Bruce Raw

Energy Programme Manager

GreenCape

South Africa

Smart Metering

Smart Metering Standards in

South Africa

What is a smart meter?

• A digital conventional meter fitted with two-way communications capability so that remote operations can be carried out; for instance:

• meter reading, • tariffs updating • tampering detection • remote customer disconnection and

re-connection

Goals for Smart Metering?

• Revenue collection

• Embedded Generation

• Revenue Protection

• Peak Shifting

• Network Optimization

• Policy

Smart Meter Minimum Functionality

• Accurate Metering

• Remote Meter reading

• Pre-Paid & Post Paid billing

• Time of Use Billing

• Remote disconnect/reconnect

• Bi-Directional Metering

• Load Limiting

• Tamper Detection

Extra Smart Meter Functionality

• Quality of Supply

• Outage Detection

• Remote Firmware upgrades

• Customer Information Portal

• Other metering (water/gas)

• GPS

• Home area networks

Drivers for Standards

• Lower Cost

• Interoperability

• Interchangeability

Drivers for Interoperability

• No Vendor Lock-in

– Not forced to stick with a certain supplier

– Changing supplier does not require replacement of existing equipment

• Future Expansion

– Future systems such as outage management systems benefit from being interoperable with AMI

Drivers for Interchangeability

• Replacement of meters

– Technicians only need to know one meter installation.

– Only need to stock one type of meter

• Kiosks

– Kiosks can accommodate meters from multiple vendors

– No need to replace all meters in kiosk

Communications Options Explored

• APN (GSM, GPRS)

• PLC (Power Line Communications)

• Zigbee

• RF Mesh

• RF P2MP (Point to Multi-Point)

• ADSL

What/Where APN PLC ZigBee RF Mesh RF P2MP ADSL

Headend –

Concentrator Yes No No No Yes Yes

Concentrator

– Meter Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Meter – CIU No Yes Yes No No No

Meter –

Headend Yes No No No No No

Standards Key Stakeholders

• Eskom

• Metros

• SASGI

• NRS

• SABS

Smart Metering Standards Process

• Develop a list of minimum functional requirements

• Develop functional specification

• Develop Technical Specification

• Key focus:

– Split-Prepaid Smart Metering

– Interchangeable

– Shared Coms

Some Key Elements

• STS Prepayment

• Time of Use Metering

• Open communications protocols

Desired Outcomes Summary

• Split Smart Pre-Paid Meter Specification – Interoperable

– Interchangeable

– Affordable

– Possible

• Large Scale Rollouts of Smart Metering

Thank you

Backup Slides

Advantages & Disadvantages - APN

• Advantages: – Cellular networks already

exist, so low Capex required from the municipality.

• Disadvantages: – Shared use of GSM networks

results in erratic service levels (e.g. high latency and low throughput).

– Possibly poor coverage in some areas.

– Continual Opex Cost

Advantages & Disadvantages - PLC

• Advantages: – Widely-used and mature.

Standards groups such as G3-PLC

– Use of existing LV infrastructure lowers the costs of PLC.

– 100% coverage where meters are present.

• Disadvantages: – PLC is a broadcast technology,

so security is critical.

– Power lines are noisy and this can cause problems

– Low data rates (e.g. 20 Kbps).

– The network topology has large impacts on signal quality and data throughput and performance is difficult to model and predict.

Advantages & Disadvantages - Zigbee

• Advantages: – Uses the free 2.4GHz

Frequency.

– Ultra low-power.

– Low cost of deployment.

• Disadvantages: – Low processing capacity.

– Interference-prone.

– Small memory capacity.

– Interference-prone.

– Short range, requires high density.

Advantages & Disadvantages - RF Mesh

• Advantages: – Self-organising and self-

healing, self-configuration.

– High scalability.

– Meters can act as signal repeaters.

• Disadvantages: – Limited network capacity.

– Attenuation and interference problems.

– Limited range, requires fairly high density.

– Encryption required.

– Subject to routing loops.

– Usually need a 3rd party to manage the RF network.

Advantages & Disadvantages – RFP 2MP

• Advantages: – High data rates.

– Low latencies.

– Good coverage.

• Disadvantages: – Costly infrastructure.

– Encryption required.

– Interference-prone if unlicensed frequency bands are used.

Advantages & Disadvantages - ADSL

• Advantages: – Widespread geographic

availability.

– High bandwidth and data rates.

– Low latencies.

• Disadvantages: – May Require communications

cables to be laid.

– Might not be available in all areas.

– In SA ADSL is still relatively expensive (unless the customer already has ADSL).