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A Comprehensive Review of Smart Energy
Meters in Intelligent Energy Networks
Qie Sun, Hailong Li, Zhanyu Ma, Chao Wang, Javier Campillo, Qi Zhang, Fredrik Wallin, Jun Guo
 electricity grid with the convergence of electricity system
Abstract—The significant increase in energy consumption and
the rapid development of renewable energy, such as solar power
and wind power, have brought huge challenges to energy security
and the environment, which, in the meantime, stimulate the
development of energy networks towards a more intelligent
direction. Smart meters are the most fundamental components in
the intelligent energy networks. In addition to measuring energy
flows, smart energy meters can exchange the information on
energy consumption and the status of energy networks between
utility companies and consumers. Furthermore, smart energy
meters can also be used to monitor and to control home appliances
and other devices according to the individual consumer’s
instruction. This paper systematically reviews the development
and deployment of smart energy meters, including smart
electricity meters, smart heat meters, and smart gas meters. By
examining various functions and applications of smart energy
meters, as well as associated benefits and costs, this paper provides
insights and guidelines regarding the future development of smart
meters.
Index Terms—Intelligent energy networks (IENs), smart grid,
district heating network, natural gas (NG) network, smart meter,
smart heat meter, smart gas meter
I. INTRODUCTION
M ODERN economy is powered by energy. While the
global GDP increased from 16254 billion US dollar
(USD) to 54588 billion USD in the period 1971-2012, the
primary energy consumption increased from 231440 peta joules
(PJ) to 559818 PJ in the same period [1]. The significant
increase in energy consumption brings a lot of challenges to
energy security and the environment [2]. Pursuing higher
energy efficiency has been considered as an essential way to
tackle the challenges and has stimulated the development of
intelligent energy networks (IENs). IENs are used in this paper
to represent a general concept, which covers smart electricity
grids, smart district heating (DH) networks, and smart natural
gas (NG) systems. Smart grids refer to the next-generation
Submitted April 15, 2015. This work was partially supported by Project
ZR2014EEM025 supported by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong
Province, China 973 Program 2013CB228305, China National Nature Science
Foundation of China (NSFC) Grant Nos. 61402047, 61511130081 and
61273217.
Q. Sun is with Institute of Thermal Science and Technology, Shandong
University, China (e-mail: qie@sdu.edu.cn).
H. Li (corresponding author) is with Future Energy Center, Mälardalen
University, Sweden (e-mail: lihailong@gmail.com).
Z. Ma (corresponding author) is with Pattern Recognition and Intelligent
System Lab., Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China (e-
mail: mazhanyu@bupt.edu.cn).
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1
engineering and information and communication technology
(ICT) [3]. Similarly, smart DH networks and smart NG
networks also refer to the integration of ICT with conventional
DH networks and NG systems.
The IENs have been developed very fast in recent years in
order to meet the increasing energy demand in a robust, flexible,
environmental friendly, and cost effective way [4]. Smart
energy meters, which are used to monitor or even to control
home appliances at consumers’ premises, are the most
fundamental components in IENs. Compared to conventional
energy meters, smart energy meters cannot only measure
energy consumption, but also exchange the information on
energy consumption and operation status between utility
companies and consumers. In other words, two-way
communications between meters and other devices, and
between meters and meters are the most important feature of
smart energy meters in IENs [5]. The benefits brought by two-
way communications are expected to be threefold [6]:
 By knowing information regarding energy usage and
prices, consumers can manage their activities and
energy expenditures accordingly;
 Utilities/service providers can maintain system
security and reduce costs through a series of operating
activities, including remote reading, configuration,
disconnection/reconnection, diagnostics, outage
identification, resolution of service problems, and load
control;
 The rollout of smart energy meters enables more
efficient energy production and consumption, which
help to reduce redundant capacity of generation and
distribution and thus mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions.
In Europe, there are regulations that mandate the installation
of smart meters, e.g. European Directive 2006/32/EC on Energy
End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services requires smart meters
to be installed in electricity and gas networks according to a pre-
C. Wang is with School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Tongji
University, China (e-mail: chaowang@tongji.edu.cn).
J. Campillo is with Future Energy Center, Mälardalen University, Sweden
(e-mail: javier.campillo@mdh.se).
Qi Zhang is with Academy of Chinese Energy Strategy, China University of
Petroleum-Beijing
F. Wallin is with Future Energy Center, Mälardalen University, Sweden (e-
mail: fredrik.wallin@mdh.se).
J. Guo is with Pattern Recognition and Intelligent System Lab., Beijing
University of Posts and Telecommunications, China (e-mail:
guojun@bupt.edu.cn).
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defined agenda [7]. Due to the rapid development of IENs and knowledge gaps to be bridged in order to promote the
increasingly strict requirements on metering and transparent development include:
information, smart metering technologies have been broadly  There is a lack of systematic assessment about what
applied in many European countries and the United States; and benefits can be obtained through the application of
a great number of technical progresses have been achieved. For smart energy meters. Existing studies mainly focused
example, since 2002, a total of 459 smart grid projects have on the technical details of various functions, some of
been launched in the 28 EU Member States (EU-28), plus which, however, may not be applicable or necessary in
Switzerland and Norway [8]. the current stage. The desired functions should be
While a great number of studies have explored IENs, examined from the demand side and according to the
especially smart electricity grids, only a few of them shed light corresponding benefit.
on smart energy meters [4, 9-13]. Farhangi discussed the  The Expert Group 4 of the EU Commission Task
functions of smart electricity meters from the perspective of the Force for Smart Grids suggested that the development
development of electricity grid [4]. Depuru et al. did a of intelligent electricity, gas, heating and cooling
comprehensive review on the features and technologies that can networks should be linked to each other, i.e., to
be integrated with a smart electricity meter [9]. They outlined achieve so-called interoperation, which would
various features and challenges involved in design, deployment, promote the overall energy efficiency to a higher level
utilization, and maintenance of smart electricity grids and and further create more reliable, resilient and
addressed the need for implementing smart meters especially in sustainable energy networks [25]. Given that many
developing countries. Milam and Kumar Venayagamoorthy different types of smart energy meters, including
reported the deployment of smart electricity meters in the US electricity meters, heat meters, and gas meters, are
and analyzed related benefits and obstacles [13]. In contrast, employed in practice, it is important to understand
much fewer studies concentrated on heat and gas meters, their available features and future development in
especially the development of smart ones. Skagestad and order to achieve the interoperation of electricity,
Mildenstein briefly reviewed the development of heat meters, heating and gas systems. However, there has not been
while they did not discuss about smart heat meters [14]. much information in this regard, especially about heat
However, in the past decades, the DH companies have meters and gas meters.
dedicated to the development of smart metering technologies, Therefore, this paper aims to systematically review the
and the experience from the electricity system provides development of smart energy meters, which consists of the
valuable knowledge [14, 15]. Cascetta and Vigo reviewed the following specific objectives:
development of domestic gas meters, focusing mainly on  to review the present development and deployment of
flexible and convenient techniques for measuring gas flow rate smart energy meters
[16]. Marcogaz and Facogaz pointed out that there had not been  to analyze the main functions and applications of
a commonly accepted definition of smart gas meters [17]. The smart energy meters
traditional technology for residential gas meters has been  to compare the development of smart heat and gas
available for over 150 years, while many improvements to this meters with smart electricity meters in order to
technology were made mainly on capacity, production identify the knowledge gap and to provide suggestions
materials and capability of meters [17]. on their development
Notwithstanding some of the features of DH and NG  to discuss the possibility and requirements for
networks being different from those of the electricity grid, the interoperation of various energy networks.
electric power industry shows the greatest ambition to develop The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section
and deploy smart meters in order to increase benefits and to II introduces the basics of the main types of smart energy meters.
mitigate energy consumption and GHG emissions. The development and deployment of smart energy meters are
Nevertheless, the gas and heating industries appeared to be less reviewed in Section III and Section IV respectively. Section V
interested in developing IENs. For example, the heating sector examines the main functions and applications of smart energy
in many places was not even included in smart metering meters and Section VI discusses the benefits and costs
implementation programs in an early stage [18, 19]. However, associated with smart energy meters. Section VII summarizes
there is a huge and urgent requirement to save energy in the the main findings and provides suggestions on the development
heating sector by improving energy efficiency of heat supply of smart meters.
and adopting effective load management on the demand side
[20, 21], which implies a great potential for the implementation II. MAIN TYPES OF ELECTRICITY, HEAT AND GAS METERS
of smart energy meters [15]. Although lagging behind the
development of electricity meters, two-way communication, The main types of electricity, heat, and gas meters, as well as
which is the most fundamental function of smart electricity their respective advantages and disadvantages are shown in
meters, has already been realized in heat meters [22-24]. Table I.
Looking over existing studies on smart energy meters, it was The most common type of electricity meters is the
found that the technologies about smart metering are likely to electromechanical meter. The electromechanical meter
advance substantially in the future [4, 9-19, 22-24]. However, measures electricity flows by counting the revolutions of an

