See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/271556180

Smart Metering in electric power distribution system

Conference Paper · December 2013

DOI: 10.1109/CARE.2013.6733756

CITATIONS READS

8 21,571

2 authors, including:

Hari om Bansal
Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani
89 PUBLICATIONS   1,280 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

impedance source inverters with switched coupled inductor cells View project

Power optimiation in Hybrid Electric Vehicle View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Hari om Bansal on 17 May 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Smart Metering in Electric Power Distribution
System

Karan Gandhi and Hari Om Bansal

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Pilani, India

Abstract—Electric Energy is a vital resource in everyday reduced by substituting materials involved in supply with
life and a backbone to the industry. Being limited its proper materials having desired properties.
use and measurement is very important. Restructuring of Administrative losses are those losses which are given
power system, penetration of distributed generation and power
by unknown connections and missing meters in the system.
theft are going to be the key challenges in the near future. The
operational information will be crucial for the functioning of The third kind of loss is illegal use of electricity which is
the power distribution networks. One of the information done in several ways like tampering with meters to make it
sources is going to be the Advanced Metering Infrastructure record lower consumption reading, tapping (hooking) on LT
(AMI). Smart meter is an advanced energy meter that lines and arranging false readings by bribing meter readers
measures electrical energy consumption and provides etc. According to a survey in most of the developing
additional information as compared to a conventional energy countries including India also, 32% of produced electricity
meter. It aims to improve the reliability, quality and security of is wasted as losses; approximately 47-48% of this loss is
supply. Integration of AMI into electricity grid needs
due to electricity theft. This problem of theft can be
implementation of a variety of techniques, controls and
software, depending on the required features. This paper
addressed to a certain extent by installing smart metering
discusses the need of smart meters, their working, benefits and system. The gap between peak demand and the available
challenges in implementing them. The paper also presents few power is big, if time-wise consumption readings and thus
case studies and cost benefit analysis done earlier. variable tariff is imposed to encourage consumers to use
their appliances during off peak hours then this gap many
Keywords—Electric Energy, Power Theft, Smart Meter, minimized without establishing any new power plants as
Power Distribution System, Advanced Metering Infrastructure depicted in Fig. 1. This needs improvement in the current
metering system. Distributed Generation is becoming
I. Introduction popular nowadays. DG is defined as an electric power
generation source connected directly to the distribution
The development of human society depends on the
network or on the customer side. As penetration of DG is
proper and wise utilization of all resources whether natural
increasing its grid interconnection is going to be a
resource or a man-made resource. Electricity can be
challenging task. Utilities may impose different tariff for
categorized as a manmade resource but its production
this. Metering of this is further going to be tough with the
depends on the availability of natural resources like coal,
current meters [8]. This paper speaks about evolution of
water, wind and gas etc. Per capita consumption of
smart meter, its various components & working, few case
electricity is directly proportional to the economic growth of
studies, benefits and challenges in its implementation.
the country. Electricity is first Generated (G) then
Transmitted (T) over long distances and finally Distributed
(D) to consumers. In this process of GTD energy losses take
place. Energy loss is defined as the difference between
energy generated and billed on consumers on consumption
[1-2]. There are three types of losses, namely Technical,
Administrative and Theft incorporated with transmission
and distribution of electricity [3-7].
Technical losses are those losses which occur due to
properties of materials used in transmission and distribution
system. For example, energy dissipated due to resistance of
conductor used in supply lines. It also includes Dielectric
losses, Induction and radiation losses. These losses can be

