesser as compared to in front of the sockets. Apart from this, the location of the meter, distance from the transmitter, shielding by meter enclosures, attenuation of building materials, direction of RF emissions and limited duty cycles (The percentage of time a RF device is in operation is called the duty cycle) also decreases RF exposure and thus in short RF exposure due to smart meters is not significantly harmful to health [19-23]. VI. Case Studies In Southern California a retail store was selected as a part of an energy management initiative that involves equipping the store with smart meter. Usually the owner was much tensed about increasing electricity bill. With smart meter she was able to monitor her electricity usage and to reduce the bill. At the end of the year it was found that the store consumed about 1562 kWh lower than the previous year and a lot of money around $185 was saved. The deployment cost of smart meters in California per connection is around $193.7. Expected Maintenance cost of these meters is $4 per year. Therefore, they will make a significant amount of profit in coming years. Apart from this, 844lbs CO2 emissions were also reduced which further save the environment [24-25]. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) required Californias large investor owned utilities (IOUs ) to file AMI applications and required a demonstration that AMI systems could produce net customer benefits. Initially, it was found that AMI was not cost-effective for its customers, but AMI technological improvements in 2005 and 2006 led to the SmartConnect application in 2007, which forecasted a very slim margin of lifetime net benefits on a present value basis. Table I shows the nominal costs and benefits of SmartConnect Program [26]
Table I. Nominal Costs and Benefits (in millions) of Smart Meter Deployment Program in California Deployment 2007-2012 $437.6 $1633.5 -$1195.5 Post deployment 2013-2032 $6999.7 $1582.1 $5417.6 Total $7437.3 $3215.6 $4221.7

Similarly, In Victoria state things went wrong in the deployment of smart meters. The lessons that it has taught, have led to a turnaround of affairs and the state is currently looked upon as an example of the benefits that can be gained from smart meters [27]. India is a price sensitive market and if consumers are told that using electrical equipment during non-peak hours will cost less, they will shift their usage accordingly. This will help the consumers in reducing their bills and the distribution companies in managing the rush therefore preventing grid collapses. According to World banks energy specialist, in developing countries like India the cost of deployment of smart meters can go high because of geographical structure but the benefits will still be huge because they will minimize the energy theft. The Indian government and other utilities are taking various initiatives towards implanting smart meters, few of them are: In January, WBSEDCL, an Indian utility looking to modernize its aging infrastructure, selected Landis+Gyr, a multinational corporation, to deliver 1.5 million smart meters, believed to be the single largest electric meter order in India. The project is expected to be over by 2013. Ami Tech (India) Pvt. Ltd. is designing a 3-phase smart energy meter to cater to the needs of Indian smart grid requirements. Itron inaugurated its first Smart Metering Lab and Knowledge Center in Noida at Itron India. The centre showcases and demonstrates its smart metering and AMI solutions. It will benefit local utilities, government officials and other groups by sharing insights and knowledge. VII. Benefits of Smart Metering System Smart metering has many advantages like it collects time-wise consumption readings, can control the amount of power given to a particular house and can be used to lower the losses due to theft. The various merits of smart meter over traditional meters are listed below A comparison of various types of meters is also made and presented in Table II. A. From Consumers point of view The system provides rapid access to all customer transaction and payment records which allow with quick and efficient solution of customer. Day to day bill is available and thus effective load management by using appliances at off peak hours which will also result in lesser bill. No unscheduled power cuts and instead of complete black out some electricity can be provided to every customer which can be used for running some important appliances as in case of inverters. This will minimize use of inverters, their charging burden and battery problems. Any tampering with meter is immediately reported to central control. It will reduce theft so tariff rates will go down

