End-to-end solutions to boost smart meter installation

In a discussion, Dhiman Chakraborty, DGM, Delta Electronics talks about how the installation process of smart meters across the country can be sped up, and how metering data transmission can be improved. He also talks about the company’s latest launches for the electrical sector.

Despite the numerous benefits of smart meters, why is the installation of smart meters across the country taking place at a slow rate?
Communication technologies are most important for smart meters, which defines regular flow of data in both directions. In case of any issue such as unavailability of required frequency in any area, feasibility and line of site issue with RF, etc. are revealed during survey, deployment process has to be delayed and in many cases deferred. In India, we haven’t yet evaluated multiple communication technologies related to smart meters and AMI. Till date, only GPRS and RF are installed and being used by the industry majorly. The industry is still evaluating technologies like NB-IoT, LoRA, LTE-M which may take some more time for production deployment. NB-IoT is likely to be used by industries as major communication technology in long run because of its reliability and higher data rate though it’s much expensive than GPRS or RF.

Moreover, nobody has complete end-to-end solution, from smart meter manufacturing to meter data management system (MDMS), which in simple words is a SAP and Oracle database system where the end-to-end billing is done based on the input received from Head End system, so coordination is so important here.

What should be done to speed up the installation process?
As explained, this is always a challenge here as owner of each service is different in most of the cases. So, coordination among different service providers like system integrators, MDMS provider and OEMs like meter manufacturer, communication module and Head End System (HES) provider, Telco are most important to expedite the process. In India, Delta has taken smart metering initiative to help DISCOMs with its communication solution like GPRS, RF-Mesh, 4G, LTE, NB-IoT Module and its own Head End System or Private Cloud. Delta is interested and keen to partner with key system integrators and MDMS service owners.

How can the transmission of metering data be enhanced for a more efficient T&D system?
Basically, smart meter data can be enhanced by addressing a few key areas of impact: customer experience improvements through better customer insights, better understanding of consumption behaviour, reduced billing challenges and by providing more control to consumers over their consumption decisions. If you think from the technology point of view, various electrical components are pushed to gateway and HES from meters, using which DISCOMs control power quality, analyse monitoring report, introduce automation to disconnect/reconnect electricity and moreover reduce usage so that the billing is reduced.

Communication solution and MDMS are most important here considering reliability and data security. These should not be compromised to deliver an efficient T&D system.

Can you talk about your new product plans for this year?
Our core focus remains to be communication technology solution; manufacturing meter is still not in our plan. Other products like 4k display, controller, inverters, I-cool solutions and others were launched recently at ELECRAMA 2020.