Design of Integrated Meter Reading System

based on Power-Line Communication

Moonsuk Choi, Seongho Ju, Yonghun Lim
KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute)
Munji-dong, Yusung-gu, Daejeon, 305-380, Republic of Korea
Abstract— In this paper, we introduce current status of AMR moting this shift from peak hours, a system of varied tariffs
(Automatic Meter Reading) in Korea and investigate IMR (Inte- would be in effect. This involves varying the charge rate ac-
grated Meter Reading) system for electric, water and gas meter cording to the season or time of day, and providing discount for
reading. This system adopt communication network composed
direct load control. To realize a variety of tariffs, data com-
with PLC (Power-Line Communication) and weak signal wireless
communication. It contains information related to system archi- munication systems that connect electric utilities and consum-
tecture, characteristics of developed devices. Also, the future plan ers are needed.
was presented. In this point of view, AMR system is the most attractive
Keywords—Integrated Meter Reading, PLC, protocol. solutions in utilities. Therefore, KEPCO (Korea Electric Power
Corporation) has investigated MV (Medium Voltage) AMR
system using various communication technologies since 1989.
I. INTRODUCTION KEPCO has deployed MV AMR system based on CDMA since

R ECENTLY, Many utilities try to construct AMR system in

order to cope with the increasing need of remote control
and monitoring. Furthermore, investigation on IMR system
2000.

transmitting metering information related to electricity, water

and gas is now in progress for the economic efficiency. How-
ever, it is difficult to guarantee interoperability between AMR
system of each utility because each utility applies their own
protocol and communication technology in AMR system.
The most economic and efficient way to construct huge IMR
network is transmission of electric metering data including
water and gas information through power line. PLC is an at-
tractive alternative for the last mile, home-networking and
distribution systems. The existing line in a building can be used
as a local area network backbone and all the world is coupled to
the power grid, with power outlets available. So it provides a
potentially convenient and inexpensive technology to commu-
nicate with each other.
It is expected to increase economic and management effi-
ciency of IMR system using these advantages of PLC. There-
fore, we are presenting the IMR system architecture, metering
devices based on PLC in this paper. Also, we suggest commu- KEPCO has adopted various communication technologies to
nication protocol to integrate metering information. construct AMR network intended for LV (Low Voltage) cus-
Also written here, we describe the status of AMR technology tomer since 2002[1,2].
development in Korea. In Section 3, we provide a description of It would be particularly convenient if we could use the elec-
the components and architecture utilized to implement the IMR tric power distribution network itself more efficiently for
network on LV power lines. Section 4 explains our plan to communication with consumers. Besides, recent Home Net-
adopt IMR network to various application. Finally, conclusions work which is connected to AMR network will be able to
are drawn in Section 5. compose the various services in addition to Direct Load Control
(DLC), customer management and offering power information.
II. AMR SYSTEM IN KOREA Originally, the power line was a medium that supply power,
so it was not suitable for communication as it made the net
A. Electricity complex and had a bad communication channel. But as the
One vital concern for electric utilities is to decrease the peak Information Technology such as semiconductor is growing
of power consumption and shift it to low load hours. In pro- sharply, there's possibility for using power line as a new com-

978-1-4244-1976-0/08/$25.00 ⓒ2008 IEEE. 280

munication network. KEPCO has investigated the AMR
system based on PLC technology to check load manage auto-
matically and provide value added service intellectually.
In order to secure technology for commercialization and ba-
sis for new business, KEPCO has applied its own technology
(accumulated through R&D and field test), to various fields.
Currently, KEPCO operates 1st pilot project that provides
services such as AMR, Power Value Added Services, and
Internet, to about 15 hundred households in Daejeon and Daegu
areas. It mainly consists of detached, town houses and apart-
ments. Because the PLC channel in the detached and the town
houses are poorer than that in the apartments. We will operate
2nd pilot project to 5,000 household until 2007 year. Further-
more, KEPCO has planned to replace all analog meter by a
digital meter by 2015 year.

A study on AMR system related to gas is also proceeding

since 2004 for precise meter reading Independent of tempera-
ture and pressure. Gas utility adopted various communication
technologies like RS485, CDMA at the beginning of this pro-
ject. Recently, Gas utility has investigated AMR system based
on fixed RF network. Gas utility has planned to deploy 5,880
thousand gas meter by 2015.

However, it is hard to guarantee interoperability and com-

B. Water and Gas
Water utility has been moving forward with plans to con-
struct AMR system to decrease of water loss since 2001. Water
utility adopted various communication technologies such as
PSTN, packet, CDMA at the beginning of this project. Recently,
water utility has investigated on AMR system based on CDMA
technology.
patibility between metering devices because current AMR
system related to Water and Gas was developed by the manu-
facturer which supplies the devices and tools. Moreover, it
costs a lot of money to construct communication network
gathering metering information. It is hard to secure communi-
cation reliability because current AMR system related to Water
and Gas was based on RF technology which is affected by
surrounding environment.
To solve this problem, it is in progress to construct IMR
system which combines electric AMR system which is already
constructed with water and gas AMR system. Also written here,
we designed IMR system based on PLC. This system adopt
communication network composed with PLC(Power-Line

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Communication) to gathering electric information and weak B. Home Concentration Unit (HCU)
signal wireless communication to gathering water and gas The architecture of the HCU module is described in block
information. diagram of Fig. 6, which shows the various sections of the
module.
III. DESIGN OF IMR SYSTEM
In this chapter, we review the overall system of IMR and
function of each device. IMR system is made up of IMR server,
FEP (Front End Processor), DCU (Data Concentration Unit),
HCU (Home Concentration Unit), RF modem and meters.
Figure 5 represents the overall architecture of IMR system.
Water and gas metering data were transmitted to HCU by RF
communication. HCU embedded in electric meter combines
this data with electric metering data and then convert combined
data into integrated metering protocol based on DLMS (Device
Language Message Specification). DCU communicates with
each HCU and collect metering data. This data are transmitted
to IMR server through FEP. Received data were sent to each
utilities after converting to requested data format.