Benefits Costs Net Benefits

 Due to remote reading, no need for site visits and hence increases customers privacy [28-29]. Provides easy pre-payment facility. LCD display can be programmed to display various facilities including amount of credit left on prepayment system [30]. B. From Electrical Companies point of view Provides power consumption profile data from individual and groups of meters to facilitate energy management, load research and tariff development. Provides a low voltage network monitoring system to allow supply outages to be quickly identified resulting in better reliability and improved service levels [31]. Provides a sophisticated energy loss detection system to identify losses to individual LV feeder level [31]. The individual meter reading can be channeled directly up to the local substation and then to the customer headquarters using a PSTN/GSM or radio. This eliminates need for site visit to read the meter and reduces the human labor [28-29]. Any tampering of system is immediately reported to central control system. This will reduce losses [32]. Provides a mechanism for the implementation of Demand-Side Management initiatives involving multi-rate tariffs and load control. This improves energy efficiency and reduces emissions. Billing will be fast and easy with the help of automated software controlled billing system. For reasons of credit control, load management, or load shedding, the meter can be set to disconnect at a pre-set load or total energy usage and this will prevent grid failure by overload [31].
TABLE II. Property Accuracy Theft detection Communication Control Consumer Participation Time Wise Reading Day to day billing info Comparison of Smart Meter with Traditional Meters ElectroMechanical Meter low low Manual reading No nil no Not possible Digital Meter High Possible at node level One way communication limited Less After a fix interval Not possible Smart Meter Very high Possible at network level Two way communication full high according to requirement Possible

Efficiency of inverters is very low and replacement of their batteries causes environmental pollution. As smart metering system can help in providing a substitute to inverters and thus it saves energy and environment. VIII. Challenges in Implementation of AMI Geographical area of India is very large with vast climatic condition which creates difficulty in wireless communication as impedance matching has to be applied at various places [33-34] Slow decision making & Implementation Change of mindset and awareness of common public as well as utilities Dedicated prioritized Data communication channel for Utility Operations by NSP. Regulatory frame-work which rewards for uninterrupted quality services. The first phase is to replace traditional meters with smart meters but location of meters inside the house creates difficulty in proper implementation Difficult to establish Home/Local area Communication through concrete walls. Being various utility providers, varying expectations/requirements from utility to utility. No systematic planned approach for implementation of smart metering system. Lesser technical work force For mass deployment Control commands & other data formats should be interoperable with AMI infrastructure. Initially a large investment is required. Benefit would accrue only after successful implementation. Higher Cost of the smart meters Management of Terabytes of data collected in small interval of time and maintaining privacy of this data. Acceptance of variable tariff to Low end consumer. IX. Conclusions This paper reviews numerous key aspects of smart metering. Several challenges, requirements and issues in design, development, and maintenance of the smart meter systems are discussed. Smart metering is a good technology which monitors electricity pilferage and power losses. This technique makes the user better informed and careful about consumption, billing and power outages etc. This technology will allow variable tariff implementation which enables the customer to use appliances during off peak load hours. This will increase people participation in saving energy and environment thus the increasing electricity demand issue may be addressed to a certain extent without actually establishing new power plants. The implementation of smart metering technique requires improvement in the current metering infrastructure. Focus should be on developing better control strategies, sensors and other components to minimize the cost. A mass awareness program should be conducted to literate people about energy issues and encourage them for proper metering of electricity.

C. From the point of view of environment and government As the peak requirement decreases, requirement of new power plants also reduces leading to decreased greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency is improved because proper detection of energy loss. Automated reading system reduces field trips and vehicle emissions.