Fig.1. Saving in demand peak after implementation of

Smart Metering System
 II. Evolution of Smart Meters
Being a limited and very important resource the
metering of electricity consumption is essential. Generally
people don’t care for the consumption of electricity in their
day to day processes and are concerned about it when they
get their electricity bills or in case of power shortage.
Measuring of electricity consumption was started with
Electromechanical Induction meter which operates by
counting the revolutions of a metal disc rotating at a speed
proportional to the power. The number of revolutions is
proportional to the energy usage. Later in 1990s Electronic
meter was introduced which use LED or LCD displays and
can also transmit readings to remote places but they could
use only one sided communication. This process is also
referred as Automated Meter Reading. Further to improve
the communication between utility and costumers and for
time wise billing first generation of Smart meter was
introduced in 2005.
Smart meters are the new generation devices which are
used by utilities for electronic measurement and to remotely
communicate information for billing customers and
operating their electric systems. These meters can take the
reading and send the information to the control office
repeatedly in small time intervals. Control office can
monitor the meters because a two-way communication is
used in smart metering system which is commonly known
as AMI. AMI is capable of detecting power outages and
monitoring voltage profiles [9-10].
Being two way communications, the consumers will
have the information about their daily electricity
consumption along with its cost and thus they will try to
minimize it by its sensible utilization. This will also help in
protecting our valuable Mother Nature and environment.
III. Components of Smart Metering System
The main components inside smart meter are [11-13]:
A. Advanced Measuring Device: It consists of the following
• A small transformer that steps down the voltage to
10V ac
• A microprocessor core, a real-time clock, flash
memory, and an LCD driver
• A low power dual operational amplifier and a
medium power amplifier IC
• Around 1 GHz SOC with a microcontroller and some
bytes of flash memory
• Time differentiated registers, Connect/disconnect
switch and LCD/LED display
• In home display: It is a device which details the usage
of data in a graphical and user friendly manner.
B. Communication Network Management:
Electricity meter communicates with LDCs using the
low voltage power supply cables between the meters and
the transformers which come under Local Area Networks
(LANs) and it is used for short distance communication.
Communications between LDCs and the Central System
Controller may be provided virtually by any standard Wide
Area Network (WAN) medium, including PSTN telephone
lines, GSM, X-25 packet switched radio and microwave
links [11-13].
C. Meter Data Management (MDM): It should be able to
collect at least following information.
• Meter registrations: serial numbers, meter types,
location and programmed data.
• Local Data Concentrators (LDCs): location, serial
numbers and programmed functions.
• Meter data extraction: Customer details, Customer
transaction records, Peak demand and load curve
• Tariff structures and prices, Invoice generation,
maintenance and Payment transaction records
• Error logs and message texts, System activity and
maintenance logs.
• System administration records.
The architecture of the smart meter is shown on Fig. 2.
Data Central Control
concentrators System Center
Asset Billing
Meter and
Management
Communication
Hub
Multi Home Hand Held
utility Automation Devices
Fig.2. Architecture of Smart Meters
IV. Working of Smart Metering System
Smart meters operate on two-way communication
process and should have a memory segment. Two way
communication is done through Radio Frequency (RF)
mesh networking or PLC [14-15], allowing the creation of
LAN and WAN. DLC can be used as WAN for meter
reading, tariff & programming updates and for load control.
PLC can be used as Home Area network (HAN) for home
automation and short range communication. Such mesh
networks allowed the AMI to have a data collector hub that
would then transmit the collected data via GSM, broadband
or another means from an end user to the utility office. This
customer data was then transacted automatically into
customer billing. The AMI capable meters also includes a
HAN, such as Zigbee.
The most suitable way of communication is through RF.
The typical memory footprint to support RF LAN/WAN is