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TABLE I
TYPES OF ELECTRICITY, HEAT AND GAS METERS
Type of Meter Advantages Disadvantages
 Manually reading
 Electricity consumed by current coil is also
Electro-mechanical  Reliable measurement
registered on the meter
 Creep phenomenon
Electricity
 Measure more parameters besides energy
Meter
consumption  Complex communication infrastructure required
Electronic  LCD/LED display  Periodic calibration routines are required
 Two-way communication  Security issues with unencrypted communication
 Other functions of smart control
 Suitable for small- (single jet) and medium-
Impeller meter  Sensitive to impurities
size (multi-jet) buildings
Dynamic
 High start-up threshold
meter
Heat Meter Turbine meter  Suitable for large flows  Rapid wearing of bearings at high loads and/or in
dirty water
Magnetic induction  Accurate  Initial costs are higher than dynamic meters
Static meter
Ultrasonic  Accurate and cost-effective for large flows  Less accurate than magnetic meters
Diaphragm/Bellows meter  Widely adopted  Cannot handle large flows or high pressure
 Accurate  More maintenance is needed
Rotary meter  Capable of handling large flows and high  Relatively expensive for large sizes
pressure  Possible corrosion/erosion due to abrasive materials
 High accuracy and good repeatability
 Short responding time (e.g., 1ms)  Requires good flow condition
Turbine gas meter  Wide flow range  Problematic when measuring lower flow rate
 Good flexibility with associated digital  Particulates can cause line blockage
readout devices
Gas Meter  Acceptable in industrial applications,
Orifice gas meter because a) easy to field-service, and b) no  Cannot handle large flows
moving parts
 Works best in no-liquid condition
 Requires a large amount of signal processing and
 Great accuracy
Ultrasonic flow meter computation
 Wide flow range
 High turndown ratio
 Applicable to almost any dry gas
 Wide flow range
Coriolis meter  Most accurate  Requires additional elements to function
 Can infer gas flow rate in flowing condition
Source: [14, 16, 18, 26-28].
electrically conductive metal disc, which rotates at a speed Thermal energy is the product of mass flow, temperature
proportional to the power passing through the meter [26]. difference, the specific heat of mass flow, and time of duration.
Although electromechanical meters do not contain any Since hot water has replaced steam as the working fluid, a
comprehensive function, they have been adopted by the common heat meter usually consists of a flow meter, a pair of
electricity industry for a long time due to their reliability in most temperature sensors, a unit of electricity supply, a
cases. However, with incremental requirements on the control documentation system and an energy calculator, which
of supply and demand, electronic meters, which are integrated integrates the data of flow, temperature, and correction factors.
with many advanced functions, started to replace Heat meters can be divided into two major groups, dynamic
electromechanical meters. Electronic meters are usually based meters, which measure mass flows using moving parts, and
on the Digital Micro Technology (DMT) and do not rely on static meters, which do not contain any moving parts. Dynamic
moving parts. In addition, electronic meters are becoming and static meters can be further divided into more specific types,
increasingly “smarter” to help consumers and utilities to know i.e., dynamic meters can be divided into impeller meters and
the status of their electricity consumption and production, and turbine meters, and static meters include magnetic induction
even to control them. For example, electronic meters, with the meters and ultrasonic meters, as shown in Table I. In practice,
function of automatic reading, have enabled utilities to check selecting a certain type of heat meters depends on practical
electricity consumption without the need to send out a human requirements and restrictions, such as volume, temperature, and
reader. Moreover, smart electricity meters, integrated with the purity of the working fluid, requirement on accuracy and
functions of smart control, make it possible to level loads investment.
according to real-time pricing (RTP) [27, 29, 30], which will be In Europe, EU member states’ regulations on heat meters
further discussed later. An important feature of the present must be based on the measuring instruments directive (MID)
development of smart electricity meters is modularization, i.e., [32], and detailed requirements on heat meters can be found in
a meter is built as an open structure with the main functions like the Guidelines for District Heating Substations [33]. In general,
metering and communication; and the other functions can be the heat meters should comply with the metering standards
added later by connecting with additional modules [31]. regarding reliability and accuracy and developing a meter as a

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Fig. 1. Development of smart energy meters and key functions.

Source: adapted from [4, 9, 35]
complete unit is easier to meet the standard than developing it
in modules [14]. However, modularization represents an
important way to design smart meters in practice and the
metering component is usually sealed in a complete module,
which can be later connected with other modules [23, 24].
Making a smart meter an open structure and adding more
functions by connecting it with other modules can largely
facilitate the innovation and deployment of smart meters. In
addition, it is easier for modularized systems to achieve
interoperation. Different meters can use different modules to
measure energy flows while using the same module to
communicate, save and process the measured data. For example,
the Multical® series of heat meters by Kamstrup are designed in
a modularized way and customers can add different modules to
a meter to realize a number of various functions, although most
of the available modules just enhance the meter’s capacity of
data recording, set alarms and provide new ways of
communication [34].
Gas meters are normally used to measure the flow volume of
gas. Gases are more difficult to measure than liquids, because
their volumes are highly dependent on temperature and pressure.
In general, a gas meter firstly measures a defined volume of a
gas flow and then adjusts the measurement according to the
temperature and pressure [16]. Diaphragm/bellows meters are
the most common types of gas meters, which can be found in
most residential and small commercial installations. Rotary
meters are highly precision-machined instruments capable of
handling higher volumes and pressures than diaphragm meters.
Turbine gas meters determine gas volume by measuring the
speed of the gas moving through the meter. Orifice meters infer
the rate of gas flow according to the pressure difference across
a deliberately designed flow disturbance. Ultrasonic flow
meters are more complex than mechanical meters, since they
require substantial signal processing and computation
capabilities to transfer the speed of sound into that of gas
movement. A coriolis meter is usually one or more pipes with
longitudinally or axially displaced sections that are excited to
vibrate at their resonant frequency. Coriolis meters can be used
for both liquid and gas flows [16, 18, 28].
III. DEVELOPMENT OF SMART ENERGY METERS
The development of smart electricity meters and featured
functions can be seen in Figure 1. Before smart meters,
conventional electromechanical meters were the main type of
devices for measuring electricity flows. Measured data are
usually displayed on an analogue counter and have to be
manually recorded. Smart meters are electronic devices that
measure energy consumption and operate two-way
communication regarding the information of energy
consumption and billing and the status of energy networks. The
capability of operating two-way communication is the most
important feature that distinguishes conventional meters and
smart meters.
It should be noted that there is no cutting edge between
conventional and smart meters and the development of smart
meters is a progressive process, like many other technologies.

