Advanced metering gets smarter

Itron’s Eric Miller, Doug McCall of Sensus, WACS’ Craig Mataczynski and Ivo Steklac of Enspiria Solutions Inc. discuss where the advanced metering infrastructure industry is headed next.

NGP&E. What new technologies have been making an impact in the utilities metering industry?
EM. There are several new technologies that have allowed a new generation of products to come to market. First, and most important is solid state metering. The increased accuracy, data resolution, data storage and integration with other devices has allowed a revolution in meter capabilities, bringing functionality to residential homes formerly only available in the largest factories. The second major technology is low-cost, high-power load limiting switches. This technology allows wide deployment of remote disconnect and reconnect, thereby revolutionizing customer service and demand response. The third technology is the advent of low-cost, high bandwidth, two-way communications technologies both between the utility and the meter, and the meter to inside the home. This capability expands the range of functions performed by the meter and creates a new communications link between utilities and their customers. The combination of these new technologies allows us to reinvent the entire role of the utility meter.

DM. The communication options available for metering applications have opened the door to a wealth of information that will improve billing accuracy and efficiency, customer satisfaction and overall effectiveness of the utility business. The same communications network that reads meters wirelessly and sends demand response messages to the meter can also monitor and report on activity on the distribution side of the utility. Technology improvements in general have played a significant role in AMI features and functionality. Not only have the improvements provided for such applications as remote disconnect and memory storage at the meter, but, more importantly, have made such applications affordable. With the added benefits these new technologies bring, coupled with the lower cost, business cases and justification for AMI advancements have drastically moved in the positive direction.

CM. The push toward an open architecture for AMI technologies and meters will enable utilities to make use of devices from a greater number of manufacturers. In effect, this should act to lift the ‘legacy constraint’ and allow utilities to benefit from the greater functionality offered by a larger number of manufacturers participating in the marketplace. One outcome will be the improved ability to provide value added applications and appliances to the end consumer including in-home devices to help them manage their energy use. Another technological advance taking place is the ability of the device to collect ever-increasing amounts of information at ever decreasing intervals. This makes it possible for utilities to capture such wealth of data, which will lead to the generation of very specific customer demand information – ultimately enabling improved understanding of the impact and management of customer demand even at the residential level and paving the way for highly intelligent and accurate load forecasting.

IS. Solid-state electricity meters have made the largest impact. These meters enable integration of communications for AMI at lower price points than we were able to achieve retrofitting electromechanical meters. Second, communications technologies have improved dramatically, driven by the ever-expanding worldwide market for data and voice communications. Third, we are seeing advances in data processing, management and analytics with the emergence of meter data management (MDM) systems. These are critical systems to the achievement of enterprise benefits for AMI because they provide the means to manage the meter data lifecycle and provide this information to existing utility operational systems that do not have native support for meter data. Finally, we are also at the cusp of new capabilities to bridge the AMI data into the energy consumer’s home or premise via advances in home area networking, as well to other intelligent devices managing the reliability of the distribution network via advances in smart grid technologies.

NGP&E. One of the biggest challenges associated with smart meter technologies is ensuring that the information collected is communicated reliably and securely. What are your thoughts on how best to address this issue?
EM. It is absolutely critical that information about customers and their energy consumption, control signals, etc. be protected and secure. Security must be built into each element of the meter, the communications, and the head end/controls software. The key elements of security involve making certain the person accessing the information is who they say they are, making sure they are authorized to access the function or data being requested, and guaranteeing that people are only able to access the system at the points intended. Fortunately, internet commerce has given us many successful models (and risks to avoid), so there is no need to start from scratch.

DM. AMI providers are acutely aware that meter reads, customer data and telemetry data is highly confidential, and extend every effort to ensure the protection and integrity of that data. For the protection of customer meter-read data, all meter data can be encrypted at the meter and should remain encrypted throughout the entire communications path until it is inserted into the utility database, safely inside the utility customer firewall. Another security technique is the separation of customer data from network telemetry. This separation ensures that customer data is directed to the utility database, and network telemetry and housekeeping data is directed to the network operations database. Personal customer data, such as names and street addresses, are never mixed into the network operations database, ensuring that utilities control the access to information that can personally identify customers. Accuracy of meter reads is paramount to any AMI business case. Therefore, AMI technology that executes acknowledgement technology through the two-way capability is becoming a hard and fast requirement for utilities.

CM. Reliability of the system is the cornerstone to providing quality billing data as well as quality data to drive many other business functions. The consistency of data is becoming increasingly important such that data used for billing must be the same data used for customer presentment and load research and for every other function. This consistency guarantees a common understanding of the information and a high degree of confidence throughout the enterprise and down to the end consumer. This confidence is of huge value and can be achieved by implementing an MDM system. If there is any doubt about the need for a high performance, advanced MDM it will soon dissipate as nearly all aspects of a utility’s business will be touched by AMI and the need to access continually actionable information which can only be provided with an MDM implementation.