REFERENCES
[1] N. Mohan, T.M. Undeland and W.P. Robbins, Power Electronic Converters, Applications and Design, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and sons inc., New York, 1995 Methodology for Establishing Baseline AT&C Losses, Power Finance Corporation Limited, India, September, 2009. http://www.silicon.ac.in/sitbbsr/nwetmaterials/Power-DistributionLosses.pdf J.P Navani, N.K. Sharma and S. Sapra Technical and Non-Technical Losses in Power System and its Economic Consequence in Indian Economy, International Journal of Electronics and Computer Science Engineering, Vol.1, No. 2, pp. 757-761, 2012. Energy statistics 2012, Nineteenth Issue, Central Statistics Office , Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Govt. of India, New Delhi, March 2012. S. S. Mustafa, M.H. Yasen and H.H. Abdullah, Evaluation of Electric Energy Losses in Kirkuk Distribution Electric System Area, Iraqi Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Vol.7, No.2, pp.144-150, 2011. P. Kadurek et al., Theft Detection and Smart Metering Practices and Expectations in the Netherlands Proc. IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conf. Europe (ISGT Europe), pp. 16, 2010. H.O. Bansal, S. Mohan and H.P. Agrawal, A Critical Analysis of Distributed Generation and its Implications, International Conference on Renewable Energy, Jaipur, 2011. http://blog.vitria.com/bid/91948/The-Evolution-Benefits-of-SmartMeters http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue5/features/the-evolution-of-smart-meters-towards-a-supersmartgrid.html Smart Meters and Smart Meter Systems: A Metering Industry Perspective, an EEI-AEIC-UTC White Paper, Published by Edison Electric Institute, Pennsylvania, 2011. Smart meter deserves smart Components [Online Available]: http://www.murata.eu/amr-ami.html Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications, A report published by Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place, London. Y.S. Son et al., Home Energy Management System based on Power Line Communication, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronic, Vol. 56, pp. 1380 1386, Aug. 2010. M. Huczala, T. Lukl, and J. Misurec, Capturing Energy Meter Data Over Secured Power Line, Proc. International Conference on Communication Technology, Guilin, China, pp. 1- 4, Nov. 2006. http://www.ti.com/solution/docs/appsolution.tsp?appId=407. A. Collins, Solid State Solutions for Electricity Metrology, IEE Conference on Metering and Tariffs for Energy Supply, Publication No. 462, 25-28 May 1999. Health Impacts of Radio Frequency (RF) from Smart Meters, a report, California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), April 2011. K.D. Craemer and G. Deconinck, Analysis of State-of-the-art Smart Metering Communication Standards, Proc. IEEE 5th YRS 2010. A Discussion of Smart Meters and RF Exposure Issues, an EEIAEIC-UTC White Paper, Published by Edison Electric Institute, Pennsylvania, March 2011. An Investigation of Radio Frequency Fields Associated with the Itron Smart Meter, Technical Report published by EPRI, December 2010. Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields, Federal Communications Commission, Office of Engineering & Technology Bulletin 65, Edition 97-01, Nov. 1997. Wireless Transmissions: An Examination of Open Way Smart Meter Transmissions in a 24 hour Duty Cycle, Itron Inc, Note 2, pp.6, 2011. J. A. Castro, Advanced Energy Management: A Look into IDR Smart Meters, Energy Engineering, Vol.110, No.1, pp.33-40, 2013.

[25] [26]

[2] [3] [4]

[27] [28] [29]

[5]

[30] [31]

[6]

[32]

[7]

[33] [34]

[8]

www.emeter.com/wp-content/uploads2010/06/smart-meter-costchart. K. Hieta, V. Kao, and T. Roberts, Case Study of Smart Meter Deployment: Recommendations for Ensuring Ratepayer Benefits, March 2012. http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Australia-Smart-Meters-inVictoria-Case-Study. A. Vojdani, Smart Integration, IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, Vol. 6, pp. 71-79, Nov. 2008. D.G. Hart, Using AMI to Realize the Smart Grid, Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting - Conversion and Delivery of Electrical Energy, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 1-2, July 2008. J. Cowburn, Paying for Energy the Smart Way, IEE Review, Vol. 47, pp. 17-20, July 2001. A. Mahmood, M. Aamir and M.I. Anis, Design and implementation of AMR Smart Grid System, Proc. IEEE Canada Electric Power Conference, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 6-7, Oct. 2008. S.S. Depuru, L. Wang and V. Devabhaktuni, A Conceptual Design using Harmonics to Reduce Pilfering of Electricity, IEEE PES General Meeting, Minneapolis, MA, July 2010. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_051809.html I. Lane, J.J. Hoogenboezem and G.J. Delport, The Present and Future of National Electricity Demand, Domestic use of Electrical Energy Conference, 1997.

[9] [10]

[11]

[12] [13]

[14]

[15]

[16] [17]

[18] [19] [20]

[21] [22]

[23] [24]