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Smart metering worldwide deployment
scenarios and IoT based approach for India
Shobhit Jain, Pradish M
jain.shobhit90@gmail.com,
pradish@cpri.in
CPRI, Bangalore, India
A Paventhan, Neena Pahuja,
Sai Krishna Allu
paventhan@eis.ernet.in
ERNET India, Bangalore
Ronak Sutaria
ronak_sutaria@mindtree.com
Mindtree Research Labs
Mumbai, India
Abstract—Smart meters are being deployed worldwide
on a pilot basis by various utilities. Often conventional
electronic meters implementing Automated Meter
Reading using proprietary protocols are faced with
integration and interoperability challenges. In this
paper, we present an overview of some of the smart
metering deployments in progress worldwide. An
overview of standards and protocols to realize the
Internet of Things (IoT) based approach to smart
metering in the Indian context and how emerging
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP) can be utilized for smart
metering are also discussed.
Keywords: Internet of Things, Smart Meter, 6LoWPAN,
RPL, CoAP.
I INTRODUCTION
With the advancement in Telecom & Information
& Communication Technologies (ICT), Power
utilities are adopting various levels of automation in
the power systems network. One such recent
adoption is in Smart Grid applications and Smart
Metering plays a vital role in this context. Various
communication technologies are being tried out for
successful Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
pilots that are highlighted in this paper and an IoT
based approach for Smart Meter is also presented.
Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to drive many
internet standardization efforts and shape how future
real world internet communication happens. The
impact of IoT is increasing as more and more devices
seamlessly integrate into the internet infrastructure.
The combination of technology with
industries/utilities leads to innovation in solutions,
market efficiency and sophistication in business
prospects. The era IoT will enable new approach to
internet application development in fields such as
structural monitoring, health monitoring, agriculture
automation, home/office automation etc. The smart
grid is also expected to be one of the key application
driver of the IoT. IoT is a twenty-first century
phenomenon in which physical consumer products
connect to the web and start communicating with
each other by means of measuring and controlling
mechanism [1]. Internet of Things can be viewed
from three different perspectives: “Things Oriented”,
“Internet Oriented” and “Semantic Oriented” [2]. The
IoT devices such as RFID tags [3], sensors, actuators,
NFC are emphasized in "Things Oriented". In
"Internet Oriented" approach the focus is on the
protocols such as IPv6 for low-rate personal area
networks (6LoWPAN), Constrained Application
Protocols (CoAP) and Routing Protocol for Low
power Lossy Network (RPL). While the "Semantic
oriented" approach looks at semantic descriptions and
representations of sensors / devices, device discovery
and service compositions for application
development enabling “a world-wide network of
interconnected objects uniquely addressable, based
on standard communication protocols”[4]. According
to the Cluster of European Commission projects
[5] on the IoT, “Things having identities and
virtual personalities operating in smart spaces
using intelligent interfaces to connect and
communicate within social, environmental, and user
contexts.”
IETF is developing protocols such as 6LoWPAN,
RPL and CoAP to enable IoT applications based on
open standards based approach becomes possible and
these protocols will address many of the
interoperability challenges. In this paper, we look at
how smart metering application can be realized based
on some of these protocols. Smart Meters can
compute, store and communicate the energy meter
data to the head end system upon request or can
initiate a communication based on specific
configuration settings. Also, it can receive
information from the head end system and act upon
it. For example, utilities can communicate time
dependent tariffs in order to incentivize customers
having lower utilization during peak-time. In India,
Electric Utilities are planning for deployment of
Smart Meters on a pilot basis. There are various
forums including Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),
India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), India Smart Grid
Task Force (ISGTF) that are working to bring
standards in Smart Metering to help in utilities'
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compliance. Also, it is understood from the utilities
experience that in most cases the conventional
electronic meters supplied by various vendors use
proprietary communication protocols, and
implementing Automated Meter Reading
successfully and integrating with the entire system is
going to be a challenge.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section
II highlights some of worldwide deployment of smart
meters in progress. Section III presents the different
standards /protocols that can be used for smart
metering. Section IV provides the detailed IoT based
approach of smart metering application requirements.