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TABLE II
LARGE DEPLOYMENT PROGRAMS OF SMART METERS IN THE WORLD
Country Type of meter No. of meters Period
Electricity meter
UK 53 million in total By the end of 2019
Gas meter
Electricity meter 35 million By 2018
France
Gas meter 11 million 2014-2020
Electricity meter 2.2 million
Ireland By 2019
Gas meter 0.6 million
Electricity meter 36 million By 2011
Italy
Gas meter 16 million 2012-2016
Electricity meter
The Netherlands 7 million in total 2012-2015
Gas meter
Spain Electricity meter 26 million By the end of 2018
Malta Electricity meter 250000 By the end of 2014
Finland Electricity meter 550000 2009-2013
Demark Heat meter 30000 By the end of 2013
Sweden Heat meter 2.4 million Since 2010
India Electricity meter 150 million 2013-2025
USA Electricity meter Over 36 million in total Since 2010
Australia (Victoria State) Electricity meter 2.5 million By the end of 2013
Electricity meter 230 million By 2015
China
Gas meter 30 million By the end of 2012
China (Tianjin) Heat meter 1.17 million By the end of October, 2012
Source: [19, 37-41].
The first generation of smart energy meters were capable of meters. However, to construct the infrastructure for smart
operating one-way communication, i.e. reporting energy metering in DH networks and NG networks may be the most
consumption back to utilities. The meters were used in the so- significant challenge at the present stage. A cost-effective
called automated meter reading (AMR) and remote meter option may be interoperation, i.e. to share the existing
reading (RMR) systems, i.e. one-way remote reading systems infrastructure for electricity grids to collect, process, save and
that allow utilities to read data over long distances [4]. After distribute information. Even so, studies have to further figure
that, utilities further invested in the advanced metering out an effective way to connect the metering system and
infrastructure (AMI) in order to stimulate demand-side information system with the physical DH and NG networks.
management, and the development of AMI was an important Nevertheless, the development of IENs relies on
step towards IENs [35]. comprehensive physical infrastructure and smart meters
Recent development in smart electricity meters, as well as in represent an important component of the infrastructure.
the infrastructure of IENs, enables the following functions [4,
9, 35]: IV. DEPLOYMENT OF SMART ENERGY METERS
 Two-way end-to-end communication; More than 50 countries are deploying or planning to deploy
 Automatic and bi-directional metering and billing smart energy meters, and some of the large deployment
customers accordingly; programs were summarized in Table II.
 Appliance monitoring and control;
A. Smart electricity meters
 Detection and diagnosis of system faults, e.g. outages;
 Data storage and management; and Member states of the EU are required to roll out smart
 Other more complicated applications, e.g. demand- metering systems with a target that 80% of consumers will have
side management, detection of electricity theft, intelligent electricity metering systems by 2020 [42].
enhancement of system security, load management According to the EURELECTRIC and the European
and emission control and development of smart urban Commission's Joint Research Centre, member states of the EU
cities. had launched over 400 smart grid projects, in which around 90
While smart metering technologies have so far been mainly projects concerned about smart metering pilots and roll-outs
employed in electricity grids, recent development has also [8]. It is estimated that over 237 million smart electricity meters
enabled heat and gas meters the functions of auto reading and will be installed across Europe by 2020, accounting for near
two-way communications [22-24]. Referring to the 70% of installed electricity meters in Europe [43]. Upgrade
development stages for electricity meters, available heat and programs will be executed across nearly all of the European
gas meters have progressed beyond the stage of AMR and come countries, and the tremendous market will drive a new wave of
into the phase of AMI (Figure 1). Although no more technical and market innovation in energy metering. According
comprehensive function has so far been integrated into heat and to a recent report from Pike Research, worldwide shipment of
gas meters, the existing technologies in smart electricity meters smart meters will peak at 131 million units per year in 2018,
have paved the way for smart heat and gas meters [17, 36]. and then gradually fall back to 114 million units per year in
There has not been any significant technical barrier that hinders 2022 [44].
the development of more advanced smart heat meters and gas However, the swift deployment in Europe is now jeopardized

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by German rejection to fast roll out of smart meters. Germany
used to lead the shipment of smart meters and its annual
shipment of smart meters was expected to reach seven million
by 2020, nearly as much as all eastern European countries
combined [45]. However, the German Ministry of Economics
announced that Germany would not be able to achieve 80%
coverage of smart electricity meters by 2020 due to unsatisfying
cost-benefit performance [46].
The United State is another large market of smart electricity
meters. Since 2010, a stimulation program with over four
billion USD aimed to install a total of 30 million smart meters.
By 2012, the overall coverage of smart meters had increased
from 8.7% to 22.9%. Although the permeation rate of smart
meter would gradually slowdown in the following years, the
total number of installed smart meter by the end of 2015 will
double the 2012 size [47]. In addition, California and Texas are
leading the deployment of smart meters in the US. A possible
reason is due to their comparatively high costs of public
services, and this may encourage people to try new technologies
to save living costs.
B. Smart heat meters
As can be seen in Table II, the deployment of smart heat
meters is far behind that of smart electricity meters. A majority
of heat meters has been installed in residential buildings, and
most of the meters can just operate one-way communication,
although the meters that can operate two-way communication
have already been available on the market. The reason for not
choosing more advanced meters was usually related to the cost
and how the cost is distributed. In addition, the deployment of
smart heat meters, similar to the deployment of smart electricity
meters, started from some large customers who were not very
sensitive about the cost. After that, the deployment has
gradually expanded to private apartments and houses.
Europe has so far been the largest market of smart heat
meters, since there are in total approximate 6000 DH networks
in European countries with an annual turnover of 25-30 billion
Euro [48]. Most of the largest deployment projects have been
implemented in Nordic countries, possibly due to the cold
winter and relatively greater concerns about sustainability. For
example, District Heating Funen, Denmark, signed a
framework agreement with Kamstrup to install 12 000 heat
meters in 2010 and to remain the possibility of further
deploying 18 000 meters in the next three years [49]. Kamstrup
integrated radio modules into the heat meters, and equipped
garbage vans with transceivers to collect data. This technology
nicely balanced the technological complexity and cost-
effectiveness, and thus gained success in practice. Swedish DH
market with a total of 2.4 million flats is also open to the well-
known manufacturers of heat meters, such as Enernet,
Kamstrup, ABB, Siemens and Actaris, who have passed the
tests by the Swedish District Heating Association and the
Swedish National Testing and Research Institute [37].
China is another big market for smart heat meters. By the end
of 2009, there had been a total of 3.98 billion m2 building area
connecting to DH systems, representing about 23 million
apartments and houses [38]. If every apartment/house is
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6
equipped with a heat meter, the total market value would reach
around 1.5 billion Euro. In China, the city of Tianjin has been
selected to demonstrate the technologies about heat metering.
By October 2012, about 1.17 million heat meters had been
installed, covering about 20% of the total area connected to DH
and these meters are normally equipped with the function of
prepayment and remote reading. Kamstrup, Landis+Gyr and
HYDROMETER are the main suppliers of the heat meters on
Chinese market.
C. Smart gas meters
At present, a total of 400 million mechanical gas meters are
in operation worldwide, and smart meters are gradually
replacing them. It is estimated that about 28.4 million smart gas
meters will be deployed in the period 2010-2016, meanwhile
the ratio of smart gas meters in total gas meters will increase
from 4.1% to 11.2% [50]. However, the growth differs across
regions worldwide. In an early phase, shipments will rise
quickly in some Western European countries due to regulatory
mandates that call for system-wide replacements of older
meters. For instance, the UK planned to replace a total of 53
million conventional gas and electricity meters with smart
meters across the country in the period 2014-2019 [39], and
Italian utilities planned to upgrade 16 million gas meters to
smart meters in the period 2012-2016 [40]. In contrast, Spain,
which has over 7 million gas users, has gone against the
deployment of smart meters. Sweden also turns down smart gas
meters because there are in total less than 40000 gas customers.
In addition, the enormous amount of investment has often
added to the concerns of utilities and the uncertainties about the
future of IENs, although the upgrading programs have proven
many merits, such as providing consumers with real-time
information on their energy consumption, communicating with
utilities and thus eliminating the uncertainties due to manual
billing. Hence, energy suppliers are sometimes allowed to
develop new and innovative payment schemes, such as pay-as-
you-go, to help to solve financial problems [39].
In the Asia-Pacific region, the deployment of smart gas
meters will increase in emerging economies, although not as
quickly as in Western Europe. In China, smart gas meters
equipped with one- or two-way communication modules are
gradually taking over the present prepayment-type of meters.
The total volume of the market increased from 3.3 million units
in 2008 to 9.3 million in 2012, with an increase rate of 30% per
annum, and the market value is expected to grow from 2.42
billion RMB in 2012 to 5.1 billion in 2015 [41].
However, in North America, the deployment of smart gas
meters will be delayed because most existing meters have
already supported one-way communication, and there has not
been enough incentive for utilities to further update to the latest
technology. For example, Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania
launched an AMR system in Eastern Pennsylvania, and around
546 000 gas meters were upgraded to new AMR-supported
devices, which can automatically send metering data to a
passing-by vehicle via radio signals. This not only saves the old
bimonthly manual meter readings, but also helps to reduce
consumers’ concerns about high bills [51].
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D. Short summary operate on batteries and frequent metering requires frequent

