PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS FOR A RELIABLE SM
VIPIN KUMAR MISHRA
CAPITAL POWER SYSTEMS LTD
ABSTRACT
Let me bring your attention to a very important
matter. As a result of a regular focus on the smart
meters in India, we now have one national
standard bidding document SBD (AMISP) for
implementing end to end metering solution.
The guarantee period has been extended, from 5
years to 10 years & a performance even beyond
that timeline is required.
So far, we still have to gain a lot more experience
than we current have for mass deployment and a
10 year performance of the smart meter with latest
communication technologies 4G/NBIOT/RF/PLC
etc.
The Meter Industry does have some historical
data and reasons for possible over/under
performance of certain conventional static energy
meters at consumer premises.
This paper highlights the updates required in
performance parameters and the current
challenges in adopting the accelerated ways to
ensure a long life span for smart energy meters.
It also covers various aspects of performance
parameters through updating requirements,
accelerated testing & proposed changes in the
standards. The base objective of this paper is to
attain a higher reliability index after SM
deployment replacing all existing non-SM.
1 INTRODUCTION
After the energy meters standard was evolved, we
have transitioned from IS: 13010 to IS: 13779, to
finally IS: 16444 series of standard. The new
requirements were added for smart functionalities,
but previous requirements of NSM were not
deleted or updated in few of the areas. Hence in
those few areas the test parameters are yet to be
updated, especially for environmental & other test
requirements of the standards.
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During the last couple of years, Smart meters'
horizons have widened and spread across. New
ways have been developed for meeting the
standards/utility requirements.
The cut offs values and thresholds was put into
practice for tamper requirements & other areas.
These practices were crucial for the growth of for
smart metering journey in India. The smart feature
connect- disconnect relay & communication
changed the basic thought of old metering
practices and requirements from the standards.
The smart meter shall have tamper identification
as per given threshold and the load shall be simply
disconnected under the event from majority of
tamper like neutral missing, magnets, neutral
disturbance & other tampers. A question arises,
Why does a smart meter need to be involved in
evaluating the tampers in line with any old method
developed for non-smart meters as per the
standard & also for other requirements? Why a
consumer shall be allowed the energy from a
smart meters if he is tampering it by any means?
Why should the relay be silent for that duration?
Another question, why is the starting test
conducted for a duration between two pulses
when HR register is there? A short duration of 30-
40 seconds is enough for starting test (MRCT) in
place of 4 to 10 minutes, similarly for no load tests,
5 minutes are enough.
The Designers compromise on the robustness of
the design from utility TS excessive requirements,
also in some cases, few of these requirements
conflict with each other and then more hardware
and logics are implemented to achieve the same.
As a consequence, the reliability index has a
tendency to go low which is not in line with the
smart meter deployment base objectives. New
problems are never tackled using old standard
solutions. Our focus shall be more on the
performance testing parameters to comply with
the most important issue which is smart meter’s
increased life span requirements.

From performance parameters point of view,

focus shall be on stress, load, endurance,
scalability, spikes & volume testing parameters
ensuring long term reliability and a performance at
all levels (material, components, display,
connect/disconnect device, main board, Com
technology & its update 4G-5G, com module, IHD
etc.).
Accelerated aging test ensures the outcome for
performance evaluation. Generally meters at
consumer place are experiencing electrical
stresses in the form of power on-off, switching
transients, load jerks, load variation (value &
type), extremely low & high voltage, high- low and
damped conditions of temperature and humidity.
In the next sections of the paper we will take up
one by one exploring the possibilities for
performance parameters that ensures the better
reliability index for smart meters.
2 Objectives of reviewing performance
parameters:-
To get excellent performance data in advance
from New Hardware, Software & Technology.
The impact of failure may be huge & unpredicted
due to technology transition. Extensive reliability
testing is required to meet the current Smart
metering deployment Challenge. Updated
validation of reliability test cases is also required
at product, components & communication level to
get the performance data. Proactive action needs
to be taken to avoid huge loss/pain of all
stakeholders.
Broadly it is found that a product without burn in
test has different life cycle behavior than a product
deployed after burn in tests as shown in the
graphs.
The test techniques are based on simulating
conditions that exceed normal operating
conditions by a considerable margin. Accelerated
aging can validate in around e.g. 350 hours, the
equivalent of 36,500 system hours, with a 95%
reliability confidence level.
3 Reasons for Consideration:-
Hardware related issues are more difficult and
take a much longer time to resolve.
Simultaneously they cannot be upgraded remotely
like software-related solutions can.
The existing type testing system is derived from
IS: 13779 & IS: 15884 and updated as IS: 16444.
This derived & updated tests from the old
technology meters definitely complies the
functional requirements & overall testing, but in
changed scenario & at performance scale it acts
like a medical certificate of current fitness for the
smart meters.
Life cycle tests for Hardware & Software shall be
performed on Smart Meters to increase reliability
in the real sense, additionally meters shall be
capable of identifying the problem domain from
Metering, Sever, Module, or Service Provider.
SM technology shall be simple for tampers,
meeting the prime objective of 100% billing. Smart
function like relay shall disconnect under all
tamper conditions, which shall make functions
easy using the principle of smart technology
usage.