Section V describes about smart metering in Indian
context, challenges with ageing infrastructure and an
android app using CoAP. Finally, section VI presents
the conclusion.
WORLDWIDE SMART METERING
DEPLOYMENT
With recent advancements in ICT, the Global power
utility companies are focusing on deployment of
smart meter technology. Smart meters are energy
efficient, easy to operate with real time monitoring
help in Demand Response along with various other
features like remote connect/disconnect, two way
communication, recording of bi-directional flow of
electricity, remote programming capability etc.
Table-1 provides summary of the technology and
smart metering infrastructure challenges in some of
the major countries.
A. Italy
Italy is considered to be the first country to deploy
smart meter. ENEL utility has begun its project
“Telgestore” in 2001[6] with the first commercial
installation of smart grid technology. ENEL has
rolled out about 32 million meters over the last
decade, linked with PLC technology for the backbone
communication and GSM for the last mile
connectivity[7]. Major countries have begun smart
metering projects subsequent to the successful
deployment under this project [8].
B. France
ERDF has executed "Linky" pilot project with the
plan to modernize electricity meters nation-wide and
a strategic supplier[9] fulfilling the requirement.
France aims to deploy 35 million smart meters for 30
million consumers at a cost of about €5 billion by
2020. It is estimated that up to 80% of the meters will
be made in France [10]. So far, about 30,000 smart
meters have been deployed as part of the pilot
project. ERDF has planned to use G3-PLC
technology for last mile connectivity and the GSM
interface for the backend connectivity to the utility
network. The main focus of this pilot is to reduce the
CO2 emission with the target to achieve between 5 to
15% savings on the electricity bills.
C. UK
In UK, Smart Metering implementation
programme is introduced by “Energy Demand
Research Project” (EDRP) in 2007. As a part of this
project, electricity suppliers EDF, Scottish and
Southern energy, Scottish Power and E.ON are
installing over 50 million smart meters in about 30
million homes and small businesses with "In home
display units" in households. This smart metering
initiative is expected to complete by 2020 [11].
D. Ireland
Ireland’s Commission for Energy Regulation (CER)
announced its plans to rollout smart meters between
2014 and 2019 [12]. It has initiated the
implementation of National Smart Metering
Programme (NSMP) involving stakeholders from the
energy sector to “digitalise” the nation’s electricity
Country
Major
Utilities
Technology
Challenges & Features
HAN
WAN
Italy
ENEL
PLC
GSM/GP
RS/PST
N
Energy consumption, control system, homogenous and distributed Multi-level
Policy and rules (user, utility, authority) sustainability, optimization and reduction
of energy consumption
France
ERDF
PLC
GPRS
Standards for a common architecture and Interoperability of the various
Communication technologies
UK
EDF
ZigBee
PLC
Cyber threats, Security, Over The Air (OTA) wave coordinating stakeholders
services and investment
Brazil
APTEL
PLC
FTTH
Regulated or liberalized meter market
Ireland
ESB
ZigBee/
Wi-Fi
PLC
Quality of Service (QoS), smooth transition to future technologies and cost
reductions
U.S
Southern
California
Edison
PLC/BP
L
WIMAX/
2G/3G
Reliability and sustainability, Revolutionize energy management and grid
reliability
TABLE I. OVIEW OF SMART METER DEPLOYMENT OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
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and gas metering. ESB deployed 10,000 smart
meters in Irish homes so far.
E. Brazil
Along with Brazilian government APTEL, one of
the utility association is conducting trials using
narrowband power line carriers. Various utilities are
conducting smart grid pilots including “Ampla”, the
Spanish utility “Endesa”, “AES Eletropaulo”, that are
deploying smart meters. There are also attempts to
use existing fiber-optic backbone in order to ensure
secure networks while deploying smart meters.
