The introduction of intelligent energy metering solutions is advertised as an opportunity for significant savings in electricity consumption, greater knowledge of how we use energy and what its actual share is in the overall cost of product production. It’s also seen as a huge opportunity to change the way we use electricity (e.g. changing the operating hours of energy-consuming devices) to ensure greater stability in the network during the hours of peak energy demand.
However, many experts predict huge costs in the switch to smart metering, which will not be offset by the potential benefits. So, does business have a chance to benefit from the change and is it worth preparing now for a new era in the energy industry?
Smart metering is associated primarily with smart meters, which are only one of the elements of the system. Broadly speaking, smart metering is an intelligent measurement system. In other words, it’s a comprehensive IT solution that includes devices (the above-mentioned smart electricity meters), the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for efficient data transmission to and from the devices, and software that is a database and management system in one.
Although smart metering is generally considered to be a system intended for the energy industry, it enables the measurement of virtually any medium. For example: water, gas, heat, compressed air or other technical gases can all be measured. Intelligent measurement systems enable two-way communication in real time, such as enabling remote reading of consumption with minute accuracy.
The primary goal of introducing smart metering on a mass scale is to make significant savings in energy management and to reach a milestone in environmental protection by reducing greenhouse gases and suspended dust emissions.
The basis of smart metering systems is, of course, smart meters, which communicate via data concentrators with IT systems that store, aggregate and transmit data. This data transmission might be to things like user applications.
The basic functions smart meters offer includes energy consumption measurement, load profiles and energy consumption time. But they also offer more advanced options, such as:
Data concentrators are an integral element of the communication infrastructure, providing remote connection to the operator station. Their most important functions include automatic administration of meters and other network devices. Based on the collected measurement data, it is possible to generate reports, including energy consumption and quality. They also offer the option of communication in time priority mode, which is important in the organization of the DSR service.
An IT system is a tool for implementing, configuring, supervising, diagnosing and processing data from smart meters and other measuring devices installed in the metering system, or more broadly, in the smart grid. Depending on the creators of a specific IT system, various algorithms can be implemented. For example:
Intelligent systems based on smart metering are becoming increasingly popular, as is the idea of energy management itself. More and more solutions are appearing on the market, some are even tempted to create out of the box solutions instead of custom solutions, which in some cases has its justification. In the case of industry, however, out of the box solutions can be rather difficult to use due to the individual specificity of each company and the consumption of specific media (not only electricity, but also gas, compressed air, heat, etc.).
Modern systems offer the user much more than collecting and aggregating data. Intelligent, self-learning algorithms analyze the situation in real time and automate a number of repetitive activities thanks to the connection with control devices. For example, they may enable the control of energy-consuming devices or heating and cooling. People are released from remembering dozens of variables and performing simple activities that serve to optimize the consumption of media. It is worth noting here that automatic process control can be much more effective and cheaper thanks to the elimination of human participation.
What else does smart metering offer, apart from remote measurements and forecasted lower energy bills?
First of all, meters provide us with much more data on how we use energy, how it affects a company’s overall operating costs as well as the cost of the product. Thanks to the huge amount of data collected in the cloud, we can perform analyses at any time that allow us to make strategic decisions. This data also ensures a reduction in operating costs or automation of network operation and maintenance. Additionally, data gives us the opportunity for early detection of anomalies, such as leaks, exceeding contractual capacity, security alarms, etc.
Interestingly, smart metering strengthens the position of the customer with their the energy supplier. This is achieved in many ways, from solving the seemingly trivial problem of a difficult to decipher energy bill, through to the possibility of adjusting tariffs to the individual needs of the customer, to the prospect of an easier receipt of a discount for failure to maintain the voltage level or interruptions in energy supply.
From the customer's point of view, the prospect of billing for energy according to actual consumption is extremely important! This will help protect vulnerable recipients thanks to the elimination of prepayments and unclearly calculated consumption, as well as the possibility of using additional services based on status signaling and feedback (e.g. security monitoring). It will also simplify the procedure for changing the supplier, which in turn will translate into increased competition amongst energy suppliers.
Smart metering brings many benefits, especially in industry, which generally requires large amounts of energy to function properly. All forecasts indicate that the demand for energy will increase, which gives priority to measurements and optimization of consumption.
Smart metering in industry brings, above all else, invaluable knowledge about energy consumption. This knowledge is the basis for starting the energy consumption optimization processes. Without having adequate or appropriate data, and therefore not knowing their true consumption, companies will not realise their optimization gains.
Market research from 2017 conducted by Kantar Milward Brown shows that as many as 93% of companies confirm that costs related to energy consumption constitute a significant part of the total cost of production. But most of them are unable to answer the question about the real cost of production from the perspective of energy consumption. If we add to this that 57% of the most energy-intensive manufacturing companies measure energy consumption at individual stages of production, but only 7% of them install meters for specific machines, and 30% of companies have only one meter dedicated to the entire factory, then we can clearly see what a barrier lack of appropriate data is to increasing production efficiency.
Smart metering, or more broadly, an intelligent network managing measurements and energy consumption, is a huge opportunity to reduce operating costs for many companies by up to 25% as well as increase their efficiency by 20-40% in terms of safety, reliability or customer relations.
For those unconvinced that smart metering is a good solution, here are just some of the benefits of installing and properly using data obtained from smart meters:
