Smart metering: the networks of the future
With the advent of smart metering systems – complex ecosystems – the ability to offer solutions that include, but are not limited to, smart meters has become critically important for utilities.
That is why the “solutions” aspect tends to precede the “products” aspect.
In other words, the product must be selected based on the adopted solution.
Smart metering is an ecosystem composed of smart electronic meters, communication networks, and software systems for data analysis.
This enables the optimal management of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water. Smart metering network uses innovative electronic metering devices that accurately, timely, and continuously record consumption profiles.
These data are communicated – bidirectionally and predominantly over a fixed network – to a central system through the networks to which they are connected. In addition to consumption profiles, smart meters provide additional information that is important for both utilities and end users, enabling them to optimise and rationalise utilisation of increasingly valuable resources. All this is also in favour of fairness towards citizens, who thus have at their disposal a transparency tool that enables informed consumption.
Therefore, smart metering systems designed by WaterTech are an indispensable ally in implementing fair and equitable policies in the use and distribution of primary goods, thus contributing to environmental sustainability.
Smart metering represents a real revolution in water resource management and becomes a stimulus and growth for utilities as greater protection for citizens. Because smart metering, especially in water, shows the ethical and educational character of measurement, turning into an opportunity to optimize the management of the water resource.
At a time in history when water has become a precious commodity, smart metering is the only way to better manage the network, empower consumers, and eliminate waste and fraud.
Innovation is the indispensable driver of this change. WaterTech – a company that has always been a leader in metering – has become a promoter of quality and renewal in smart metering. Our commitment is to support operators of the integrated water system with products and services capable of designing the supply networks of the future combining high quality and versatility of solutions.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF A SMART METERING NETWORK
A smart metering network can be conceived as a pyramid system whose base is the smart meters, while the apex is the place where data is collected and processed. Starting from the meters scattered throughout the territory, the data travel to the center, called the DAQ (Data Acquisition) using different networks/transmission systems and various possible protocols.
The pyramid of smart metering conceptually consists of 3 levels:
Smart meters:
highly accurate, electronic-type devices capable of measuring, storing, and transmitting data collected on the network.
Smart communication network:
communication network that collects data stored by smart meters installed in the field and sends it to the central system. It can operate through direct communication between the meters and the analysis center (Point-to-Point) or by resorting to communication intermediated by concentrators (Point-to-Multi-Point).
Data acquisition system (DAQ):
system that receives the data collected by the smart meters from the network, validates the information, and activates the automated and real-time processes of analysis and control.
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The term smart metering thus indicates an assembly composed of the communication and data transport network that, starting from the metering equipment installed in the field, through appropriate and various transmission technologies, allows the data to “travel” to an analysis center and be properly processed; all to improve the efficiency and performance of the service provided to the end customers/citizens.
The smart metering system is such only if the communication between the smart meters and the central management system is two-way through a fixed network. Each meter must be able to send data to the DAQ. However, it is equally important that the reverse can also occur, i.e., that the center can transmit information to the field devices. Information flow cannot be limited to flowing in one direction; communication must occur in both directions. Bi-directionality is also the enabling factor for the remote implementation of firmware upgrades extended to the entire installed base of meters. In fact, in a bidirectional network, the control center can transmit the software upgrade to all the devices connected to it, with a single “command” and without any need for the intervention of human operators in the field, which would make the operation complex and costly.
Smart metering makes it possible to move beyond remote metering to a more nuanced form of widespread telecontrol. In the past, telecontrol was limited to a few large nodal points in the network, such as pumping systems or large feeder lines. Instead, smart metering networks make each device capable of receiving data, enabling complex and comprehensive communication as real-time control of all nodes and points in the distribution network.
A smart metering system is a key enabler for a complete redesign of cities and the territory which sees IoT infrastructure at the center of the new paradigms of a community’s activities and its ambitions for development and well-being.
Smart meters play a critically important role forming the basis of the entire smart metering system and being the primary source of data that will later be processed in the DAQ. Smart meters do not just send consumption data to the center but also a wealth of other valuable information necessary for proper network management, enabling effective remote and real-time control of the network. Smart meters are no longer single, stand-alone objects but are part of a complex system of network remote management, becoming the tool for automating and digitizing management processes.
A smart network is a Fixed Network that – in real time – allows the meter to communicate with the control center. There is no human intermediation in the communication between the equipment installed in the field and the DAQ. The fixed and automatic digital network autonomously interacts with the meters (and vice versa).
While smart meters act as the heart of the smart metering network, becoming the information base from which the processing starts, the central management system is the brain of the network, with its set of digital technologies: server, database operating system, and applications. Here, consumption information is collected, but also other types of data that, once processed, provide utilities with a concrete platform for analysing and managing the distribution network. In addition to monitoring consumption, it is possible to identify anomalies, manage billing and make informed service management decisions.
There is thus intelligence spread throughout the entire smart metering chain, in that for the network to function in a truly smart manner, it needs all its components to be smart. Every element and object that is part of the network, first and foremost the meters, must possess a certain amount of intelligence to interface properly with the rest of the smart metering chain.
