Archive for the ‘AMR/AMM/AMI’ Category

http://www.tessco.com

This post consists of some facts and some dreams…

In the future that I believe in, almost everything will be connected and integrated with each other. You will be able to control and plan your everyday life in a new way. I believe in smart transportation plug-in hybrid vehicles that is part of the community transport system. I think that the smart vehicle will adjust its time schedule after my moves and pick me up when I need it and drive me wherever I would like to go. The people waiting for me know exactly when I will arrive. The plug-in vehicle batteries can be charged anywhere in the grid.

Does it sound too futuristic?
Visit www.skycab.se/eng or take a look at this video:

In the future that I believe in, you don’t need several cards in your wallet for bank accounts, shopping bonus cards, ID etc. You are the ID yourself by using your eyes or your fingerprints and perhaps with only one card.

Read about Precise Biometrics Match-on-Card™

Ok, what does this have to do with a Smart Grid Infrastructure?
It’s easy. Without electricity the civilization stops and this is just the beginning.
The utility companies are in the perfect position for creating new flexible and reliable services and products. In the Smart Grid everything will be more flexible and it will be easy to monitor what’s happening in the grid and automatically adjust to it. You will be able to minimize distribution losses, detect leaks, peaks and outages and much more.

There could be much more than just energy and water.

To be able to communicate in the Smart Grid you need to set up an infrastructure for telecommunication. Telecommunication will be a key in the future to come so why not build a network that all customers also can use to get access to the Internet at the same time and make some money on it? Some utility companies have decided that they don’t want to become a telecom company and stops. Other utility companies build a backbone network instead and invite telecom operating companies to use it for its traffic. This enables a deregulated market which is good for the end customers.

Here’s a link to one utility company in Sweden that provides an open city network.
www.jonkopingenergi.se/web/Bredband (Swedish)
www.jonkopingenergi.se/web/Bredband (Google translate)

With a Smart Grid Infrastructure you will be able to adapt to new services and products.

What is a smart grid and why should it be built?

Electricity is produced at the same time as it is consumed. There are no ways energy can be stored in large volumes yet. This means that if for example there is a blackout somewhere in the network the power plants will produce too much electricity. With too much electricity produced the demand will decrease which will affect the electricity prices in the grid. Of course the opposite behaviour will be used if the demand is increasing because of a cold winter’s day or clouds blocking the sun for the solar cells for example.
A Smart Grid could react much faster than the traditional grid and lower the production faster or route the power in another way automatically which makes it possible to minimize the blackout area faster. A Smart Grid could be constructed and programmed to become kind of self healing. The Smart Grid could save money and also the environment.

The metering devices in a Smart Grid should send information in real time to be able to react as soon as possible. The communication latency is a problem for building the Smart Grid. Some AMR systems communicate its data with a relay time of about 24 hours. They are most common for meters installed on the countryside where there are large distances between each delivery site. There are other metering systems that could send information in real time.

The Swedish parliament have decided that all network companies in Sweden should read all electricity meters at least once a month for delivery sites with a fuse size lower than or equal to 63A (Ampere). Delivery sites above the fuse size of 63A should be read once an hour. How and when the data is sent depends on what system that is being used but most meter readings are sent once a day (for hour values) and once a month (for monthly readings). For those network companies that installed a metering system designed for the minimal requirements it could be costly to upgrade the grid to a smart one. This might be something that should be in mind for those utility companies planning for a new AMI project.

Read more about Smart Grids at Wikipedia.org

Enerway Definitions

Energy and network companies are updated with Finland.
We have also added a link that translates different languages to English by using Google Translate. You can choose to click on the ordinary company link or use the Translated Company Link on the right side.
It doesn’t translate the text perfectly but is a little help at least!

Follow this link or take a look at the Enerway pages!

MECOMS offers a metering and contract management system with a lot of features. Planning, Analysis, Contract & Billing, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Messaging module for functionality related to EDI, Forecasting, Settlement, Meter Data Collection, Finance and more.

Visit their website for more information
www.mecoms.com

If you are a MECOMS user or developer, sign in and tell us more about it!

Berg Insight says 96.3 million European households will have smart meters by 2014

Gothenburg, Sweden – June 29, 2009: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.2 percent between 2008 and 2014 to reach 96.3 million at the end of the period. The strong uptake of intelligent metering puts within reach the EU-wide target that 80 percent of the households should have smart meters by 2020. Providing consumers with detailed information about their electricity consumption, the new generation of meters give customers control over energy costs and create financial incentives for energy savings.

The adoption of smart meters started in Italy and has continued in the Nordic countries where Sweden decided to make smart meters mandatory from July 2009, starting a trend for the rest of Europe. “Today, Sweden has become the first country in the world to achieve 100 percent penetration for smart meters”, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “In the next years Italy, Ireland, Norway and Finland will follow and by the end of the next decade many more countries including France, Spain and the UK will also have smart meters.”

He adds that some countries are moving slower due to resistance from certain stakeholders. The Netherlands has postponed the rollout of smart meters following a heated debate over the potential risk that remote monitoring of energy consumption would lead to privacy violations and in Germany the government is reluctant to impose what could be perceived as a surveillance technology. “The privacy threat from smart meters is grossly exaggerated”, said Ryberg. “They are opposed because they represent a new technology for collecting information in a time when large groups of people are afraid of the consequences of living in an information based society. Indeed the energy industry has a major responsibility in protecting the privacy of its customers, but first and foremost it must work to create a sustainable energy system in which smart meters are an essential component.”

About Berg Insight
Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

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This video is a commercial from Echelon where they talk about smart cities.

“A complete smart city is one in which there is an invisible network of devices that are smart, they can communicate. And each of these devices can control themselves.”
-Bea Yormark. President and COO, Echelon

“Buildings are the major user of electrical energy. 65% of the electricity is used in buildings.
Just taking building control system and the devices in buildings and making them energy aware and making them intelligent and communicating will reducing the energy by 20-30%. The cost is very little, it will pay for itself very quickly. Echelon makes this open technology and the metering infrastructure but we don’t deliver in use products. We depend on thousands of companies to do that.”
-Ken Oshman. Chairman and CEO, Echelon

www.echelon.com

Link to Hydro One Networks

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