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3 Performance functions
The performance of a product depends upon the
performance of every sub component, few of
which can be listed as
Performance of Hardware - Metering function,
relay, Communication Module, Casing material,
Meter Display, IHD etc
Performance of Software/Firmware - Metering
features, data register, real-time, rollover tests
through time configuration and bidirectional
communication i.e. push and pull feature etc.
Performance of Communication - meter
communication capability, modem service
provider, network reliability, HES & MDMS etc.
Performance of various thresholds, logic, and
firmware upgrade feature, etc.
Performance of Connection disconnection via
HES & local-overload etc.
Performance of various networks technologies &
cloud services. 5G/4G/NBIOT/RF/PLC etc and
supported by prompt Communication between all
stakeholders Manufacturers, Utility, Network
Service Providers and test labs etc.
4. Intended Conditions:-
The Smart meter has to perform in following
intended conditions at consumer premises.
Power ON-OFF, load variation, Load type etc
Electrical Surges (Switching & Impulse),
Extremely Low & High Voltages, Extreme weather
condition like rain, snow fall, fog, storm, clouds,
UV radiation, temperature etc. Dust humidity and
damped conditions, Low signal network for
communication, Type of support by network
providers in case of no/low signal.
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5. Performance Parameters/Tests:-
There are a series of performance tests that can
ensure the performance of the smart meters.
Stress Test can be done e.g. (85/85 test) for the
duration 350 hours or 75/75 test for 500 hours to
ensure the performance of electronics used in
Smart meter. Highly Accelerated Life cycle testing
(HALT) components, Material & finished product
level. Compliance to these test can be assured at
design level.
Electrical Endurance test /Long-term testing for
Service Switch shall be ensured. A minimum 10
years data rollover tests ensuring product life
cycle for display, billing, tamper daily and block
load profile for the extended duration. It is
important to do via custom-made automatic test
tools keeping in view the long guarantee period of
the meters.
Environmental tests shall be conducted with
increased time cycle from that is recommended in
Indian Standard e.g. proposed value for dry heat
and cold test shall be at least 100 hours in place
of recommended 72 hours (around 30% more).
For damp heat cycle test no of cycles shall be
increased to 10 from 6.
Power Cycling Test at supply voltage (with a sets
of on-off configurable proposed value are 10
second off 1 minute ON & vice versa with load
change at varying voltages from 120 volts to 20%
higher of supply voltage) for 15 days. Post testing
check for functionality, RTC, cumulative energy,
and compliance to no data corruption etc.
Weather Simulation Tests. The environmental
chambers can also be programed as per the
annual weather parameter for temperature &
humidity of the place where meters are planned to
be deployed, eg parameters of Delhi is shown in
figure.

. per CBIP has played an important role but for SM
A clearly defined value for cut-off Voltage - for
metering with or without communication function
shall be fixed. Also a minimum cut off CSQ at
which meter can be downloaded & send push data
can be ensured via a closed metal box approach
which reduces the signal strength if closed.
Test data from a complete solution of smart meter,
HES, MDM in worst case scenario at lowest
CSQ/DBM threshold value (under which meter
has to perform) shall be ensured. For a better
communication performance, installation area
guidelines shall be framed and executed to get
minimum RSSI Level. That means meters shall
not be installed in a area like 2nd basement of
multistory buildings or at a place where there is a
low probability of signal availability.
6 Conclusion
Adoption of new technology is always based upon
the experience of old technologies. But being a
big technological change, deployment of Smart
Meter without adequate reliability testing may
result in mass failure and a huge loss to all
stakeholders involved.
Some new performance tests should be added to
the metering standards, and at the same time
some excess tests should be deleted from the
standards & requirement specifications to save
the wastage of money and effort for e.g. MRCT &
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No Load Test shall be updated using HR register.
No need to mention that still SM specification
comes with >60 tamper conditions sketch for a SM
single phase (which really doesn’t require at all for
SM). Similarly other tests can also be
removed/updated on similar lines. Another
example is that for old static NSM magnet tests as
disconnection switch can cut the load under the
event of magnet application by consumers. It’s the
time to move on to tackle tampers with smart
features, hence a close review and a continuous
relook is needed upon the smart metering
standards and technical specifications coming out
from central and state regulatory bodies..
We should also avoid the frequent changes that
affect the reliability & performance data of Smart
metering solutions. A minimum voltage at field
shall be ensured by utility let say 120-144 (phase
to neutral) volts for better performance. Still TS
requirement mentions about 96/100 volts stuff etc.
Such extreme low voltage condition shall be
improved at Discom’s level and let the smart meter
function for smart features to get an overall
performance. .
A Real smart meter must be a simply operative
and technically updated energy metering,
controlling and reporting equipment with an
excellent 10 years+ performance timeline. Smart
product meeting are Apple products, Tesla
products, and to quote ancient Pushpak form
Ravana.
7 Abbreviation:-
MRCT- Minimum running current test
IHD-In home display
SM- Smart meter
CSQ- Cellular Signal Quality
RSSI- Received signal strength indicator
DBM- Decibels per milli-watt
IPXY- Dust and moisture general indicator
TS-Technical specification
NSM-Non smart meters
Bio data of Authors along with Photographs

Author’s Name : VIPIN KUMAR MISHRA

Name of Organization: CAPITAL POWER SYSTEMS LTD

Cell Ph. No.: 8800098132

E-mail id : Vipin.mishra@capitalpowers.com
A 1992 electrical engineering graduate Mr. Mishra has around 3
decades experience from the energy metering Industry. He started
his career with HPL India Ltd.’s switchgear division, then served for
Brief Experience (Limited to 50
metering industry and currently leading the Capital’s technical
Words):
activities from past 25 years. Mr. Mishra is a senior member of
IEEMA Metering Division, Imtef and OC members of MI-22.
Currently he is focusing on validation & reliability of Smart Meters.

Latest passport size photograph

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