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
The specific architecture adopted by a smart metering system may vary according to the individual needs of the distributor, the geographical and morphological characteristics of the area served, and the requirements of the utility management system. Indeed, it can be said that, for particularly large systems that, for example, cover different provinces, different orographic configurations, and different urban configurations, it is very often convenient to have different systems/architectures coexist within the same macro-system. However, it is possible to conceptually distinguish two main communication network models:
Point-to-Point typology:
technologies, especially NB-IoT, but also GSM and CAT-M, based on the use of the switched telephone network, in which communication between the meters and the data processing center is direct.
Point – Multi Point typology: technologies, such as LoRa WAN, 169 MHz, or 868 MHz, in which communication between the meters and the data processing center is intermediated by specific facilities, usually intermediate concentrators between the measuring points and the DAQ, called gateways.
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As with all networks, a smart metering system must ensure information security and privacy of data and users. Robust security measures are needed to protect communications between the smart meters, concentrators, and the DAQ, such as encryption to protect transmitted data and the implementation of authentication protocols to ensure access only to authorized entities.
WaterTech believes in the uniqueness of each customer’s specific needs and – precisely for this reason – offers comprehensive, state-of-the-art, and highly flexible smart metering solutions. These products and services cover the entire smart metering chain, extremely metrologically advanced and natively capable of supporting all transmission technologies currently available on the market so that they can meet the unique needs of any distributor.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION AND BENEFITS OF SMART METERING
Smart metering is essential to address efficiency in water resource management. It is not possible to reduce waste and losses in a network without first knowing in detail the origins and inefficiencies to be improved. Only with smart metering are utilities able to detect consumption in real-time and obtain and process the complex data needed to monitor the water network, create awareness of water use, and identify areas where interventions and maintenance are needed.
The pyramid of smart metering conceptually consists of 3 levels:
Real-time monitoring: distributors can have a detailed, real-time view of users’ consumption patterns and network operation, thus enabling efficiency gains in management, rationalization in the use of natural resources, and, in the case of the water world, a reduction in leakage.
Accurate billing: eliminates billing errors resulting from rough estimates or manual readings resulting in reduced litigation with users.
tariffazione flessibile:
i fornitori di servizi pubblici possono implementare tariffe variabili in base all’ora del giorno o alla domanda, incoraggiando i consumatori a utilizzare le risorse in modo più efficiente;
Flexible pricing: utility providers can implement variable tariffs based on time of day or demand, encouraging consumers to use resources more efficiently.
Detection of anomalies and critical issues: through the detection of anomalies or leaks, rapid action can be taken and greater efficiency in service management can be ensured.
Environmental preservation: the accuracy of modern smart meters, the digitization of networks, and their real-time and remote management by smart metering systems make it possible to safeguard valuable natural resources and the environment.
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In the water sector, smart metering is the only effective answer to the increasingly chronic water shortage. Only by optimizing the management and consumption of the resource can the growing difficulties in supply be remedied. Israel, a world-leading nation in water management, is the most forward-looking example of proper and careful administration of this most precious commodity.
Implementing a smart metering network becomes even more crucial and beneficial for all those entities that simultaneously manage water and gas distribution, i.e., so-called multi-utilities. The latter can obtain significant economies of scale from integrable smart metering networks: no longer two separate networks, each entirely dedicated to a specific type of meters (water or gas), but a single network on which both types of smart meters can hook up. It is possible to collect, transmit, process, and analyze measurement and consumption data from both services with a single network. The efficiency is not limited to the network but is extended to the DAQ: there is an integration even at the highest level of the data management chain that means that there is no longer a need for two separate control centers, instead using a single DAQ, which processes information from both smart metering chains. Leveraging the technological convergence between gas and water smart metering can significantly accelerate the process of water system efficiency.
From a more purely technological point of view, this integration between water and gas is made possible using 169 MHz radio frequency systems that are fully compliant with the UNI-TS 11291 gas standard. It is precisely this advanced communication module that allows the total integration of water devices into the gas meters’ remote reading network. WaterTech, an operator active for many years in the field of water and gas metrology, offers its customers 169 MHz UNI-TS 11291 smart metering solutions, thus providing distributors of both services with an important tool for the efficiency and simplification of network management. In addition, WaterTech’s advanced transmission system means that the meter, in addition to automatically hooking onto the Fixed Network (concentrators), can also be read in Walk-by / Drive-by (tablet) mode, allowing the water manager to choose the most congenial data transposition mode each time, on the spot.
To adopt such a highly integrated solution, however, the distributor doesn’t need to be a multi-utility, that is, to operate both services. There are several cases of Italian water utility operators agreeing with the gas utility operating in their same territory to be able to use the latter’s network, thus avoiding the investment required to set up their system.
WaterTech,
your technology partner in the world of smart metering
WaterTech’s extensive know-how has made us more ready to take on the challenge of new technologies. Thanks to our long experience in the field and the knowledge of ARAD Group, a reality of which we are a part, we design solutions that bring quality not only in our state-of-the-art smart meters but in all those facilities and services that are indispensable to realize a smart metering network: analysis and design, communication protocols, gateways, server and data management, security, and privacy.
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