A Cloud-Based System Architecture for Advanced

Metering in Smart Cities

Felipe Marques Pires
School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
State University of Campinas
Campinas, Brazil
felipe.mpires@ifsp.edu.br
Lorena León Quiñonez
School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
State University of Campinas
Campinas, Brazil
loreleon@decom.fee.unicamp.br
Leonardo de Souza Mendes
School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
State University of Campinas
Campinas, Brazil
lmendes@decom.fee.unicamp.br

Abstract—Advanced meter infrastructures are changing the
way smart metering is made, especially making use of compu-
tational tools such as machine learning techniques to improve
data processing and analyses. In this work, we present a cloud-
based system architecture for advanced electric metering in
smart cities, whose purpose is to achieve better management
of electric energy use by consumers and an efficient balance
between demand and consumption by utilities. In our approach,
in addition to energy consumption data (kilowatt-hour), other
electrical parameters (e.g., current, power factor, active and
reactive power) are collected in real-time from smart meters for
storage and deeper analyses in a big data ecosystem. Moreover,
we introduce the smart gateway (sGateway), a component of the
system architecture to provide local processing and to simplify the
communication between smart meters and the cloud processing
system.
Index Terms—Advanced metering system, Big data, IoT, Smart
city, Smart energy, Smart meter.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Globally, more than half (55%) of the world's current
population resides in urban areas compared with just 30%
in 1950. By 2050 is expected that 68% of all people will
be urban dwellers [1]. As the world continues the process of
urbanization, sustainable development depends on the success-
ful management of urban growth. Otherwise, it may lead to
exurban expansion, power outages, scattered workplaces, and
aging infrastructure. These issues may cause inefficiencies in
different areas, especially in electric energy use. The public
and private sectors are investing new smart city technologies
to integrate intelligent measuring devices in order to achieve
better management of electric energy use and an efficient
balance between demand and consumption [2]. Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and smart meters
are technological elements that enable the development of
Advanced Meter Infrastructures (AMIs) which are changing
the way smart metering is made. AMI provides communication
between utilities central system and the smart meters installed
on the consumer side for real-time data collection [3].
AMI systems are mainly concerned with the collection of
energy consumption data, which is the kilowatt-hour (kWh),
due to the importance of this data to extract useful infor-
mation and also because of electricity tariffs cost per kWh
to customers. As the charge for energy use is monthly, a
single reading during the month is enough to utilities, but
for deep analyses the higher the frequency of readings the
better the quality of information extracted [4]. In this context,
the AMI systems need computation tools to improve the
analyses. Big data platforms and techniques are suitable for
data management and processing in these type of applications
[5]. The large volume of data and the capacity of using
stream processing techniques in conjunction with analytical
tools can help the utilities improve the understanding about
consumption, demand, and consumer behavior keeping track
of downtime and outages [6].
In this work, we propose a cloud-based system architecture
for advanced electric metering in smart cities, which can
benefit both the utilities and the consumers. In our approach,
we collect nine different electrical parameters (e.g., current,
power factor, active and reactive power) from the smart meter
for deeper analysis in a big data ecosystem. Moreover, we
introduce the smart gateway (sGateway), a component of the
system architecture to provide local processing and to simplify
the communication between smart meters with heterogeneous
network interfaces and the cloud processing system.
In the remainder of this paper, we detail our approach
to advanced metering system architecture. In Section II, we
present the global scenario overview and related work in
AMIs. Section III explains the proposed system architecture
and its components. Section IV describes how we performed
the experimental validation and preliminary results. Finally, in
Section V, we present the conclusions and future works.
II. G LOBAL SCENARIO OVERVIEW AND RELATED WORK
A. The global scenario
On the global stage, several countries have developed smart
metering network programs in the last few years. In the
United States, the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program
under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
provided $4.5 billion to modernize the electric power grid
implementing AMIs. In 2016 the American electric utilities
had about 70 million AMIs installations, and about 88% were
residential customers [7]. In Europe, 200 million smart meters
for electricity are expected to be deployed by 2020, reaching
72% of European consumers [7]. Among Asian countries,
China is a promising country for smart meter deployment and

