Smart Electricity Meter and it’s importance

To start with, let us understand how the smart meter differs from the traditional meter.

Before the watt-hour meter came into existence, the sale of electricity to consumers was on per lamp bulb basis. Basic working principle of electricity meter happens using ohm’s law: –

 P= V X I , where P is the Power , V is the Voltage & I is the Ampere.

Electricity Bill = Electricity used (kW) x Time (Hours) x cost of 1 kWh (Unit)

Traditional Electricity Meter	Digital Electricity Meter
No data storage is possible	Data storage at a particular Interval as per the need is possible
Data is recorded physically	Data is automatically transmitted to the metering company
No outage detection is possible	Managed remotely, so, outage can be detected and resolved remotely
One-way communication with DISCOM and consumers	Two-way communication in between DISCOM and consumers
Huge power Theft is possible. Aggregate Technical & Commercial loss is in the tune of 18% in India	Theft, meter tempering is not possible

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Smart meters help electric utilities :-

• Eliminate manual monthly meter readings collection
• Avoid capital expenses to build new power plants as it has the potential to save energy
• Optimize income with existing resources
• Dynamic pricing which raises or reduces cost of electricity based on the demand

Smart meters help electric consumers: –

• Adjust their habits and lower electricity bill; as they can understand the energy consumption of respective systems
• Reduce the number of blackouts and system wise electricity failure
• Obtain greater and more detailed feedback on electricity usages

Smart meters help environment: –

• Reduce the need for new power plants; thereby GHG emission reductions possible
• Curb GHG emission from existing power plants as the power usages will be optimized

The general difficulties in adoption of smart meters worldwide are:-

• Ageing and outdated infrastructure
• Inadequate resources
• Lack of integrated communication platform
• Cost of deployment
• Transition from legacy system
• Management of the vast amount of data
• Compatibility of elder equipment
• Lack of standard and interoperability and changes in regulatory protocol and policies

With Smart meter, one could operate home appliances remotely and to check which appliance is consuming more electricity and synchronize usage of power-hungry equipment, such as geysers, with off-peak hours, when pricing would be lower.

During peak-demand hours, consumers would get a message on their mobile phones offering them incentives to lower unit consumption. During off-peak hours, consumers would get a message incentivizing consumption — helping in optimum usage of power-hungry appliances such as geysers or batteries of electric vehicles. The smart model, which could be tied to a dynamic tariff, would help domestic and institutional consumers.

Today, residential consumption accounts for 24% of electricity produced in India, of which 75% is used for lighting and cooling. By 2021, according to the World Bank, residential consumption would surge 260% ; Smart meters will help in home automation market which  is estimated to touch Rs 30,000 crore by 2022.

Fee-For-Service (FFS) or Pay-As-You-Go(PAYG) concept in Solar PV is getting increased popularity and the back bone of this concept is again  Smart metering / Regulator – contains a system integrated micro-controller with user interface which regulates the device and controls the payments and locks or unlocks the system. A centralized software – Revenue Management System – is accessible via SMS gateway and over the internet and is used for payment processing and account settlement.

References:

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325669617_Traditional_Vs_Smart_Electricity_Metering_Systems_A_Brief_Overview
2. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/smart-meters-to-rationalise-electricity-consumption-in-india/articleshow/63347276.cms