A photograph of the HCU module is shown in Fig. 7. The

four main sections are highlighted: MCU, RF chip, PLC chip
and the line coupling interface.
Description of the MCU, RF modem, PLC modem and the
line coupling interface is included below.
MCU is made up of microprocessors, memory and UART
interface. Microprocessor receives water/gas metering data and
electric metering data from UART and IR interface, respec-
tively. Maximum size of FRAM(Ferroelectric random access
memory) which plays the role of queuing process is 64kBytes

A. Data Concentration Unit (DCU)

DCU connected to leased line such as fiber, HFC is a device
that transmits data received from the general public commu-
nication network to power line communication. Also this
device monitors and controls HCU and PLC MODEM. We can
control the communication method in accordance with the
various environment and purpose.
DCU also gets customer and metering information from
RF modem including RF Front End and Base Band receives
HCU using integrated metering protocol based on DLMS[3].
Detail specification for DCU is described in Table I. water and gas metering data from water and gas meter, and then
transfers to MCU through UART interface.
TABLE I PLC modem including PLC Front End, PLL, ADC and DAC
SPECIFICATION FOR DATA CONCENTRATION UNIT receives energy information from MCU, and then transfers to
Item Description DCU through line coupling interface. Detail specification for
CPU 20 MIPS /18.432 MHz
RF and PLC modem is described in Table II.
OS Embedded Linux
Memory 16MB(Flash), 32MB(SDRAM), 512kB(NVRAM)
Line coupling interface selectively transmits metering data to
Interface UART, MII power line and receives PLC signal from power line. Line
Input Voltage : 85~2 265V, Current :0 ~ 1000 A coupling interface also includes protection circuit to prevent
Power Consumption 10Watt HCU module from being destroyed when a sudden increase of
electric energy develops.
TABLE II

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 Specification for Home Concentration Unit
Item Description
Frequency 424.7125~424.9500MHz
Range
Modulation 2 Level FSK
Bit Rate 1200 bps
RF
Power Con- 30 mA(TX), 22mA(RX)
Modem
sumption
Output power 10dBm (Max)
Receiver -114 dBm
Sensitivity
Frequency 2 ~ 23MHz
Range
Modulation DMT
PLC Bit Rate 24 Mbps
Modem Power Con- 190mA(RX), 235mA(TX)
sumption
Dynamic more than 70 dB
Range

If the HCU was installed in home or wall of individual house,

it is hard to supply power to HCU and maintain HCU module.
Furthermore, security problem to manipulate metering data
might come up. Therefore, we designed HCU module in order
to install it within electric meter. Electric meter with embedded
HCU module is shown in Fig. 8. HCU also includes backup
battery in order to gather metering data when power outage
occurs.

C. Design of integrated metering protocol

We designed integrated metering protocol to get water and
gas metering data at once. Water and gas meter transfers me-
tering data to RF modem connected to meter in the form of
protocol of each utility. RF modem encapsulates it in payload
of integrated frame format. RF modem sends this to HCU ac-
cording to process of integrated metering protocol. Commu-
nication flow and frame format to transmit metering data and
receive response is shown in Fig. 9.
We adopted DLMS protocol to communication between
HCU and DCU because it supports not only electric data, but
also water and gas data. HCU combines electric data with water
and gas data. Integrated metering data are sent to DCU after
converting to KEPCO’s AMR protocol based on DLMS. Frame
format for transferring integrated metering data through power
line shown in Fig. 10.
IV. FUTURE PLAN OF KEPCO
In order to secure performance of designed system and re-
liability of devices, KEPCO has applied IMR system to one
hundred households in Mokdong. We will improve perform-
ance of designed system through field test. We have plans to
standardize integrated metering protocol after finishing im-
provement of protocol.
The administrator of National Emergency Management
Agency and president of KEPCO signed a memorandum of
agreement to develop services that protect old people living
alone from disaster. This service sends emergency message to

283
police station when abnormal pattern of energy usage has oc-
curred. KEPCO have planned to utilize AMR network as
communication network for this service.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we introduced AMR technology related to
electricity, water and gas in Korea. We investigated and de-
signed the IMR system using hybrid communication network
combining PLC and RF technology. We also described archi
284
tecture of devices such as DCU, HCU and integrated metering
protocol. The designed system provides the technical basis for
the expansion of IMR business and cost reduction to construct
communication network.
REFERENCES
[1] Byungseok Park, et. al., “Adoptation of MV PLC system using DCSK
Modulation”, The 8th International Symposium on Power-Line Commu-
nications and its Applications (ISPLC2004), pp.200-205, 2004.
[2] Younghyun Kim, et. Al., “PLC Technology of KEPCO”, The 9th Inter-
national Symposium on Power-Line Communications and its Applica-
tions (ISPLC2005), pp.390-393, 2005.
[3] IEC 62056 series, “DLMS/COSEM”, 2006