around 256 KB whereas Zigbee is around 128 KB of
embedded flash memory. These requirements will rise
significantly in near future [10, 12, 14]. If same mesh
network is also used to provide firmware updates for smart
meters then MCUs should have dual banks of flash memory.
This dual bank architecture allows the meter to run
continuously. The block diagram of smart meter working is
shown in Fig. 3 [16].
 Fig.3. Block Diagram of Smart Meter
The working of some of the blocks is detailed below.
A. Power Source
A two line connection is provided to every
e consumer
comprising neutral line and load line. Theree are many ways
in which a meter can work, one of which is mentioned
m here.
For supplying power to the system a recttifier is needed,
which can be a combination of four diodes as shown in
figure 2. The rectified signal is then transmmitted to PWM
and AC/DC through a MOSFET circuit. Thhe main work of
PWM is primary side regulation along with special features
of HV Start-up, Input Line Monitoring, Leading Edge
Blanking, Light Load Efficiency, Low Power and Soft Start.
B. Metrology
The current flowing in the load line is allowed to pass
through a resistance in order to measure readding. For proper
and cost efficient reading system, analog siggnal needs to be
converted to digital signal. For this purppose Analog to
Digital Converter (ADC) is used. Samples or “snap shots”
of the analog signals at discrete instances of
o time and then
converted to numeric values using ADC. Thhere are various
types of ADC, some of them are: Successivee Approximation
(SAR), Flash (Parallel) andd Half Flash, Integrating (Dual
Slope), Voltage to Frequencyy and Sigma Delta (Σ-∆).
Σ-∆ ADC is generally usse because it overcomes most of
the disadvantages of other syystems. In this system ADC can
be combined with DSP functtions on one mixed signal VLSI
chip. This has very low resoolution at a very high sampling
rate. By using over-samplingg techniques in conjunction with
noise shaping and digital filttering, the effective resolution is
increased. The processed signal
s is then transferred to a
MCU for utility or other endd customer calibration purposes
[17].
C. Application Processor
An application processoor is required to interface with
home appliances and automaation. It can be an ARM cortex
A8 microprocessor with onne of the following operating
systems Linux, Android or windows
w embedded CE. Its main
function is to connect vending machines, building
automation.
V. RF Exposure in
i Smart Metering System
One major threat in impplementation of smart metering
system is its radiations. Thhis system generally uses RF
radiations for wireless communications. RF radiation causes
two types of effects, thermal and non-thermal. Out of these
two, thermal effects are injurious to human health [18].
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an
organization which keeps a check on RF radiation
producing devices which are harmful for environment and
human health. According to FCC Smart meter comes under
the low power, unlicensed criteria as the radiations are very
less and not a serious issue to health. FCC has imposed a
limit on Maximum Permissible Error (MPE). MPE values
are measured by taking an average of RF exposure on
different parts of body as all the parts are at different
distance from the meter and thus power is different at
various parts. RF exposure to a person at 3 to10 feet away
from a continuously operating smart meter is 125 to 1250
times less as compared to a person talking on a cell phone.
The measurements have shown that RF exposure behind
meter sockets is lesser as compared to in front of the
sockets. Apart from this, the location of the meter, distance
from the transmitter, shielding by meter enclosures,
attenuation of building materials, direction of RF emissions
and limited duty cycles (The percentage of time a RF device
is in operation is called the duty cycle) also decreases RF
exposure and thus in short RF exposure due to smart meters
is not significantly harmful to health [19-23].
VI. Case Studies
In Southern California a retail store was selected as a
part of an energy management initiative that involves
equipping the store with smart meter. Usually the owner
was much tensed about increasing electricity bill. With
smart meter she was able to monitor her electricity usage
and to reduce the bill. At the end of the year it was found
that the store consumed about 1562 kWh lower than the
previous year and a lot of money around $185 was saved.
The deployment cost of smart meters in California per
connection is around $193.7. Expected Maintenance cost of