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AMIs. According to the studies by 2020, there will be 377 data collection by removing irrelevant and inconsistent param-
million smart meters installed in China [8]. In the Brazilian eters, and efficient data analyses. To address the challenges of
scenario, there is not a mandate for electric utilities to install improving data extraction, management, and analyses in a vast
smart meters. In April 2010, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines volume of energy consumption data, we propose a cloud-based
and Energy has signed a decree to establish a workgroup system architecture for advanced energy metering. A layered
responsible for studying and planning the deployment of architecture enables us to describe the components according
monitoring systems and smart meters [9]. The investment to their purposes. Our proposed architecture uses four layers
is mainly restricted to pilot projects undertaken by power (Fig. 1). In layer 1, the smart meters allow data collection
distribution companies. Besides, implementation of time of and measurements. The sGateway for local processing and
use tariff model and distributed generation are also driving communication constitutes layer 2. Layer 3 includes machine
market growth [10]. learning techniques, analytical tools, and storage in a big data
cloud platform to convert data into knowledge. The application
B. Advanced metering infrastructures
and visualization component is found in layer 4, and it brings
Aiming for the same goal, authors have addressed important useful information to end-users.
projects and implementations in advanced metering and smart
grid. Wilcox et al present in [11] a platform for big data
solution in the domain of meter data management named
Smart Meter Analytics Scaled by Hadoop (SMASH). The
scope of this study is the cloud platform, which includes a
Hadoop ecosystem [12] performing data storing, querying,
analyses and visualization on data sets for smart meters.
The data had been collected from meter readings at a 30-
minute interval. In [6], the authors describe the proposal of
an integrated IoT architecture for electricity, water, and gas
smart metering. They have chosen Apache Spark integrated
with Hadoop ecosystem for the big data processing with
different machine learning techniques to predict the future
consumption, detection of incidents and characterization of
the kind of costumers. The work proposed in [13] presents a
cloud-based software infrastructure for smart metering named
Flexmeter, which allows handling smart meters measurements
and supporting the automation of future distribution grids and
its smart management and control. It enables communication
among IoT devices and systems, providing hardware abstrac-
tion. In [14], authors review smart meters functionalities with
a focus on data analysis aspects such as complexity, collection
velocity, and volume of data. They also survey Self-Organizing
Maps, Support Vector Machine, and other machine learning
techniques used in smart metering. Authors in [15] present
an overview of IoT-enabled smart grid with an emphasis on
Fig. 1. Proposed system architecture and its components.
power reliability, routing algorithm, and power quality. Based
on related work, we may highlight some contributions of our
proposal: A. Smart meters
• Monitoring of different electrical parameters beyond con- Smart meters are enabling keys to data extraction as they
sumption, thus allowing more insightful analyses of the are installed on the consumer side for collecting real-time
use of electrical energy in a smart city context; kilowatt-hour, voltage, current, etc [16]. Unlike conventional
• Perform data collection with a higher sample rate; meter readings where data collection is monthly, smart meters
• The sGateway, which differs from conventional gateways, provide daily, hourly or even every second data collection
enabling the system operation even without an Internet using communication networks [17]. Hence, smart meters are
connection, and promoting local processing; beneficial not only for consumers but also for utilities and the
• Design of a Load Signature Database (LSD) to infer the environment. Basically, a smart meter consists of a microcon-
usage of the distinct appliances in a smart environment. troller unit (MCU), voltage and current sensors for active and
reactive energy measurements, communication interfaces, and
III. S YSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR ADVANCED METERING most of them are equipped with LCD interface that enables
To achieve an advanced knowledge about the generation and the consumers to not only learn their electricity tariffs and
consumption of electrical energy is necessary a well-defined energy consumption patterns but also learn the quality of