To summarize, the deployment of smart energy meters have battery replacement. In addition, there has not been any
been rapidly increasing worldwide. European countries, requirement for a heat or gas meter to simultaneously operate
especially the Nordic countries, are leading the development of several channels, since a building or a house is usually
smart energy meters. The US is also an active impeller in terms connected to only one network.
of smart electricity meters; while there has not been a big B. Data recording and alarming
promotion for smart heat meters. Among other Asia-Pacific
Another common function, which is directly related to
countries, China is the biggest market for smart energy meters
regular and precise metering, is to record the data and send
due to its rapid urbanization and an upcoming energy transition.
alarms accordingly. Data recording and alarming is important
Based on the experience, the economic cost and related policies
for utilities to monitor the status of energy networks and useful
are important factors that can greatly affect the deployment of
for consumers to know the details about their energy use [58].
smart meters. The situation is particularly evident for smart heat
An example of this function is the integration of pre-payment
meters.
into metering systems, which has been very popular in Chinese
residential areas and university campuses. People need to buy a
V. FUNCTIONS OF SMART ENERGY METERS
certain amount of electricity and recharge it into an IC card/key.
Based on the function of two-way communication, many Then the card can be used to “charge” the meter before
more comprehensive functions have been developed and added previously deposited electricity being used up. Such a pre-
into smart electricity meters. As a result, these improvements payment system motivates consumers to pay more attention to
greatly extend the applicability of smart electricity meters. their energy consumption. Many companies, e.g. E.ON, Vital
Some of the functions could also be applied to smart heat meters Energi and many Chinese vendors, provide a variety of energy
and gas meters and boost the deployment of smart energy meters with the function of pre-payment [59-61]. Apart from
meters correspondingly. real-time information, smart meters can also record historical
A. Regular and precise metering and accumulative data over a certain period, such as
consumption, tariff, cost, and CO2 emissions. In addition, many
Regular and precise metering is the most basic function of an
smart meters have very useful alarm functions, which can be set
energy meter. An important purpose of IENs is to reduce energy
according to the recorded data to remind consumers of their
consumption and this is dependent on regular and precise
energy use. For instance, the smart electricity meters from
information on energy supply and demand. The present
British Gas has a “traffic light” function that can warn
development of IENs usually requires smart meters to operate
customers about high electricity load [62].
metering hourly or even more frequently. For example, the
Many smart meters use an in-home display device to show
American utility PG&E offers metering systems that read
the recorded data, alarms and other information. Some display
consumption data every hour by default [52], and the electricity
devices can also be used as a controlling center to implement
meters provided by British Gas for residential use operate on a
other functions. However, a common problem of the in-home
half-an-hour interval [53]. There are also examples that
display devices is that they are costly and usually account for a
measure electricity usage in 15-minute intervals, e.g. the
large proportion of the smart meters’ total cost [63]. Many
electricity meters provided by the CenterPoint Energy and
alternative methods to display energy information have been
Oncor [54, 55].
continuously developed. For example, some utilities and
In addition, some meters have multiple channels to measure
service providers allow customers to track their energy
several energy flows at the same time, which can largely
consumption via web portals, e.g. PG&E’s customers can see
facilitate the development of distributed energy, such as private
their contemporary meter readings and historical data by
solar cells and micro wind turbines. For example, the meters
logging on to their accounts on PG&E’s website [64]. In
provided by CenterPoint Energy use a multi-channel metering
addition, the website-based system can also warn customers
technology to simultaneously measure electricity generation as
about their consumptions according to a five-level pricing
well as electricity consumption and it eliminates the need for
structure via email, phone call, or text message [64].
separately metering of generation and consumption. Customers
Comparing with electricity grids, there is no significant
can directly pay for the excessive amount of electricity
barrier to record data for heat and gas consumptions. For
consumption according to the final metering data [56].
example, the Kamstrup’s Multical® series of heat meters can
In contrast, heat and gas meters usually operate on a less
equip a number of data loggers, which ranges from 960 hours
frequent base than electricity meters, e.g. the gas meters
to 15 years with different logging intervals [34]. The alarm
implemented by PG&E operate metering once a day by default
functions in electricity meters are usually related to
[52]. Firstly, the supply and demand of heat and gas, i.e. flows
instantaneous or accumulated overloads in order to remind
of hot water and NG, are much more stable than electricity
consumers to adjust their energy consumption. However, either
flows. A relatively lower metering frequency is sufficient to
instantaneous or accumulated overloads at the end-user side
meet the requirements of DH networks [57]. Secondly, the
rarely happen in DH networks and NG networks and the
production of heat and gas usually takes a much longer time to
function of alarming has so far not been widely applied to heat
respond to adjustments and thus there is no need to operate
meters or gas meters.
metering over frequently. Thirdly, heat and gas meters normally