F. United States
In the U.S, utilities have installed about 49
million smart meters that use 2G/3G cellular for last
mile connectivity with BPL, PLC used for Home
Area Network (HAN). Institute of Electric Efficiency
(IEE) provides a deployment estimate of about 65
million smart meters by 2015 in the U.S[13].
In all, we could see major countries have
already begun their smart metering pilots using
various communication technology options based on
the local demands. To the best of our knowledge,
utilities yet to adopt Internet of Things based
approach to smart metering considering that some of
the IoT standards are still emerging.
III IOT STANDARDS/PROTOCOLS FOR SMART
METERING
A. IEEE standards
IEEE 802.15.4™-2011 standard [14] offers
Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer
(PHY) control layers for low cost Low-Rate Wireless
Personal Area Networks (WPANs) with consumed
very less power require personal and operating range
of 10m. The standard uses carrier sense multiple
access with collision avoidance (CSMA-CA) medium
access mechanism and supports star as well as peer-
to-peer topologies. LoWPAN physical layers (PHYs)
are defined for devices operating in the license-free
868 868.6 MHz, 902 928 MHz, and 2400 2483.5
MHz bands. WPAN consists of set of devices
communicating on the same physical channel. The
WPAN network should include at least one Fully
Functional Device (FFD), which operates as the PAN
coordinator and other devices can be Reduced
Functional Devices (RFD) is an end device that
provides short set of services. The raw data rate
supported by this standard ranges from 20 kb/s or
below (suitable to the needs of ultra low power
devices) to 250 kb/s to satisfy specific applications
needs. IEEE Std 802.15.4f™ 2012 [15], is an
amendment defining two alternate PHY layers and
the changes required to MAC layer to support Active
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) System. IEEE
Std 802.15.4g™ 2012 [16] amendment specifies
three alternate PHYs and MAC modifications needed
to support principally outdoor, low-data-rate,
wireless, smart metering utility network (SUN)
applications under multiple regulatory domains.
B. DLMS/COSEM & ANSI
Device Language Message Specification (DLMS)
is an application layer protocol supporting multiple
transport layer options including Ethernet, PLC and
IPv4. Companion Specification for Energy Metering
(COSEM) specifies the data model with their
attributes and methods. DLMS/COSEM are open
standards managed by DLMS user association [17]
and it was published as a series of IEC 62056 & EN
13757 standards. ANSI C12.22 [18] standard
provides set of application level messaging services
for end-devices and enterprises of an Advanced
Metering Infrastructure (AMI). ANSI C12.19 defines
data structures for metering data and the list of
functions exposed by a smart meter to a client device.
IETF RFC 6142 provides a framework for
transporting ANSI C12.22 application layer messages
over an IP network. There are also attempts
implementing Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP) for low power wireless network.
Figure 1 shows the relevant open protocol standards
for smart metering applications. At the physical and
MAC layer, IEEE P1901.2 Narrowband Power Line
Communications (NB-PLC) system enables
transmission of data over power lines and its MAC
layer aligns with IEEE 802.15.4 making 6LoWPAN
layering possible. IEEE 802.15.4g Smart Metering
Utility Networks is a PHY amendments to Low rate
WPAN standard supporting multiple data rates in
bands ranging from 169 MHz to 2450 MHz. IEEE
802.15.4e MAC amendments incorporates several
new techniques to support various industrial
applications. The Internet Protocol 6LoWPAN, RPL
and CoAP application layer were discussed in the
following sections. These new IETF protocols for
low power, low rate wireless environment enable
successful integration of these resource constrained
networks into existing IP-based infrastructure.
C. PRIME
PRIME[19] stands for PoweRline Intelligent
Metering Evolution that defines lower layers (PHY,
MAC and convergence layer) of a narrow band PLC.
PRIME subnet work consists of base node (root of
the tree) and service nodes (all other nodes). PRIME
supports OFDM multiplexing in CENELEC-A band
with a raw data rate up to 130 kbps. The PHY
layer transmits and receives MAC PDUs between
Neighbors Nodes.
