Smart meters at the heart of power sector modernisation

The industry is innovating with localisation, advanced data practices and next-gen communication technologies to accelerate smart meter rollout.

The energy meter is at the heart of the ongoing digital shift in the power sector. Energy meters with advanced monitoring and communication features have now become smart, and we call them ‘smart meters’. By providing real-time consumption data, enabling prepaid models and supporting demand forecasting, smart meters are redefining the consumer-utility relationship. There are challenges in the way of deployment speed, reliable communication, cybersecurity, and inclusion of agricultural consumers. The industry is innovating with localisation, advanced data practices and next-gen communication technologies to accelerate rollout. Consultants in the industry play a prominent advisory role to make smart meters more feasible and applicable. Let us delve into the article with Anukram Mishra to gain insight into the industry.  

Emerging innovations or deployment strategies

To know the innovative deployment strategies of smart meters, let us first try to understand the basics of electricity generation, distribution and consumption. Electricity is consumed the moment it is produced, and the demand keeps varying with time. Hence, the challenge is always to control the production of energy in sync with demand at each point in time, and also keep the demand curves as flat as possible. Integration of non-fossil fuel energy (Solar, wind, biomass, hydel, nuclear) is another critical and time-bound goal to meet the commitments made by the government. This is necessary to check the looming threat of global warming and climate change. The equation becomes even more complex with renewable distributed energy resources (DERs), prosumers (energy producers-cum-consumers) and an increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs). Some examples of useful initiatives being taken to store green energy are efficient and effective battery storage, pumped water and green hydrogen.

Smart meter data is the heart of the solution, called smart grid, that leverages the latest technologies of measurements, data generation, edge computing, IoT communication, real-time data analytics and critical control actions to increase utilisation of renewables. It provides real-time information on the demand characteristics of all consumption points. Using modern data science tools, it is possible to forecast the demand accurately, leading to planning and optimised integration of all the energy sources and improving continuously towards the carbon-neutral target to be achieved by the year 2070. The main issues in smart meter deployment seem to be in meeting the required speed in meter installation and experiencing unreliable communication systems. AMI service providers (AMISPs) are experimenting with emerging communication technologies and adding redundancy for better reliability in 2-way communication, which is essential for meeting the service level agreements (SLA) committed by the AMISPs. Hybrid RF and cellular technologies are being tried with initial success in trials.

Test beds with development servers are designed to integrate the smart meters into the HES and MDM systems and run test cases to ascertain scalability and cybersecurity compliance. All the functional use cases are exercised in worst-case scenarios of electrical, environmental, network and data throughput. This reduces the probability of bad surprises impeding project execution. Modern tools are being used at consumer meter sites for network survey and consumer indexing to improve preparation and support, enabling an efficient deployment of smart meters.

Metering industry

If we look in our own houses, a static electricity meter might be the only product which is truly designed in India and designed for India. This is designed with the world-famous anti-tamper features produced 100 per cent in India at a rate of about 30-40 million per annum for the last 25 years.

The Indian metering industry is 30 years old, too mature to understand and cater to the requirements of our utilities. The entire ecosystem worked collaboratively to release the related standards in 2015 and 2017. This has provided ample time for the manufacturers and testing labs to build quality and reliability in the products and facilities. The people are well-trained and learning fast in India, as more than 12 per cent of smart meters have already been deployed in the last 3 years and are functioning well. The government’s impetus on promoting semiconductor fabs will help the smart metering program in the long run.

The utilities fully own the smart meter data, and they are taking strict measures to keep it secure. The model followed by mobile phone telecom service providers is a good example. Consumer data is kept confidential, but if needed, it is made available to authorities for their investigation. Over time, as the scale increases, the data security measures, checks, and balances are also improving.

Making recharge platforms seamless

The challenge in the smart meter sector lies in meeting the goal of smooth and stable functioning of 250 million smart meters on a massive scale within 3-5 years. The recharge mechanism is governed by the upper layers of the system, called meter data management (MDM). The success of UPI has already addressed the payment part of the challenge, and the system is made simple compared to STS-20-based conventional prepaid meters. The complex tariff and billing calculations related to prepayment are done centrally at the resourceful and safe MDM, and the resource-constrained meters are issued only the encrypted connect/disconnect commands. Prepayment mode is quite popular in mobile telephones, where it helps users to budget and control their usage. The electricity consumers would realise the same advantage in due course. The utilities should spread awareness of the benefits of smart meters and offer incentive schemes for choosing the prepaid mode of payment instead of making it mandatory and imposed.

Metering for agriculture

Agricultural consumers are already treated separately from other sectors. The reason could be cross-subsidies offered to farmers. As a result, farmers are treated with lower priority and electricity is made available to them at odd hours and for a shorter duration. Accurate demand forecasting for farmers using smart meters can benefit the cause. Metering for agriculture should be given due focus so that higher-quality electricity as a service could be provided to them based on the data collected. Researchers are suggesting innovations like storing energy in high-rise water tanks during off-peak hours.

Conclusion

The smart metering journey is more than a technology upgrade; it is a transformation of the entire power ecosystem. The innovations in the sector, accompanied by strong policy, have boosted the deployment of smart meters. India is well-positioned to scale smart meters with a mature metering industry, strong standards and government support. This will help in driving efficiency, transparency and sustainability towards its net-zero vision.

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