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C. Two-way communication
Two-way communication has been considered as the most
fundamental function of smart energy meters. Two-way
communication refers to interactive communication between
end-users and utilities/service providers, between
utilities/service providers and utilities/service providers, and
even between end-users and end-users. Smart energy meters
should contain a communication module, which is responsible
for transmitting measured data and instructions to take specific
actions [65]. In order to improve the reliability of a meter, the
communication module usually operates independently of other
functions such as metering, data recording and alarming. In this
way, losing connection to the network will not affect the
meter’s other functions and communication may continue after
the meter gets re-connected [66].
The communication function of smart energy meters can be
realized via wire or wireless connections. Communication via
wire connection can provide a larger capacity of transmission,
while maintaining higher reliability and security at the same
time. However, fiber optic-based communication usually needs
a larger investment in infrastructure than wireless
communication technologies, such as radio, M-bus and ZigBee.
Therefore, electricity line-based technologies have attracted
more and more attention. For wireless communication, different
technologies have different features in terms of transmission
distance, stability and cost (Table III). The detailed discussions
on the deployment of infrastructure, technologies and standards
to support two-way communication in IENs can be found in [4,
66-68]. In addition, a fairly new concept, Internet of Energy,
has recently gained much popularity and it refers to the specific
type of energy networks, where the Internet is used as a
communication tool [69]. The development of the Internet will
enable future IENs greater capacity of communication, which
calls for more advanced functions and broader application of
smart meters. Given the strengths and weaknesses of every
technology, an important issue in practice is to properly
combine different communication technologies, which do not
only meet the requirements of communication but also maintain
the investment cost, system reliability and security at an optimal
level [66].
Although there has so far not been any technical obstacle for
heat and gas meters to operate two-way interactive
communication, most developers chose to use the meters that
can only operate remote meter reading in order to save cost. For
example, the famous large-scale deployment of smart heat
meters by Funen and Kamstrup implements remote meter
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR COLLECTING DATA
Technology
Radio: Meter is equipped with a radio module and the data is collected
by either a walking-by meter reader on a ‘walk by’ receiver or
relayed to aerials on site for re-transmission
M-BUS: Meter is equipped with an M-BUS module and is cabled to a Fast reading, high reliability, short reading
data collection point forming a local area network
Zigbee: Meter is equipped with an Zigbee module, which can transmit Low cost, Low electricity consumption,
data over longer distances, passing data through intermediate
devices to reach more distant ones
Source: [23, 28, 70].
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Things Journal
8
readout based on garbage vans. Every heat meter has a radio
module and every garbage van is equipped with a transceiver,
which consists of a radio concentrator and a GSM modem, to
receive measured data from the meters [20].
In addition, the development of interoperation of energy
networks, i.e. electricity grids, DH networks and NG networks,
makes it possible for different types of energy meters to employ
common communication units. The entire communication
infrastructure of energy networks can be generally divided into
two parts, i.e. one part between energy meters and joint
communication units, which is also called last-mile
communication [71], and another part between joint
communication units and main networks. Different energy
networks can employ different technologies to operate last-mile
communication. The distribution networks of electricity, with
physical connection, can simultaneously be used for
communication, i.e. power line carrier (PLC) communication,
which is the main technology in smart electricity metering.
Smart heat and gas meters have to employ wireless technology
to operate last-mile communication. To achieve this purpose,
existing heat meters with a pulse output can be retrofitted with
a module of remote communication, or completely replaced by
new smart meters integrated with remote communication
modules. Various technologies, e.g. M-BUS and ZigBee, have
been tested to perform last-mile communication in different
situations [71]. When the joint communication units collect data
from different energy networks, they can communicate with the
main networks via physical connection or using wireless
technology. For example, the OMNIPOWER series smart
electricity meters from Kamstrup can be equipped with a MUC
module, which can collect metering information from heat,
cooling and water meters within the household and operate two-
way communicate with the main network using Radio Mesh
and ZigBee technology [72].
D. Appliance control
With the ability to operate two-way communication, smart
electricity meters can transmit not only measured data, but also
specific instructions to control appliances. The function of
appliance control allows consumers and utilities/service
providers to activate or deactivate a specific appliance
according to the status of the electricity grid. For example,
consumers can turn off appliances such as washing machine,
water heaters, pool pumps and air conditioners during peak
periods of consumption, when the electricity tariff is high, and
turn on home appliances during valley periods.
TABLE III
Advantages Disadvantages
Low cost Labour intensive
Cable infrastructure resulting in high
intervals, cost effective investment cost
Short range, low complexity, and low data
wireless, Collision avoidance, Large
speed
network capacity
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There have been many interesting products on the market,
such as the Circle® plug from Plugwise, the WeMo® products
from Belkin and the home automation system Synco living®
from Siemens [73-75]. The Circle® plug from Plugwise is an
intermediate plug that connects electricity socket and an
appliance plug. The Circle® plug can measure energy
consumption, stores the data, and transmits the data to a
computer using a wireless ZigBee-mesh network. The
appliance connected to a Circle can be switched on/off
wirelessly from the computer. In addition, consumers can set up
schemes on the computer and let the Circle plug work according
to the schemes [73]. The WeMo® Insight Switch works in a
similar way as the Circle® plug does, and Belkin is trying to
apply the technology of remote control into more home
appliances, e.g. light bulbs, food cookers and internet cameras.
The WeMo® products use mobile internet, rather than ZigBee
network, and consumers can control home appliances from
smartphones. In contrast, the Synco living® system from
Siemens aims to create the optimal cozy room climate by
optimizing the operation of electronic appliances, as well as
heat generation, hot water regulation, ventilation and air
conditioning control. Looking over these products, it can be
found that, with the function of appliance control and other
sophisticated functions, smart meters have been developed far
beyond conventional energy meters. Smart meters may not
“look like” conventional meters any longer, while the function
of smart metering has been integrated into various appliances.
However, companies seem not interested in producing
complicated smart meters, where many sophisticated functions
are integrated. Two important issues affecting the diversified
development of IENs are the concerns about product cost and
the strategy of making products easy-to-use [35]. It is
consumer’s choices that eventually decide the direction of
development.
The function of appliance control may also be useful for heat
meters, e.g. to control indoor temperature and to save energy
via heat meters. Although most of the heat meters on the market
do not provide this function, a patent of an IC-card based heat
meter for automatic control of indoor temperature was
registered in 2002 [76]. In addition to a flow meter and a
temperature sensor, the heat meter contains two magnetic-
control valves (MCVs), which are controlled by a micro control
unit (MCU) to adjust the water flow according to pre-set
temperature. If such a kind of meters could have higher
accessibility, e.g. connection via mobile internet, there would
be a huge market potential, as the requirements on energy
savings continue to increase. For gas meters, the function of
appliance control is not a major concern.
E. Demand-side management
In addition to the above functions, smart meters also enable
many more comprehensive applications and one of the rapid
development applications is the so-called demand-side
management. The conventional principle of power generation,
i.e. utilities should prepare sufficient generation capacity to
meet consumers’ demand, is known as supply-side
management, which has dominated the power industry since the
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Fig. 2. Concept of load shift.
very beginning of mass generation and centralized distribution
[77]. On the contrary, demand-side management, which has
been an increasingly popular concept in recent years, refers to
the changes in energy consumption by managing consumers’
behaviors [78].
An important purpose for demand-side management is to
shift the load of energy consumption, i.e. consumers reduce
their energy consumption during peak periods and use energy
during valley periods instead [79, 80]. Specific load shifting
approaches include peak clipping, valley filling and peak
shifting (Figure 2). The approach of peak clipping refers to
reduction in energy consumption during peak time when
utilities have to run high-cost facilities to meet the demand, and
valley filling refers to increasing energy consumption during
valley time when base load is sufficient for the demand.
Therefore, peak shifting, i.e. the combination of peak clipping
and valley filling, can help utilities to reduce the operation of
peak load facilities, while meeting energy demand relying
mainly on base load.
It must be noted that such a comprehensive application
depends on many basic functions, such as regular and precise
metering to provide contemporary information on energy
consumption, data recording and alarming to set baselines and
thresholds, two-way communication to transmit metering
information and instructions for action, and appliance control
to implement actions. In addition to IENs, regulations and
instruments are important to motivate energy management on
the demand side. Among other regulations and instruments,
dynamic pricing mechanisms are essential for demand-side
management, which can significantly affect consumers’
behaviors [15, 81]. The most commonly used dynamic pricing
methods include [78, 82]:
 Time-of-Use (TOU) - two or more tariffs are
respectively used for peak and valley time;
 Incremental Pricing - tariff increases as consumption
grows;
 Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) - a flat rate is used unless
a critical situation occurs in the peak period and a very
high price is applied to the critical situation;
 Critical Peak Rebate (CPR) - consumers are paid to
reduce their consumption at critical peak time; and
 Real-Time Pricing (RTP) - market price is decided by
market supply and demand and thus keeps changing
all the time.
Demand-side management is also important for DH
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networks. Many studies have proven that demand-side
management is effective for shifting load and saving energy in
DH networks [21, 83]. For example, people can turn down or
even turn off home radiators when they leave and turn on or
turn up the radiators when they go back. To stimulate demand-
side management in DH networks, it is necessary to deploy
smart heat meters that can operate two-way communication and
operate load control remotely. In addition, the DH price is
usually fixed during an entire heating season and the main
pricing mechanisms include the cost-plus approach on
regulated markets and the marginal cost approach on
deregulated markets [15, 83]. A flexible pricing approach
should be implemented to motivate consumers to change their
energy consumption. For gas networks, there are few studies
about demand-side management.
F. Detection of electricity theft and enhancing system
security
Although the development of technology has made it
possible to transmit power across geographic areas and time
zones, power theft prohibits electricity utilities from fully
benefiting from the development [84, 85]. Electricity theft is not
a rare problem worldwide and utilities have attempted to
address the problem using smart metering and other
technologies in IENs. Smart electricity meters, equipped with
sensors for detection and processors for computation, empower
utilities to identify unauthorized consumption and electricity
theft [58, 86]. Benefiting from the technology, utilities can have
a better control of electric power losses and consumers can
detect electricity theft and abnormalities with a high hit-rate.
In the meantime, the application of smart meters and other
technologies largely enhances the security of the entire energy
system [87]. Recent technical development allows many
intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), e.g., digital fault recorders
(DFR), digital protective relays (DPR) and circuit breaker
recorders (CBR), to be attached to smart meters as functional
modules or employed as separate devices in IENs that can
communicate with smart meters [88]. The IEDs can record and
report data in a time-stamped manner, and this allows smart
meters or other devices in the network to monitor the status of
operation. When a problem occurs, utilities can immediately
identify the problem and restrict the impacts to the minimum
extent by isolating it from the entire system [88, 89]. For
example, Dranetz implemented an automatic distribution fault
location system at the Consolidated Edison Company of New
York [90]. This system incorporates power quality monitors,
microprocessor relays, database applications, up-to-date
distribution circuit models and geographic information system
(GIS) databases in order to automatically identify distribution
faults and locate them. The fault locations can be graphically
displayed in tabular format or on the map on the corporate’s
intranet with accuracy up to 90% [90]. However, there has not
been a universal standard on smart meters or the development
of IENs, and the equipment in the networks usually comes from
different vendors, resulting in different product standards,
different data formats and different computation methods [91].
This could in the future violate the continuous development of
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10
IENs.
In addition to physical security, there are many ways that
smart meters can enhance the information security of energy
networks. As the deployment of smart meters rapidly increases
and devices become increasingly networked, data hacking,
malware, cyber-attacks and other risks against information
security continue to increase [92]. Any attacking attempt from
malware should be instantly detected and prohibited. Further
actions, including sending warning signals to utilities and
recording the event for further investigation, can also be taken
[68, 93]. In addition, utilities should keep improving their
defensive systems since hackers would continually update their
attacking techniques and tools [93].
Since the data about consumers’ energy consumption
contains a lot of their private information, maintaining two-way
communications reliable and related data confidential is crucial.
Therefore, utilities need to implement strict security protocols
to prevent the sensitive information from unauthorized access,
intercept or manipulation. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and
Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) encryption are widely used
to secure retail and web-based transactions, and virtual private
network (VPN) connections [92]. In many intelligent metering
systems, 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) ciphers
are adopted to protect information communication. In addition,
solid authentication and defensive systems are employed to
protect metering systems from being accessed or controlled by
unauthorized third parties or malicious attackers [68, 92].
Access to the sensitive metering data from third parties should
be strictly controlled, e.g. based on a “need-to-know” principle
employed by the British Gas, or as agreed by customers or
required by law, which is used in PG&E’s metering systems.
Without authentication, customers’ private information in any
case cannot be revealed to any source.
The application of smart metering technologies, as well as
detecting and computing technologies, may also be able to
enhance the control over DH and gas networks and improve
systems’ stability, e.g. detection of leakage and abnormal
energy loss. However, it is too early to determine the
effectiveness of smart energy meters in this regard, since many
comprehensive functions of smart electricity meters as well as
other technologies have so far not been widely applied in heat
and gas networks in practice. Learning from the experience on
electricity grids, system security including both physical and
information aspects is of crucial importance to the development
of IENs. DH networks should adopt the same level of strict
control from the beginning to ensure the development reliable
and sustainable.
VI. BENEFIT AND COST OF SMART ENERGY METERS
Application of smart meters in the energy networks can
generate numerous benefits for various stakeholders. Some of
the benefits are summarized in Table IV.
Many pilot projects have reported a significant amount of
benefits, especially for energy suppliers. For example, it was
estimated that the AMI Program in the Victoria State, Australia,
could generate a total benefit of 1.9-3.59 billion Australian
dollar for energy utilities over 2008-2028 [94]. The deployment
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TABLE IV Similarly, Oncor charges its customers 2.19 USD a month over
BENEFITS OF THE APPLICATION OF SMART METERS
Stakeholder Benefits
a 10-year period in Texas [97]. The energy bills are not fixed
 Better access and data to manage energy use during the entire period, and are likely to rise due to utilities’
 More accurate and timely billing new investment [99].
 Improved and increased billing options Compared with projected benefits, the large sum of
Customers
 Improved outage restoration
investment may have a more significant impact on decision-
 Improved data quantity and quality on power
quality making, especially when only utilities can obtain the benefits in
 Reduced metering cost most cases. Although many pilot projects have suggested that
Customer  Reduced trips for off-cycle reading the volume of energy savings and associated benefits would
Service & Field  Eliminating handheld metering equipment overtake the costs of smart energy meters, people doubted it. As
Operations  Reduced call-centre transactions
 Reduced frequency of connection/disconnection aforementioned, a landmark event was the rejection of fast
 Reduced back-office rebilling deployment of smart electricity meters in Germany. According
Billing Services
and Security
 Detection of interruptions and energy theft to the Ernst & Young’s cost-benefit analysis, which was
 Improved billing accuracy conducted on behalf of Germany's Federal Ministry of
 Improved load management
Economy and Technology, the cost would be as high as 89 Euro
 Facilitating switch of capacitor banks
 Improved data quality in terms of load, losses per household including the device and installation, which
Transmission
and Distribution
and efficiency cannot be justified by the expected monetary benefits [100].
 Improved data quantity and quality in terms of The Ernst & Young suggested a tailored approach based on a
system design
 Improved data quality in terms of system services
selective rollout to prevent it from becoming a complete failure.
Marketing &  Improved data quantity and quality for decision- The approach recommended rolling out “intelligent meters” to
Load making a majority (about 70%) of consumers, and these meters are
Forecasting  Reduction in the cost of data collection much cheaper than real smart meters, since they can only show
 Reduced regulatory complaints energy usage on an in-home display without communicating the
Utility  Improved customer premise safety & risk profile
 Improved employee safety data to the utilities. Coincidently, the timescale for the
External  Improved environmental benefits installation of smart meters in UK, i.e. by 2020, is up for
Stakeholders  Support for the Smart Grid initiatives revision again, and Capita, which runs the Data
Source: adapted from [35] Communications Company responsible for rolling out the
of 50 million pieces of smart electricity meters in UK by 2020 program, admitted "there is no feasible way to maintain the
will save energy suppliers more than 300 million pounds a year time-scales". It is due to an estimated saving of only two per
by alleviating the need of meter readings and decreasing cent on consumers’ energy bills, compared to a cost of 200
disputes on bills [95]. The on-going upgrading program in pounds for a smart meter for every household [101]. However,
Chinese gas system also reported a monthly cost saving of 42 the Victorian smart metering project provided an alternative.
million RMB due to the implementation of pre-payment meters The Victorian government started with a “safe-to-try” period
that avoids a huge amount of manual reading [96]. from July 2013 to May 2015 to remove public worries about the
However, the cost for deploying smart energy meters is not cost of smart meters. The Victorian government also introduces
trivial, especially when the investment on infrastructure is taken protection codes and provides price advice during this period.
into account. The total cost for the Australian AMI program People can freely move to smart meters with flexible pricing
reached around 1.6 billion Australian dollar [94] and the plans and freely switch back the old system.
deployment of smart electricity meters in UK also cost up to It is found that a good business model plays an important role
near 11 billion pounds [95]. Table V shows the full-scale capital in the implementation of smart metering projects in practice,
costs for deployment of smart electricity meters in the US and and an even distribution of costs and benefits is one of the most
the average cost for a smart meter ranges from 123.08 USD in important issues in the business model. The general costs and
Pennsylvania to 532.47 USD in Texas [97]. The differences are benefits for deploying smart heat meters are quite similar to
mainly affected by regional infrastructure and policies on taxes those for smart electricity meters and the valuable knowledge
and subsidiaries. Within the cost for smart energy meters, in- obtained from electricity grids can be applied to DH and NG
home display units, especially those with multiple sophisticated networks, although there so far have not been many large-scale
functions, account for a big proportion. However, suppliers deployment projects. In practice, some pilot projects chose to
argue that stand-alone in-home displays are largely redundant include the cost for new meters in the heating price during an
when consumers could monitor usage via computers or entire heating season [102]. In addition, modularization may
smartphones [98]. allow heat meters to share some components with electricity
An unavoidable question is then, who should pay for the cost? meters and thus to save the cost for, for example, display units.
In many cases, there is no up-front cost or one-off charge for Modularization can also help to reduce the cost for upgrading
smart meters on consumers, while energy companies would like meters, since many smart meters can be upgraded by replacing
to recoup the costs over time through higher energy bills. An old modules with new ones, or by adding additional modules to
example is that Hydro One in Ontario, Canada, charges its the existing meter.
customers 79 cent a month over 20 years as the price for smart
electricity meters, which is added into their energy bills.

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TABLE V
COST FOR SMART METERS IN USA
Company Location Meters Total Cost (million USD) Cost per meter (USD)
BGE Maryland, USA 2090000 482.0 230.62
CenterPoint Energy Texas, USA 2400000 639.6 266.50
Central Vermont Public Service Vermont, USA 153000 40.8 266.67
Consolidated Edison New York, USA 4800000 712.8 148.50
Idaho Power Corporation Idaho, USA 500000 70.9 141.80
Modesto Irrigation District California, USA 107000 21.3 199.07
New York State Electric & Gas New York, USA 1134000 177.0 156.08
Oncor Texas, USA 3400000 690.0 202.94
Pacific Gas & Electric California, USA 10444000 2361.0 226.06
Pennsylvania Power & Light Pennsylvania, USA 1300000 160.0 123.08
Portland General Electric Oregon, USA 851000 132.2 155.35
Rochester Gas & Electric New York, USA 673000 91.0 135.22
Sacramento Municipal California, USA 600000 81.0 135.00
San Diego Gas & Electric California, USA 2300000 530.0 230.43
Southern California Edison California, USA 5300000 1715.0 323.58
Texas New Mexico Power Texas, USA 231000 123.0 532.47
Average -------- -------- -------- 221.25
Source: adapted from [97]