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Fig. 1. Open Protocol Standards Stack for Smart Metering
D. IETF PROTOCOLS
I. 6LoWPAN & Mesh Networks for Smart Grids
The IETF 6LoWPAN working group has defined
specifications [20, 21] to efficiently transport IPv6
datagram over IEEE 802.15.4 links. The Internet
Protocol (IP) is predominantly used over Ethernet
links that offer increasingly high throughput. The
transmission of IPv6 packet over LoWPAN links are
faced with several challenges due to the resource
constraints of 802.15.4 devices. Figure 2 shows the
6LoWPAN adaptation layer defined by IETF
specifications [20, 21] works between IPv6 and
802.15.4 MAC layer to support IPv6 packet delivery
in LoWPAN networks performing fragmentation,
header compression and layer2 forwarding
considering that the minimum IPv6 MTU (1280
bytes) is much larger than the largest 802.15.4 frame
size (127 bytes).
Fig. 2. 6LoWPAN Protocol Stack
6LoWPAN based Mesh Networks are being
actively used in Smart Grid applications which go
beyond metering and quantitative usage related
information. These 6LoWPAN Mesh Networks are
also being used for power qualities monitoring [22]
which are parameters such as continuity of service,
variation in voltage magnitude, transient voltages and
currents, harmonic content in waveforms, etc.
Currently, large commercial network analyzers are
being used to detect power fluctuations which can
cause damage to consumer equipment. It is possible
to substitute the centralized and expensive power
analyzers by a number of smart meters which are
distributed over a large geographical area forming an
IPv6 based mesh network. Such a smart meter mesh
network can provide sufficient information of power
quality while keeping the upfront capital investments
at a minimum.
II. Smart Meter Mesh Networks using RPL DODAG
Topology
In a typical urban Smart Meter deployment, the
number of meters in a single smart electric mesh
network could be in the order of 5,000 to 10,000
meters. In an Urban or Smart City IoT solution,
besides the smart electric meters, smart metering can
also involve the smart water meters and smart air
pollution monitoring devices. Hence, in a typical IoT
enabled Urban Smart Metering solution which is built
on standardized protocols can end up involving tens
of thousands of wireless endpoints. While the smart
electric meters can use the power available from the
same electric feed that it is monitoring, water and air
pollution meters would be running on modest sources
of stored energy (e.g. batteries, energy harvesters,
etc.). In the context of two-way wireless
communication, data from all of these smart meters
would need to be routed from the source to sink in
unicast (point-to-point), multicast (multipoint-to-
point and point-to-multipoint) and broadcast manner,
keeping in mind the power constraints of some of the
low powered smart meters.
IETF ROLL Working Group has published an
informational RFC that is focussed on the routing
requirements for urban Low-Power and Lossy
Networks (LLNs) [23]. Also, there is a standards
draft that is getting defined to discuss the
applicability of Routing Protocol for LLNs (RPL) in
AMI and Smart Metering networks [24].
RPL uses ICMPv6 messages to build an IPv6 based
Mesh Network. The topology used to build these
networks is that of a Destination Oriented Directed
Acyclic Graph (DODAG). As described above,
Smart Meter based mesh networks can consists of
several thousand wireless nodes (each node can be a
Smart Meter). In order to transmit Smart Meter data
in a multi-hop environment, the algorithm utilizes
pre-determined routing metrics and optimization
functions to give ranks to the various nodes.
Application
Layer
Transport Layer
Network Layer
(IPv6)
Adaptation
Layer
MAC
IEEE 802.15.4
PHY
IEEE 802.15.4
IETF
6LoWPAN
IEEE 802.15.4
CoAP
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Fig. 3. DODAG Smart Meter Nodes with Ranks[36]
The RPL algorithm uses three key ICMPv6 control
messages, as described in [25]. The wireless routing
table is then built and propagated based on
minimizing the path cost to the DODAG root. In
Figure 3, node rank 3 uses node rank 1 to send data to
the sink (node rank 0).