these meters is $4 per year. Therefore, they will make a
significant amount of profit in coming years. Apart from
this, 844lbs CO2 emissions were also reduced which further
save the environment [24-25].
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
required California’s large investor owned utilities (IOUs )
to file AMI applications and required a demonstration that
AMI systems could produce net customer benefits. Initially,
it was found that AMI was not cost-effective for its
customers, but AMI technological improvements in 2005
and 2006 led to the SmartConnect application in 2007,
which forecasted a very slim margin of lifetime net benefits
on a present value basis. Table I shows the nominal costs
and benefits of SmartConnect Program [26]
Table I. Nominal Costs and Benefits (in millions) of Smart Meter
Deployment Program in California
Deployment Post deployment Total
2007-2012 2013-2032
Benefits $437.6 $6999.7 $7437.3
Costs $1633.5 $1582.1 $3215.6
Net Benefits -$1195.5 $5417.6 $4221.7
Similarly, In Victoria state things went wrong in the
deployment of smart meters. The lessons that it has taught,
have led to a turnaround of affairs and the state is currently
looked upon as an example of the benefits that can be
gained from smart meters [27].
India is a price sensitive market and if consumers are told
that using electrical equipment during non-peak hours will
cost less, they will shift their usage accordingly. This will
help the consumers in reducing their bills and the
distribution companies in managing the rush therefore
preventing grid collapses. According to World bank’s
energy specialist, in developing countries like India the cost
of deployment of smart meters can go high because of
geographical structure but the benefits will still be huge
because they will minimize the energy theft. The Indian
government and other utilities are taking various initiatives
towards implanting smart meters, few of them are:
• In January, WBSEDCL, an Indian utility looking to
modernize its aging infrastructure, selected
Landis+Gyr, a multinational corporation, to deliver
1.5 million smart meters, believed to be the single
largest electric meter order in India. The project is
expected to be over by 2013.
• Ami Tech (India) Pvt. Ltd. is designing a 3-phase
smart energy meter to cater to the needs of Indian
smart grid requirements.
• Itron inaugurated its first Smart Metering Lab and
Knowledge Center in Noida at Itron India. The centre
showcases and demonstrates its smart metering and
AMI solutions. It will benefit local utilities,
government officials and other groups by sharing
insights and knowledge.
VII. Benefits of Smart Metering System
Smart metering has many advantages like it collects
time-wise consumption readings, can control the amount of
power given to a particular house and can be used to lower
the losses due to theft. The various merits of smart meter
over traditional meters are listed below
A comparison of various types of meters is also made
and presented in Table II.
A. From Consumers point of view
• The system provides rapid access to all customer
transaction and payment records which allow with
quick and efficient solution of customer.
• Day to day bill is available and thus effective load
management by using appliances at off peak hours
which will also result in lesser bill.
• No unscheduled power cuts and instead of complete
black out some electricity can be provided to every
customer which can be used for running some
important appliances as in case of inverters. This will
minimize use of inverters, their charging burden and
battery problems.
• Any tampering with meter is immediately reported to
central control. It will reduce theft so tariff rates will
go down
 • Due to remote reading, no need for site visits and • Efficiency of inverters is very low and replacement of
hence increases customer’s privacy [28-29]. their batteries causes environmental pollution. As
• Provides easy pre-payment facility. smart metering system can help in providing a
• LCD display can be programmed to display various substitute to inverters and thus it saves energy and
facilities including amount of credit left on pre- environment.
payment system [30].
VIII. Challenges in Implementation of AMI
B. From Electrical Companies point of view
• Geographical area of India is very large with vast
• Provides power consumption profile data from climatic condition which creates difficulty in wireless
individual and groups of meters to facilitate energy communication as impedance matching has to be
