Smart Meters: A Game Changer, but Hurdles Remain

Whatever the Weather

Smart meters aren’t quite at the tipping point, though, for a variety of reasons including, perhaps not surprisingly, the weather. “Every country or region will have its own weather patterns, natural disasters, legislation and population density — each factor bringing a particular change to the decision process,” according to an IHS Markit report “Cost and not technicality wins for AMI.” One quick example: Earthquake or tornado prone areas need to think through smart electric meters if they rely on power line infrastructure to send data.

There are other hurdles to overcome. Cumberland said the UK’s “complex” utility system has made it hard for mass rollouts to occur, while the Indian market has to go through 40 different rigorous tests to ensure tamper-proof smart meters, something that has slowed down implementation.

And no matter the weather or location, batteries are a problem everywhere. Changing the power supply in smart water meters means going underground, a process that can be time and labor intensive. All smart meters are power constrained devices, Amiot explained. “It’s simply not practical or affordable to have to regularly change the batteries on thousands of customers’ smart meters,” he said. A technical solution does exist, however. “Devices that connect to Low-Power Wide-Area cellular networks can deliver up to 10X power savings, in addition to providing better coverage and costing less,” he added.

IoT, Meet TCO

And of course, smart meters are IoT-based and that can be a bit much for some companies. “The challenge of deploying a reliable, secure smart meter solution can be intimidating for utility companies,” Amiot said. “The IoT is complex and many companies lack the technical know-how to build a solution that delivers valuable data and also protects sensitive customer information. Choosing the right connectivity and management components goes a long way in addressing these issues. For example, an end-to-end IoT solution that includes devices, connectivity and a management platform with built-in security will be easier to scale as their deployment grows, and the ability to push over-the-air firmware updates keep the devices secure.”

If there is one overriding obstacle, though, it’s selling utilities and/or municipalities on the ROI of smart meters. Automated meter reading remains the predominant technology, IEI’s Cooper said. Moving to AMI (automated meter infrastructure) requires a mindset change – and a significant investment. “In the past our electric companies would only make large capital investments if there is a good business case to be made,” he said. “In order for our electric companies to update to AMI, the business case has to be made that there will be operational savings. And that’s somewhat challenging.”

At the end of the day, it’s going to take a breakthrough to not only embrace smart meters fully but to get the best use out of them. Cumberland sees a fundamental mismatch between IT and procurement (operations). Smart meters have the potential to generate a vast amount of data that can give insights into the grid, power usage, and ultimately help power smart cities. But that data needs to be stored and processed, and for many utilities, that’s a non-starter at this moment. That has to change, he said. Cooper goes even further. “This isn’t just a meter that hangs off the side of your house,” he said. “This is part of a mesh communication system so you need to think about the communication network that supports it. That’s the future when it comes to electric companies — smart meter networks that support smart meter apps and smart cities. That’s where it’s all headed.”