Remote - M2M Special Issue 2012 - (Page 6)

Feature Article Making Energy Smart the foremost ability to manage energy consumption. Thus the term smart metering, a broad system of synergistic functionalities largely enabled by advances in M2M technology, conceived to measure, collect and analyze energy usage from electricity, gas, water and heat metering devices; and which includes not only the meter itself, but M2M communications, backend IT and a an array value added services. However, the use of renewable energy is only really viable if utilities can not only manage smart meters on the customer side, but also manage and integrate flexibly the different energy production sites such as windmill parks, solar parks, etc. Enter the Smart Grid, a system that is broader yet and again centered around M2M, collecting information on energy demand at the household level and communicating in real time with the supply side. Smart Grid therefore refers to a digitally-enabled, M2M-connected network of meters, sensors, switches, generation plants and a large number of other devices and systems designed to deliver electricity to consumers from the new expanded network of energy suppliers. Emmanuel Macon-Dauxerre, Senior Sales Director, Global Energy Segment Telit Wireless Solutions The past few years have witnessed a rising trend towards more sustainable generation, distribution and use of energy. From the Americas to Europe and Asia, governments are launching a multitude of high-profile programs designed to increase the dissemination of smart meters and quicken the pace of power grid upgrades in an effort to move their energy sectors closer to meeting targets of sustainability, growth and ecological impact. With Earth’s natural resources being consumed at unsustainable rates, and with an increasing global awareness of the need to do more to protect the environment, nature itself takes center stage driving this trend. Resulting efforts are now calling for wider and more effective integration of renewable energy and co-generation into the grid, while creating an unprecedented demand for new methods to rationalize and reduce consumption in general. Fortunately, this comes along at a time when a number of emerging technologies, including machine-to-machine communications (M2M), are available. Local wireless mesh solutions augmented by ubiquitous cellular networks now enable reliable and cost effective remote collection and management of consumption, along with access to other vital grid data, that delivers enhanced energy efficiency for a more sustainable world. Over the course of its brief history of little over a century, electrical power has been transported from generation plants located farther and farther away from consuming markets. For most of this time, the vast majority of consumers have had a meter at their premise, which simply recorded the amount of electricity consumed, and which was read every so often so that the utility could bill for the consumption. It was not until the 1980’s that the first major enhancement began to reshape the energy business with the introduction Utility meters have seen numerous advancements since the days of workers driving to individual of Automated Meter Reading residences and businesses to collect meter data. (AMR), initially in the US. In this process, a wireless or wired device, either internal (electronic meters) or external (outside-the-glass for electromechanical meters) to the utility meter, would communicate consumption data uni-directionally, either directly to a back office system or more often to a mobile data collector. The collector would typically be a handheld or notebook computer capable of capturing short range wireless transmissions from nearby meters, used by a meter reader individual walking or driving assigned routes around cities and towns. This system represented some of the first short-range wireless applications in the primordial pool of M2M. Prior to this, but still common practice, meters had been read visually and individually by the meter reader who would hand note consumption numbers on a clipboard. But challenges facing utilities today go far beyond reading a meter. Energy distribution companies have a complex balancing act to perform in matching generation to consumption, now that the supply from renewable energy sources is getting on the grid. Unlike traditional hydro, coal or gas generation, renewable energy sources like wind or solar have an output dependent on weather conditions so that their power contribution can only be predicted but never planned. With the rise of renewable energy sources, it has become apparent that two-way communication with the consumer’s premise equipment is mandatory. Within the scope of access to these smart meters, utilities are envisioning not only firmware updates and application downloads, but also 6 www.RemoteMagazine.com Utilities will need to integrate renewable energy sources into their T&D systems to truly realize the benefits of the Smart Grid. The earliest and largest deployment of Smart Grid today is the system installed by Enel in Italy with 30 million smart meters. In the UK, the government just recently announced a plan to deploy some 53 million smart electricity and gas meters by 2020. Part of the plan in this ambitious program is the establishment of a shared, secure network infrastructure for smart metering communication. No final decisions have been made regarding which communication technology or technologies will be used for the UK smart metering network but, due to the critical nature of the infrastructure, it will have to meet strict security and reliability standards. In Brazil, the National Electrical Energy Agency (ANEEL) has taken a slightly different approach when it decided in August of this year to put on smart meter vendors the burden of marketing its benefits to consumers, surprising the market with that decision. Analysts had expected the agency to direct utilities to replace Brazil’s 65 million meters with smart meters by 2020, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Under the ruling, utilities are only obligated to install smart meters into new premises and when replacing retiring or malfunctioning meters. Still, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that spending on smart meter installations in Brazil will reach $670 million in 2014, with utilities deploying 4.5 million meters between 2014 and 2017. In North America analyst firm Berg Insight forecasts the installed base of smart meters to reach 87.4 million units by 2016. In Asia Pacific Berg Insight projects the installed base to increase rather aggressively to above 300 million units by 2016. Although large-scale rollouts to residential customers have only recently begun in Japan and South Korea, the latter M2M “Smarts” Around the Globe http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - M2M Special Issue 2012

Remote - M2M Special Issue 2012
M2M – The New Service Paradigm for Smart Manufacturing
Making Energy Smart
Java Embedded M2M Wireless Modules: Smart, Small, Cost Optimized
2020: A Brave New World of Three Trillion Connected Devices
New Products
Industry News
Managing the 2G Sunset

Remote - M2M Special Issue 2012