management, load research and tariff development. applied at various places [33-34]
• Provides a low voltage network monitoring system to • Slow decision making & Implementation
allow supply outages to be quickly identified resulting • Change of mindset and awareness of common public
in better reliability and improved service levels [31]. as well as utilities
• Provides a sophisticated energy loss detection system • Dedicated prioritized Data communication channel for
to identify losses to individual LV feeder level [31]. Utility Operations by NSP.
• The individual meter reading can be channeled • Regulatory frame-work which rewards for un-
directly up to the local substation and then to the interrupted quality services.
customer headquarters using a PSTN/GSM or radio. • The first phase is to replace traditional meters with
This eliminates need for site visit to read the meter smart meters but location of meters inside the house
and reduces the human labor [28-29]. creates difficulty in proper implementation
• Any tampering of system is immediately reported to • Difficult to establish Home/Local area
central control system. This will reduce losses [32]. Communication through concrete walls.
• Provides a mechanism for the implementation of • Being various utility providers, varying
Demand-Side Management initiatives involving expectations/requirements from utility to utility.
multi-rate tariffs and load control. This improves • No systematic planned approach for implementation
energy efficiency and reduces emissions. of smart metering system.
• Billing will be fast and easy with the help of • Lesser technical work force For mass deployment
automated software controlled billing system. • Control commands & other data formats should be
• For reasons of credit control, load management, or interoperable with AMI infrastructure.
load shedding, the meter can be set to disconnect at a • Initially a large investment is required. Benefit would
pre-set load or total energy usage and this will prevent accrue only after successful implementation.
grid failure by overload [31].
• Higher Cost of the smart meters
TABLE II. Comparison of Smart Meter with Traditional Meters • Management of Terabytes of data collected in small
interval of time and maintaining privacy of this data.
Property Electro- Digital Meter Smart Meter • Acceptance of variable tariff to Low end consumer.
Mechanical
Meter IX. Conclusions
Accuracy low High Very high
Theft detection low Possible at node Possible at This paper reviews numerous key aspects of smart
level network level metering. Several challenges, requirements and issues in
Communication Manual One way Two way design, development, and maintenance of the smart meter
reading communication communication systems are discussed. Smart metering is a good technology
Control No limited full which monitors electricity pilferage and power losses. This
Consumer nil Less high technique makes the user better informed and careful about
Participation consumption, billing and power outages etc. This
Time Wise no After a fix according to technology will allow variable tariff implementation which
Reading interval requirement enables the customer to use appliances during off peak load
Day to day Not possible Not possible Possible hours. This will increase people participation in saving
billing info energy and environment thus the increasing electricity
C. From the point of view of environment and government demand issue may be addressed to a certain extent without
actually establishing new power plants. The implementation
• As the peak requirement decreases, requirement of of smart metering technique requires improvement in the
new power plants also reduces leading to decreased current metering infrastructure. Focus should be on
greenhouse gas emissions. developing better control strategies, sensors and other
• Energy efficiency is improved because proper components to minimize the cost. A mass awareness
detection of energy loss. program should be conducted to literate people about energy
• Automated reading system reduces field trips and issues and encourage them for proper metering of
vehicle emissions. electricity.
 REFERENCES [25] www.emeter.com/wp-content/uploads2010/06/smart-meter-cost-
chart.
[1] N. Mohan, T.M. Undeland and W.P. Robbins, “ Power Electronic
Converters, Applications and Design”, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and [26] K. Hieta, V. Kao, and T. Roberts, “Case Study of Smart Meter
sons inc., New York, 1995 Deployment: Recommendations for Ensuring Ratepayer Benefits”,
March 2012.
[2] “Methodology for Establishing Baseline AT&C Losses”, Power