recording and alarming and two-way communication. Among

VII. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY
Based on the previous review, Table VI further compares
smart electricity meters, smart heat meters and smart gas meters
as regards meter types, meter development, deployment,
functions and applications, and costs and benefits.
Before smart energy meters, there have already been many
different types of energy meters to meet the technical
requirements and cost constraints in various energy networks.
As the requirements on saving energy and protecting the
environment continue to grow, as well as motivated by the
development of information technology and other related
technologies, smart metering has been rapidly implemented in
this century. A common feature of the development of smart
energy meters is modularization, which, although may raise
higher requirements on the quality and design of meters, can
largely facilitate the innovation and deployment of smart
energy meters and also motivate the interoperation of various
energy networks.
The development of smart electricity meters has gone beyond
the stage of AMI and many sophisticated functions have been
integrated into smart electricity meters to enable more
comprehensive applications in IENs. In contrast, the
development of heat and gas meters lag behind that of
electricity meters, although no significant technical barrier
exists. The infrastructure for smart meters in heat and gas
networks may be the most critical challenge at present and a
cost-effective option may be interoperation with intelligent
electricity grids.
The deployment of smart electricity meters has come into the
phase of fast growth especially in Europe and in the US. On the
contrary, most of the installed heat and gas meters can just
operate one-way communication for the sake of cost-saving.
China is a large potential market for smart meters with the
functions of prepayment and remote reading have been
occupying the market.
At present, smart electricity meters have been able to operate
many sophisticated functions, e.g. appliance control, which rely
on the basic functions such as regular and precise metering,
others, regular and precise metering is the basic function for
every energy meter and two-way communication enables it to
become a smart meter. Smart metering technologies so far have
been applied in many different ways, e.g. demand-side
management, detection of electricity theft and enhancing
system security, to serve IENs. Referring to the functions of
smart electricity meters, there are already smart heat meters on
the market that are equipped with those basic functions for
smart metering. However, most developers did not choose the
“real” smart heat meters in practice mainly due to the cost
restriction. Although there are also requirements on energy
saving for DH networks, smart heat meters have not been
involved into more comprehensive applications such as
demand-side management or enhancing system reliability. The
deployment of smart gas meters is very similar to the situation
of smart heat meters, namely mainly dealing with auto reading
and auto billing, while sophisticated functions are usually not
provided. In addition, comprehensive applications of smart heat
and gas meters also require the development of physical
infrastructure and information networks, which so far have not
been available, although the electricity grids may provide some
common hardware.
It has been proven mainly by pilot projects that application
of smart electricity meters can generate a large amount of
benefits, which, however, are mainly for suppliers. In the
meantime, the cost for smart meters is also very large but
mainly undertaken by consumers. A good business model that
can evenly distribute the benefits and costs among different
stakeholders is thus highly important for successful
implementation of smart metering projects. The general
situation is similar for smart electricity, heat and gas meters. An
effective pricing mechanism for smart meters as well as for
energy prices should be developed to motivate the development
of intelligent DH networks.
The review found that the application of smart metering
technologies and other more comprehensive applications
enabled by smart energy meters have significant advantages
over conventional energy networks. Moreover, the future