Smart Meter DODAG Mesh Networks built with this
topology allows for great deal of flexibility and
dynamicity in the way smart meter nodes may
associate, disassociate or disappear from the smart
grid network. The dynamicity of the smart meter
functioning does not impact the routing of the data in
the rest of the smart grid network.
III. CoAP
IETF Constrained RESTful Environment (core)
[26] working group is defining Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP) that is a generic web
protocol designed to meet the requirements of the
resource constrained network environment. CoAP
resources are organized hierarchically and they are
identified by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)
using a
scheme similar to HTTP. The CoAP request
methods that act on the
resources are GET, POST,
PUT and DELETE.
IV IOT APPROACH TO SMART METERING
1. Internet Protocols based Smart Metering
Architecture
The major objective in the IoT based approach is
to leverage Internet Protocol standards end-to-end
for smart metering. The key benefits of IP-based
approach are that it is based on open protocol
standards suitable for large-scale deployments. While
many physical, data link and applications layer
protocols relevant for smart grid are defined by IEEE,
IEC, DLMS/COSEM and ITU, the core internet
protocols in network, transport and application layers
such as 6LoWPAN, RPL and CoAP are being
defined at IETF. These new IETF protocols for low
power, low rate wireless environment enable
successful integration of resource constrained
networks into existing IP-based infrastructure.
Commercial Smart Grid technology vendors are
building end-to-end IPv6 enabled solutions which are
built on open-standards based protocols. These
include not only Smart Meters but also Mesh
Networks and Distribution Automation [27].
Figure 3 shows the architecture that leverages
open internet protocols for Smart Metering
application. The components and the functions of
each in the design is explained below.
Figure 3: IoT enabled Smart Metering Architecture
Home Area Network (HAN): The HAN is a mesh
network of smart metering nodes communicating
through 6LoWPAN / RPL protocol over IEEE
802.15.4 LoWPAN or PLC. Multiple IP border
routers help in connecting to different WAN
technologies. The Home Area Network connectivity
on customer premises may be further extended
beyond Smart Meter to include smart devices like In
Home Display Unit (IHDU) to help user monitor
power consumption, smart thermostat that can
respond to peak-load-signaling from utilities, smart
plugs that can control power usage of electrical
appliances etc.
Wide Area Network (WAN): The WAN connectivity
enables end-to-end IP connectivity between smart
metering nodes to the Head-End System (HES). IP
border routers connecting to WAN is required to be
configured with dual stack supporting 6-to-4
tunneling when it connects IPv6 HAN network to a
IPv4-only WAN infrastructure such as GPRS/3G
cellular networks.
Utilities: The Utilities end administers functions such
as Network Management System (NMS)/Head-End
System, Meter Data Management System (MDMS)
and billing information. The head-end system in
addition to collecting customer electricity usage data,
performs functions like addressing group of meters
simultaneously using multicast, for e.g., to perform
software upgrade, parameters updates by network
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management system (NMS) to all meters, and meter
reading queries to subsets of the meters.
Security: Smart meters can join the system by using
authentication mechanism defined in IEEE 802.1xs,
PKI X.509 certificate or AAA/RADIUS before they
communicate with the AMI head-end systems using
their link local IPv6 address. The smart meter node
can join the RPL domain and obtain the global IPv6
address using DHCPv6 and make use of DNS
services.
2. Smart Meter Interoperability with IoT enabled
Smart Devices
Smart Meters which can communicate over
standardized protocols such as CoAP can be made to
interoperate with Mobile Smart Phones like Android
using the Californium CoAP framework [28]. A
number of IoT enabled devices have their control
interfaces available via Android Smart Phones.