Finance Corporation Limited, India, September, 2009. [27] http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Australia-Smart-Meters-in-
Victoria-Case-Study.
[3] http://www.silicon.ac.in/sitbbsr/nwetmaterials/Power-Distribution-
Losses.pdf [28] A. Vojdani, “Smart Integration,” IEEE Power and Energy Magazine,
Vol. 6, pp. 71-79, Nov. 2008.
[4] J.P Navani, N.K. Sharma and S. Sapra “Technical and Non-Technical
[29] D.G. Hart, “Using AMI to Realize the Smart Grid,” Proc. IEEE PES
Losses in Power System and its Economic Consequence in Indian
General Meeting - Conversion and Delivery of Electrical Energy,
Economy”, International Journal of Electronics and Computer
Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 1-2, July 2008.
Science Engineering, Vol.1, No. 2, pp. 757-761, 2012.
[5] Energy statistics 2012, Nineteenth Issue, Central Statistics Office , [30] J. Cowburn, “Paying for Energy the Smart Way,” IEE Review, Vol.
47, pp. 17-20, July 2001.
Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Govt. of India,
New Delhi, March 2012. [31] A. Mahmood, M. Aamir and M.I. Anis, “Design and implementation
[6] S. S. Mustafa, M.H. Yasen and H.H. Abdullah, “Evaluation of of AMR Smart Grid System”, Proc. IEEE Canada Electric Power
Conference, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 6-7, Oct. 2008.
Electric Energy Losses in Kirkuk Distribution Electric System Area”,
Iraqi Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Vol.7, No.2, [32] S.S. Depuru, L. Wang and V. Devabhaktuni, “A Conceptual Design
pp.144-150, 2011. using Harmonics to Reduce Pilfering of Electricity,” IEEE PES
General Meeting, Minneapolis, MA, July 2010.
[7] P. Kadurek et al., “Theft Detection and Smart Metering Practices and
Expectations in the Netherlands” Proc. IEEE PES Innovative Smart [33] http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_051809.html
Grid Technologies Conf. Europe (ISGT Europe), pp. 1–6, 2010. [34] I. Lane, J.J. Hoogenboezem and G.J. Delport, “The Present and
[8] H.O. Bansal, S. Mohan and H.P. Agrawal, “A Critical Analysis of Future of National Electricity Demand”, Domestic use of Electrical
Distributed Generation and its Implications”, International Energy Conference, 1997.
Conference on Renewable Energy, Jaipur, 2011.
[9] http://blog.vitria.com/bid/91948/The-Evolution-Benefits-of-Smart-
Meters
[10] http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue-
5/features/the-evolution-of-smart-meters-towards-a-supersmart-
grid.html
[11] Smart Meters and Smart Meter Systems: A Metering Industry
Perspective, an EEI-AEIC-UTC White Paper, Published by Edison
Electric Institute, Pennsylvania, 2011.
[12] Smart meter deserves smart Components [Online Available]:
http://www.murata.eu/amr-ami.html
[13] Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications, A report
published by Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall
Place, London.
[14] Y.S. Son et al., “Home Energy Management System based on Power
Line Communication,” IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronic,
Vol. 56, pp. 1380 – 1386, Aug. 2010.
[15] M. Huczala, T. Lukl, and J. Misurec, “Capturing Energy Meter Data
Over Secured Power Line,” Proc. International Conference on
Communication Technology, Guilin, China, pp. 1- 4, Nov. 2006.
[16] http://www.ti.com/solution/docs/appsolution.tsp?appId=407.
[17] A. Collins, “Solid State Solutions for Electricity Metrology”, IEE
Conference on Metering and Tariffs for Energy Supply, Publication
No. 462, 25-28 May 1999.
[18] Health Impacts of Radio Frequency (RF) from Smart Meters, a report,
California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), April 2011.
[19] K.D. Craemer and G. Deconinck, “Analysis of State-of-the-art Smart
Metering Communication Standards”, Proc. IEEE 5th YRS 2010.
[20] A Discussion of Smart Meters and RF Exposure Issues, an EEI-
AEIC-UTC White Paper, Published by Edison Electric Institute,
Pennsylvania, March 2011.
[21] An Investigation of Radio Frequency Fields Associated with the Itron
Smart Meter, Technical Report published by EPRI, December 2010.
[22] Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to
Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields, Federal Communications
Commission, Office of Engineering & Technology Bulletin 65,
Edition 97-01, Nov. 1997.
[23] Wireless Transmissions: An Examination of Open Way Smart Meter
Transmissions in a 24 hour Duty Cycle, Itron Inc, Note 2, pp.6, 2011.
[24] J. A. Castro, “Advanced Energy Management: A Look into IDR
Smart Meters”, Energy Engineering, Vol.110, No.1, pp.33-40, 2013.

View publication stats