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Smart metering aims to reduce energy
consumption and costs, and it brings
together a range of disciplines and
expertise. It is a global trend where
governments, regional regulatory
bodies, those in the energy/utilities
sectors, system integrators, design
houses and original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) are involved in
worldwide deployments of telemetry
infrastructure. This is used by utilities
in residential, commercial and
industrial scenarios.
Rapid growth of smart
metering
The smart metering trend started in
the electricity industry, initially with
traditional walk-by Automated Meter
Reading (AMR). This has evolved into
the rapidly expanding wider practice
of Advanced Metering Infrastructure
(AMI), which can enable features such
as dynamic, time-of-use price plans.
Smart metering now extends to gas
and water, distribution automation
and new areas of telemetry, such as
remote sub-monitoring of Home Area
Network (HAN) devices, including
Programmable Control Thermostats
(PCTs).
The overall smart metering trend is
primarily made possible by innovation
in communication technology.
The benefits of smart metering for both
consumers and utilities companies are
many: automated billing, profiling
of end-user usage data, revenue
protection and a reduction in meter-
tampering-related fraud. Innovation
is also enabling new, industry-specific
features that are transforming the full
metering market value chain.
The benefits of smart
metering
For example, smart metering
deployments are the building blocks
used by the electricity industry to
implement outage management or
grid voltage optimisation. Water
companies are using them to enhance
network leakage control, while in
the gas sector, they’re enabling the
introduction of new methods of
distribution.
All these technology enhancements
improve the allocation of energy,
reduce resource wastage and enable
more accurate control of network
distribution. This enables utilities
to reduce their operational costs;
these savings can be passed on to
Innovation in cellular communications: making
smart meters even smarter
Diego Grassi, u-blox
Wireless Special Edition
62 l New-Tech Magazine Europe