Companies manufacturing IoT enabled devices like
Nest (now acquired by Google), Philips Hue, GE
Wireless lighting, etc. provide Android apps to
control these devices. These apps also know the
usage profile of the devices they control. Energy
utility companies would be interested in knowing the
usage profiles of energy consumption of individual
households, as that can help them better manage the
demand-generation of the electricity that they supply.
Smart Meters can be enabled to send their usage
profiles (the duration for which they were on and the
amount of electricity that was consumed by the
device). This device usage information can be
communicated back to the Smart Meters using the
CoAP protocol. This could be done directly by the
device or sent via the Android Smart Phone. Smart
Meters can be enabled to receive this information
from the IoT devices and send it back to the Utility
companies along-with the periodic Meter Reading
data. Electricity/Utility companies would be
immensely benefitted by having fine-grained and
detailed data of electricity usage patterns of their
consumers. There are attempts already to use CoAP
for eMeter framework [35] for designing over the
web.
V SMART METERING IN INDIAN CONTEXT
As we have seen in section II, there are different
smart metering approaches worldwide providing
insights for smart metering solution in the Indian
context. Considering that smart metering still in its
early stage of deployment in India, an IoT approach
to Smart Metering will enable better integration with
existing internet infrastructure.
According to recent industry reports, distribution
utilities globally are expected to spend US$378
billion in smart grid technologies by 2030 where
India is estimated to install 130 million smart meters
by 2021 [29]. Government of India has taken
initiative to develop a cleaner energy supply that is
more efficient, affordable and sustainable. In this
regard, The India Smart Grid Task Force (ISGTF) is
focusing on all activities related to smart grid. Under
the ISGTF, in March 2011, a Smart Meter Task
Group was formed to discuss the development of
cost-effective metering solutions that can be applied
within the Indian context. The ISGTF initiated 14
smart grid pilots in the nation with specific inclusion
of smart meters. These pilot project forecasts the
challenges for a large-scale rollout in the following
years. The pilots will focus on addressing three key
issues: 1) Reduction of aggregate technical and
commercial (AT & C) losses, 2) Peak load
management, and 3) Integration of renewable energy
like wind and solar into the grid.The number of
installation of smart meter in India will be huge
considering that, the growth of data volume,
managing the deluge will become increasingly
challenging in smart metering. A network
infrastructure having local computing to empower
decision making at the edge of the network will save
time and cost. It is neither feasible nor desirable for
utilities to invest in super computers or to transport
all data to a central location. Some applications
require central data presentation, processing and
command while others do not [30].
Government of India has exempted certain
frequency bands from licensing requirement (Table
2). The sub-1Ghz frequency offers number of
advantages over 2.4 GHz for low-powered devices in
applications that require simple point-to-point
communications and low data rate. Sub GHz RF
modules consume less energy for communication as
compared 2.4 GHz, achieve longer communication
range (for e.g., at 434 MHz signals can reach 5.5
times greater than 2.4 GHz providing communication
between two nodes beyond 1 Km), offer less
interference compared to 2.4 GHz that is crowded
with WiFi devices, Bluetooth, microwave ovens etc.
The newly formed 6Lo working group at IETF is
extending 6LoWPAN to various technologies
including sub-GHz, Bluetooth low energy, DECT
Ultra low energy in addition to supporting IEEE
802.15.4 PHY/MAC. 6LoWPAN compliant RF link
running at sub-GHz considering its range will suit the
WAN/NAN connectivity while the 2.4 GHz is suited
for HAN. Also, wired communications such as Power
Line Communication is required where wireless
technologies are faced with various issues like
interference, line of sight due to environment factors.
In a country like India with many regional utilities,
we can expect heterogeneous wireless (low power
RF, cellular etc.) and wireline (PLC, Optical etc.)
technologies employed for last mile. As long as they
comply to standards at various layers of network
stack, the SMI infrastructure can interoperate.
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Table 2 License free bands in India [31]
Unlicensed
Frequency
Ranges in
India
Application/Specifications
50-200 kHz
Very low power devices
13553-13567
kHz
Very low power radio frequency
devices, indoor only
433-434 MHz
Low power short range devices may be
considered with a power output of 10
mW with a channel bandwidth of 10
KHz on non-interference, non
protection and non- exclusiveness
basis.