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power delivered from utilities as well as the indication of a
power outage when it occurs [15]. Smart meters can be single-
phase, bi-phase, or three-phase for residential usage. Three-
phase meters are more suitable for industrial applications or
large facilities (e.g., schools and hospitals). Besides, when
measuring high power systems, indirect current measurement
techniques can be employed, in this case, smart power meter
and current transformers (hall effect sensors) are used to
achieve accurate results [18].
B. sGateway
The interoperability with smart meters from different man-
ufacturers is a hard task as there is not a standard commu-
nication protocol [6]. Most meters communicate via specific
network protocols (e.g., Zigbee, Modbus RTU). Newer models
have WiFi interface using the ESP8266 module or similar.
However, there are limitations in data access, and the nonex-
istence of APIs when the data is stored in the manufacturer's
cloud. To address this issue, the sGateway component is
proposed to collect the data from the devices regardless of the
standard protocol adopted by the manufacturer. For example,
the smart meters used in our experiments are equipped with
Modbus RTU network interface, as the most devices in the
industry segment. We built our sGateway prototypes firstly
using an Arduino and later a Raspberry Pi 3 running a Python
application over a Linux Raspibian distribution. In both cases
using Ethernet, WiFi, 4G and RS485 network interfaces.
The sGateway differs from conventional gateways by en-
abling local data processing, which reduces the time between
an event occurrence and the event being acquired and pro-
cessed by the system. The component interacts with the cloud
by connecting to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT service
through the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)
protocol over a WebSocket [19]. The AWS IoT provides secure
and bidirectional communication between the sGateway and
the cloud platform. Another advantage of this configuration is
the high level of reliability as the application can still run even
without Internet access.
C. Big data cloud platform
The big data cloud platform enables remote access to
services as infrastructures, frameworks, and software over the
Internet using the resources available in AWS. The main
features of the cloud are agility, scalability, access to any
location and by different devices (e.g., smartphones, laptops),
which allows the sharing of resources by a large group of
users, easy-to-use services, not being necessary installation
[20]. Cloud integrates all facets of ubiquitous computing by
providing scalable storage, and computational resources to
build advanced metering applications.
As aforementioned, the sGateway establishes a connection
with the AWS IoT core service which is a secure and managed
MQTT broker. At the core, the AWS IoT provides Transport
Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) crypto-
graphic protocols that use a handshake mechanism to negotiate
parameters to create a secure connection between the client
and the server [21]. Posteriorly, the data are redirected to the
AWS Kinesis that facilitates to collect, process and analyze
real-time streaming data, enabling timely insights and react
quickly to new data [22]. Lastly, the AWS Elastic MapReduce
(EMR) clusters can read and process Kinesis streams directly
using Hadoop big data ecosystem. The EMR connector for
Kinesis uses the DynamoDB database as support for check-
point metadata. We have chosen AWS services, specifically
because it has a large number of tools from data collection
to results visualization. Besides, EMR Hadoop ecosystem
accommodates the Apache Spark framework which integrates
the MLib, Spark's machine learning library. Currently, Hadoop
and Spark are the most used big data processing frameworks
[23].
D. Application and visualization component
The application and visualization component is a collection
of cloud-based software and APIs which perform the data
interpretation by creating monitoring services, dashboards, and
a user control panel. Amazon offers the QuickSight which is
a cloud-based business intelligence service that makes it easy
to deliver reports, views, and insight quickly.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
This section describes some of the experiments and tests
that are associated with the system architecture described in
the previous section. These include the selection of electrical
parameters to be analyzed, the connection between sGateway
with IoT broker, the collection of metering data to create our
dataset and preliminary results. We still progressing to create
analytical models for deeper analyzes.
A. Data acquisition
For data acquisition, we have used a residential bi-phase
multi-function smart meter from Hiking manufacturer model
DDS238-4W, illustrated in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Smart meter showing voltage value.
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 The smart meter has RS485 serial communication interface
which uses the Modbus RTU protocol and all of its functions
comply with the relative technical requirements for class one
meter. As Modbus is a request/replay protocol, the sGate-
way component was configured to operate in master mode,
while the smart meter operates in slave mode. The data has
been collected from meter readings at a 2-seconds interval
(0.5Hz sample rate). The smart meter has been installed in
the electrical panel in the entrance of the residence, whose
electrical power from the utility is 220V and frequency 60Hz.
The average power consumption of the household is 350kWh
monthly.
B. System communication
The sGateway component establishes communication with Fig. 3. Total energy consumption from January 2019 to June 15th .
the smart meter via a wire pair, therefore, the sGateway has
also been installed in the electrical panel. The data of the
The described computational tools available in the cloud
smart meter are routed to the IoT core cloud platform via
platform, allow us to analyze the energy usage behavior
WiFi 802.11b/g/n. The connection between the cloud and
deeper. We are making progress in researching Non-Intrusive
the sGateway can go through periods of downtime for a
Load Monitoring (NILM) approach [24], which is a method to
variety of reasons, including human error, system reboots,
identify the use of individual appliances avoiding the installa-
power issues, lack of Internet connectivity and others, thus the
tion of any equipment inside the consumer's property, but only
sGateway component ensures local storage. Once a connection
the smart meter in the electrical central panel. The first step
is reestablished, sGateway sends all data storage to the cloud.
of the NILM approach is to disaggregate the electrical load by
C. The dataset analyzing the power consumption signature of the appliances
The system has monitored nine different electrical parame- [25]. The load signature corresponds to the specific electrical
ters during the experiment. We have decided to use the NoSQL behavior (e.g., active and reactive power, current, frequency)
DynamoDB database to host the dataset which is being used to of an individual appliance when it is in operation [26]. Similar
evaluate the analytical models. Table I shows the parameters to human's signature, each electrical appliance contains unique
collected and their units. Regarding the "Export energy" and intrinsic features in its consumption behavior. We have already
"Import energy" parameters, these are used in the case of other taken two steps in this matter. (1) We collected the individual
energy sources besides the utility. load signature of the main appliances in our experiment (all
parameters). And (2) we stored this information in a database
TABLE I
which we named Load Signature Database (LSB). Fig. 4
E LECTRICAL PARAMETERS AND UNITS . shows the disparity of the load signature of appliances in terms
of active and reactive power.
Electrical parameters Unit
Total energy consumption kWh
Export energy kWh
Import energy kWh
Voltage V
Current A
Active power kW
Reactive power kVAR
Power factor cosφ
Frequency Hz

D. Preliminary results
Fig. 3 shows the energy consumption statistics from the six
first months of 2019. This information can help to predict en-
ergy consumption in the future, also it is possible to calculate
the charge by multiplying the number of kWh consumed by
the rate for energy in different regions. For plotting this graph
we used the parameter "Total energy consumption" that was Fig. 4. Load signature of individual appliances.
presented earlier.

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