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TABLE VI
SUMMARY OF SMART METERS
Content Smart electricity meters
Meter types Electro-mechanical and electronic meters; modularization
Meter development Developing towards intelligent energy networks
Many deployment projects in Europe and USA, while
Deployment
some have been delayed
Most smart electricity meters are equipped with basic
functions, including: regular and precise metering, data
recording and alarming and two-way communication.
Some smart electricity meters also have sophisticated
Functions and
functions like appliance control, while others have been
applications
integrated into various appliances. With various functions,
smart electricity meters have been applied in many
different ways, e.g. demand-side management, detection
of electricity theft and enhancing system security.
Application of smart electricity meters can generate a
significant amount of benefits, mainly for suppliers. The
cost for smart meters is also very large and distribution of
the cost may be a problem. Within the cost for smart
Costs and benefits
meters, in-home display units account for a big proportion.
Compared with benefits, costs have a larger impact on
decision-making. A good business model is important for
successful implementation of smart metering projects.
direction of the development of IENs seems increasingly clear.
 Energy meters – energy meters will become smarter
and more flexible through a modularized way, i.e. a
meter is built as an open structure and new functions
can be realized by adding new modules to the meter.
In addition, an alternative option is to embed a module
of smart energy meter into other appliances to achieve
the function of smart metering.
 Individual energy networks – becoming ‘more
intelligent’ or ‘smarter’ represents the common
direction of development for not only electricity grids,
but also DH and NG networks. More sophisticated
functions are going to be realized in the progress.
 Multiple energy networks – electricity, heat, gas and
even water networks are likely to get networked for
interoperation, which will greatly improve the
convenience and quality of people’s life.
However, the question is then, how long will it take to
develop well-functional IENs, what are the challenges that can
affect the development, and how can the challenges be solved?
It can be seen that technology will not be a problem, as soon as
the development is not locked into just a specific type of
technology. A more important issue affecting the development
is the economic factor. In addition, the impacts on the
environment during the whole process of development should
also be taken into account. Globally, the most concerned
environmental problem at present is climate change, while local
ambient pollution is more critical for many developing
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Things Journal
13
Smart heat meters Smart gas meters
Diaphragm/bellows meters, rotary
Dynamic and static meters; meters, turbine gas meters, orifice
modularization meters, ultrasonic flow meters, Coriolis
meters
Beyond the stage of AMR and come into the next phase of AMI; No
technical/theoretical barriers
Far from smart electricity meters, and few projects have been
implemented to deploy mainly remote reading meters.
No technical barriers to equip smart heat and gas meters with the
functions of regular and precise metering, data recording and alarming
and two-way communication. However, many developers chose the
meters with only remote meter reading to save cost in practical
projects. Smart heat meters can be used for demand-side management,
for instance shifting load and saving energy, in DH networks.
However, since many sophisticated functions in smart meters have not
been applied in practice, there has not been much experience on
comprehensive application of smart meters in DH networks and gas
networks.
The general costs and benefits for smart heat and gas meters are quite
similar as those for smart electricity meters, although there so far have
not been many large-scale deployment projects. Some pilot projects
chose to include the cost for new meters in the heating price during an
entire heating season. Modularization can help to reduce the cost.
countries. Therefore, this calls for effective policy instruments
that can take the advantage of market as an important means to
distribute resource and costs and benefits. For this purpose, very
detailed scenarios, i.e. evolutionary forecasting scenarios (EFS)
combined with backcasting scenarios, could be established to
create different possible roadmaps towards the future, where the
important factors such as costs and benefits are used as criteria
to optimize every pathway.
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JIOT.2015.2512325, IEEE
Internet of Things Journal

Qie Sun received the Master degree in Management from the Ocean University of China and the
PhD degree in Industrial Ecology from Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He worked as a
researcher at Industrial Ecology, KTH in September 2011 - May 2012. He joined Shandong
University as a Researcher and Lecturer in 2012. He is working with sustainable energy systems and
Industrial Ecology at Shandong University, China. Dr. Qie Sun also participated in urban planning
projects in China to help urban cities to pursue low carbon and ecological development.

Hailong Li received the the M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from Tianjin University, P.R.
China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of
Technology, Sweden, in 2008. He is currently an Associate Professor at Mälardalen University,
Sweden. His research interests lie in the smart energy management, including: demand response,
energy pricing, efficiency improvement, smart energy network, and also the design and analysis of
efficient and sustainable conversion and utilization of energy, with over 100 technical publications.

Zhanyu Ma has been an Associate Professor at Beijing University of Posts and

Telecommunications, Beijing, China, since 2014. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering from KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Sweden, in 2007 and 2011, respectively.
From 2012 to 2013, he has been a Postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Electrical
Engineering, KTH, Sweden. He has been an adjunct Associate Professor at Aalborg University,
Aalborg, Denmark, since 2015. His research interests include pattern recognition and machine
learning fundamentals with a focus on applications in multimedia signal processing, data mining,
biomedical signal processing, and bioinformatics.

Chao Wang (S’07-M’09) is an Associate Professor at the School of Electronics and Information
Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He received his B.E. degree from University of
Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China, in 2003, his M.Sc. degree (with distinction)
and Ph.D. degree from University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. He
was a Visiting Student Research Collaborator at Princeton University, Princeton, USA, in 2008.
From 2009 to 2012, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at KTH-Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. His research interests mainly lie in information/communication
theory and signal processing for wireless networks, and their applications in the next generation
mobile communication systems.

Javier Campillo is an Electronic Engineer (2003) and received his M.Sc. In Energy Engineering
from Mälardalen in Västerås - Sweden in 2007. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Mälardalen
University working on developing simulation models for optimizing the interaction of renewable
power sources and storage in low voltage distribution networks.

Zhang Qi received his BS and MS from Tsinghua University, China in 2002 and 2005 respectively,
and PhD in Energy Economics from Kyoto University, Japan in 2008. Dr. Zhang worked as GCOE
Assistant Professor from 2009 to 2013 at Kyoto University. Currently, he is the vice dean of
Academy of Chinese Energy Strategy, China University of Petroleum (Beijing). Dr. Zhang was
selected in the Excellent Talent Program in 2013. His research has focused on energy economics and
management, energy policy and energy-environment-economy system modeling. Dr. Zhang has
authored/co-authored more than 50 journal and conference publications with more than 10 first-
authored SCI index papers. He also service as an editor of two international journals and reviewer of several TOP
international journals in energy economics and management field.

Fredrik Wallin (M’05) was born in Sweden in 1973. He received the MSc and PhD degrees in
Energy Engineering from Mälardalen University in 2001 and 2010, respectively. Since then he
has been with the Future Energy Center @ Mälardalen University employed as a senior lecturer.
He is now leading the research track in Energy Efficiency and Emission Mitigation. His current
research interests include development of intelligent energy systems, smart meters, smart
buildings and cities, energy efficiency, energy markets and integration of renewables in the
energy system. Dr. Wallin has been involved in many industrial research collaborations as well
as commercialization of research ideas into products, services and companies.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JIOT.2015.2512325, IEEE
Internet of Things Journal

Jun Guo received B.E. and M.E. degrees from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
(BUPT), China in 1982 and 1985, respectively, Ph.D. degree from the Tohuku-Gakuin University,
Japan in 1993. At present he is a professor and a vice president of BUPT. His research interests
include pattern recognition theory and application, information retrieval, content based information
security, and bioinformatics. He has published over 200 papers on the journals and conferences
including SCIENCE, Nature Scientific Reports, IEEE Trans. on PAMI, Pattern Recognition, AAAI,
CVPR, ICCV, SIGIR, etc.

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