865-867 MHz
Use of low power RFID equipments or
any other low power wireless devises
with a maximum transmitter power of
1 Watt (4 Watts Effective Radiated
Power) with 200 KHz carrier band
width has been exempted from
licensing requirement.
2400 MHz -
2483.5 MHz
Low power wireless equipment (e.g.
Wi-Fi) (max. transmitter output power
of 1 watt-4 watts ERP) with spectrum
spread of 10 MHz or higher
5150 MHz-5350
MHz
Low power equipment for Wireless
Access Systems (max. mean Effective
Isotropic Radiated Power of 200 mW
and max. mean Effective Isotropic
Radiated Power density of 10
mW/MHz in any 1 MHz bandwidth)
indoor only
5725 MHz-5825
MHz
Low power equipment for Wireless
Access Systems (MMEIRP of 200 mW
and MMEIRP density of 10 mW/MHz
in any 1 MHz bandwidth) indoor only
5825 MHz- 5875
MHz
Low power equipment with spectrum
spread of 10 MHz or higher
A standards driven and non-proprietary approach to
building smart grids will address significant
interoperability issues among various stakeholders
such as smart meter companies,, utilities, consumers
while ensuring easy consumption of smart metering
data by IoT applications for big data analytics.
The use of standards compliant hardware
platforms (802.15.4, etc.), open protocols
(6LoWPAN, RPL, CoAP, etc.) and license exempt
frequency bands will engage large number of
application developers and device specialists in
Smart Gird Research & Development in India.
Further, this could substantially lower costs while
providing opportunities for creating number of
standards driven solutions for smart grid
implementations that are already underway in India.
Smart Metering Deployments in India
Tata Power Delhi distribution has become the first
Indian power utility to launch an automated demand
response (ADR) project with smart meters in the
capital. It is one of the first projects in the world
where ADR and AMI (advanced metering
infrastructure) for smart meters are conceptualised
together. The project is implemented in partnership
with IBM, Honeywell and Landis+Gyr, with the
participation of select industrial and commercial
consumers of Tata Power Delhi Distribution, and has
been rolled out post approval of the Delhi Electricity
Regulatory Commission (DERC) [32].
Electricity Department of Puducherry and the Power
Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) have
launched Puducherry smart grid pilot project. This is
the India’s first smart grid pilot project, involving
installation of smart meters in households, aiming to
ultimately covers a total of 87,000 households in
Puducherry[33]. The pilot project would enable
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)/ Smart
Metering as well as improves the quality of
distribution management system applications.
Currently more than 1300 smart meter with one
control room for Puducherry is in place.
Bangalore Electricity Supply Company
(BESCOM) is responsible for power distribution in
eight districts of Karnataka [34]. It is also coming
with new smart meter macro-scale project with lots
of features not intended for consumers at early stage.
Challenges
There are various challenges in migration from
existing energy meters to smart meters such as the
cost of deployment, various last mile connectivity
issues (rural, urban etc.), management of metering
data and realtime events, security. We can expect a
transition phase in moving from the traditional
metering system to smart metering..
The smart metering systems cannot be effective
unless all the appliances and devices in the
distribution and metering network become part of the
communication network. In a highly populous
country like India, we can expect the future smart
metering network to connect large number devices.
The process of data collection by smart meter at
regular intervals is automated by the utilities and is
subject to certain security and privacy issues. In this
context, customers may have privacy concerns on the
data collected by utilities automatically without their
knowledge.
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VI CONCLUSION
In this paper we have discussed the deployment
status worldwide for smart metering infrastructure.
An IoT enabled use case provides end-to-end
connectivity with automated meter reading which can
be adapted for Indian context for usage profile,
control and billing; with more enhancements CoAP
can be embedded in smart phones as a user friendly
android app for smart metering.
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