Ed’s note: Smart meters – still a cornerstone of utility operations
Anyone working in the energy sector knows by now that it is undergoing an unprecedented and rapid change, requiring the introduction of many new and previously unknown technologies.
Over the past few years, we have seen an acceleration in the need for the deployment of renewables, the growth of storage, the emergence of widespread electric vehicle infrastructure, the mainstreaming of new enablers such as blockchain, the shift of intelligence to the edge, the race for hydrogen and more.
But still meters – in many cases now, smart meters – remain the main ‘connection’ with customers and thus the cornerstone of a utility’s operations.
This was highlighted once again when perusing San Diego Gas & Electric’s latest four-year rate case filing covering its grid investment plans for the period 2024-2027. The company, one of the first in the US to develop a plan for a large scale smart metering rollout as far back as 2005, is now planning its second-generation rollout.
Note, this is at a time when around one fifth of households in that country – the percentage is uncertain due to reporting and the lag in data compilation – have yet to receive a smart meter.
In its filing SDG&E comments that its meters are reaching life expectancy and showing increasing failure rates.
Smart Meter 2.0, SDG&E’s replacement for AMI deployed in the 2009 to 2010 timeframe, leverages new technology to improve the long-term, secure and accurate relay of customer meter data information, the company says.
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“Next generation capabilities will enable customer energy technology choices, additional data points for customer energy usage insights, improve outage detection and response times, and facilitate the safe and reliable operation of the grid.”
The filing goes on that the next generation AMI technology is a critical cornerstone technology spanning across the four themes in SDG&E’s grid modernisation plan, i.e. advancing interconnection and modelling to further operationalise DERs, improving visibility, management and control of the distribution system and DERs, developing a reliable, resilient and secure communication network and leveraging DER technology to support grid reliability and resilience.
Further, some key initiatives that are highly dependent on the evolution of the existing AMI network include distributed energy resource management and demand response management systems, transformer load modelling and phase identification technology, programmes such as wire-down detection and back-feed detection and voltage management activities such as volt-var optimisation.
“The only viable technology capable of providing this data at scale are Smart Meter 2.0 meters with the associated communication infrastructure to support the additional data capture,” the filing states, adding that intelligent platforms like Smart Meter 2.0 are becoming increasingly important for grid modernisation.
Second generation smart metering upgrades are likely to be not far off for other utilities and with those likely to see through to close to the all important 2050 year with the many pressures that will arise before then, much thought will need to be given to the capabilities of those meters.
And as with the comprehensive cost-benefit analyses that led to the first generation of smart metering from the California IOUs, for those planning such upgrades filings such as SDG&E’s can be recommended as background reading.
Jonathan Spencer Jones
Specialist writer