IS. One of the biggest challenges to reliable and secure information collection is technology. As mentioned previously we have better communications technologies within the price range of AMI, but these are as yet unproven, and hard to deploy without the risk of obsolescence if requirements specifications continue to evolve rapidly. A secondary challenge is standards. With price decreases in data communications technologies, this industry is now faced with a variety of new standards – including many open standards coming from telecommunications and internet networking. No utility currently has the experience of managing multi-million point IP networks. Thus, while promising, careful consideration of the long-term impact of these choices needs to be understood. Finally, evolution of demand response designs has brought about requirements to provide AMI and complementary information into the home or premise. These evolving requirements pose both technology and standards challenges. Home area network technologies such as ZigBee, Home Plug, CEBus and a multitude of others are in various stages of evolution; provide little to no interoperability; and have so little adoption that there is no de facto standard.

NGP&E. Utilities are seeking information and services in AMI communications systems that go beyond the meter. What do such features and services entail, and what potential do they have to revolutionize the way energy is consumed and distributed?
EM. AMI will enable two primary classes of capability: remote connect/disconnect, and communications beyond the meter. Disconnect allows customers to start and stop service much more quickly and easily, simplifies the deployment of prepaid energy services, and reduces losses due to administrative or fraud based unbilled energy. Communications into the home will open up a whole new range of capabilities that we are only beginning to imagine. Currently remote control of demand response devices, such as thermostats, pool pumps and hot water heaters are already coming to market. In-home displays of various kinds will provide customers with real-time information on their energy consumption and its impacts to bills, climate change, etc. In the future, ordinary appliances will be pre-wired to communicate with the grid, changing the very definition of the boundaries of the grid as we know it today.

DM. First, the AMI infrastructure must be capable of incorporating existing aspects of the utility’s transmission and distribution assets. For example, the utility should have the option out-of-the-box to incorporate fault circuit indicators and other distribution equipment. Distribution automation is an initiative that has traditionally been pursued independent of AMR or AMI, but today’s trend is to integrate that effort with the AMI initiative. Second, the infrastructure that is established must be flexible, allowing for future applications to be incorporated without having to establish a redundant network. The recent push towards a ZigBee gateway in the home is a good example of a new application arising that the AMI infrastructure should be capable of supporting.

CM. Historically utilities have been focused primarily on reliability of the grid (power plant efficiency and availability, customer outage frequency and duration, etc.). Utilities are just now beginning to realize how much information they may have that can help them improve their customer’s position beyond the focus on physical reliability measures. By improving the quality of information regarding customer peak usage, utilities can potentially improve their load forecasting, thereby reducing both the cost and risk associated with running short of capacity. Assisting customers in becoming time-based usage aware, and by providing customers with information that gives proper feedback on usage, cost and other ‘value related’ attributes (emissions, for example) the customer can directly see their impact on the grid which will affect their behavior and result in a higher level of customer satisfaction. By enabling a pathway to home area network technologies that include in home displays, thermostat controls, and real-time pricing signals, consumers will be empowered to take an active role in demand response programs. With the AMI infrastructure in place it allows widespread utilization of in home energy management systems that will extend the degree of automation in all homes increasing the adoption and effectiveness of demand response programs.

IS. Demand response envisions the AMI network publishing consumption and rate information into the home or premise, where energy management devices, subscribing to this information, can take action according to preset comfort or economic utility versus price relationships. Load control envisions the AMI network carrying load control signals into the home or premise to achieve load shedding for economic dispatch or demand response. At some time in the future we can envision these same networks tying directly to the major energy consuming devices within the home or premise to negotiate their consumption in a more complex fashion to not only optimize comfort or economic utility, but equally to minimize emissions and lower our overall carbon footprint. Upstream on the distribution grid this same consumption information can be used to improve reliability and stability of the distribution network. For example today we can improve power factor correction and voltage support based real-time end-use data from AMI meters, and tomorrow we may be able to improve reliability via automated switching based on predicated or negotiated loads.

NGP&E. Fixed-base radio frequency AMI communications systems include frequencies that are shared, primary, licensed or unlicensed. What differences can a utility expect in range, performance and security with each of these?
EM. There are no universal answers to this question. Each system has its own strengths and weaknesses based on the frequency, type of radio protocols used, power levels and topology. Thus far the factors just listed have been more critical to determining performance than whether the license is shared or licensed. In addition, the continued evolution of uses by other sectors has made concrete predictions difficult. In general, we do not foresee major issues on any of these frequency bands as long as the radios are intelligent enough to handle localized interference in real time.

DM. Today, most frequencies available, licensed and unlicensed are sufficient for the requirements of AMI. Business cases for AMI are built out as long as 20 years, and with such an enormous investment, risk is something taken very seriously. Accordingly, utilities are taking every step possible to mitigate their risk. One such way is to pursue a primary-use licensed RF system, ensuring a communication right-of-way throughout the 20-year life assumption. By implementing an RF system utilizing a licensed frequency, the utility receives an ironclad guarantee backed by the FCC that the communication path will be free of interference. The FCC is bound by law to take action against frequency interferers in licensed radio spectrum, and dedicated spectrum can be further protected through a variety of legal methods. In cities where dedicated systems are currently deployed, in-band interference has not been detected and noise floors are measured at near theoretical low-limits. In one market, a 1000-Watt paging network is operating in a band immediately adjacent to a dedicated fixed base frequency with no impact on the system range or performance. Possibly of even more significance is the advantage of higher power (greater than 1.5W) that radios are permitted to transmit in a licensed frequency. This level of power adds greatly to the range of the system, reducing cost.

CM. It would seem that anytime you share frequencies with a large number of other users, it is likely that limitation on range would be experienced as well as a greater number of instances where interference and congestion affects the ability to communicate effectively. This would necessarily imply that there would be greater instances of incomplete or missing transmissions, lost data, etc. In addition to requiring a higher density of collection and relay devices, it may become necessary to plan as much of the communication as possible during hours of non-peak usage on the system. This becomes a potential conflict with the normal timeframe allowed for the validation and other functions associated with data management. This may affect normal workflows associated with billing and other functions. Again, an MDM with solid validation, estimation and editing (VEE) capability becomes supremely important under these circumstances. With the adoption of standard-based unlicensed communication protocols security will be a core area of focus especially for in home devices. The provisioning and authorizations of these devices will need to undergo a great degree of security testing and scrutiny.

IS. Licensed frequencies (primary of shared) typically allow higher power communications than that which is permitted in unlicensed frequencies, which typically equates to an increase in range. However, licensed frequencies also typically represent expensive real estate, and as such, in the AMI space companies utilizing licensed frequencies tend to optimize these costs by utilizing lower carrier frequencies or narrower channels, which typically equates to a decrease in communications bandwidth and raw data rates. Thus an increase in range may come at some reduction in performance and vice versa for licensed versus unlicensed communications systems. Security has little to no relevance with respect to licensed versus unlicensed communications systems. The nature of the protocol, and the security provisions within it, drives the level of security within the communications system.

NGP&E. What are the key items to look for in an AMI system to ensure that it will perform well with the lowest possible risk?
EM. The key features from a risk and performance standpoint are: the maturity of the underlying metering platform-no AMI system will perform well on top of an unreliable meter. Field experience operating at scale in a real world environment. Bandwidth sufficient to handle tomorrow’s as well as today’s applications. Full remote firmware updates-can the meter capabilities be fully updated to handle new use cases, or resolve field issues without revisiting the meter. Open standards based protocols-do all elements of the system use open standards that will be around, that are supported by multiple technologies and suppliers, and that will be extended by the industry over time to adapt to new requirements. Finally, is the system provided by a reliable supplier with a proven background in utility metering that can guarantee long term support of the system?

DM. The utility customer must seek a successful design; one that is engineered to meet the highest specification and that has been field tested and proven. Key components of a successful two-way fixed base system are simple network design with the fewest possible components, range, reliability, transmitter power, disaster recovery capability and scalability. The more moving parts a system has, the greater the risk for failure. Going back to the concept of business cases based on up to 20 years of life expectancy, risk is something all utilities are concerned with. By identifying three concepts; security, reliability and flexibility, utilities can mitigate that risk moving forward.

CM. The answer to this depends, to a degree on what the utility is seeking to gain from their AMI installation. In addition to the scalability of AMI systems, the services the core functionality exposed to the enterprise by the AMI head-end must be closely examined. AMI systems with an open standard based architecture will prevail. Two-way communications will be required. The ability of the devices to receive instructions for load management purposes; be able to perform system diagnostics in order to assist with outage determination; or simply to do an intermittent read related to a move in/out (or for theft purposes) all speak to the need for two-way communications. The ability to collect interval data down to very fine increments, even on the residential level is key. Related to this, then, it becomes necessary to have a proven MDM solution that is able to process this data very rapidly, turn this data into useful information; and then use it to respond to customer questions or to effect changes in customer behavior. As with many things in today’s I/T environment, efficiency in the way the software handles data is as important as being able to apply more hardware.

IS. A benefits-driven approach matches the functional and performance requirements of an AMI system to quantified AMI-based business benefits. Choosing a system that delivers these requirements within a viable business case goes a long way toward mitigating the financial risk of an AMI system. Once a viable business case is within reach, the next greatest risk is based on delivery or implementation of the system within an acceptable timeframe and with the functionality and performance required to achieve the quantified AMI benefits. Choosing product and service vendors with the necessary experience and expertise to ensure a successful implementation can help mitigate this risk. The final risk is ensuring the system survives for the life required by the business case. Premature failure, obsolescence or an inability for the vendor(s) to support the system over its required life all contribute to this risk. Judicious technology selection, validation and long-term product warranties can mitigate the premature failure risk; scalability, configurability and/or upgradeability of the system can mitigate obsolescence; and training, along with multiple sourcing of products and services, can mitigate the lifetime support risk.