What is a Meter?
To make a long story longer… some history
A meter is a measuring device which in this case is used to measure electrical energy consumption. Meters are installed at a customer’s premises where the local distribution company provides a connection to the electrical system. Typically they record the accumulated electrical energy used by the customer for billing purposes. There are different types of meters that are used for different supply configurations and power direction (load and generation) however most residential applications will have a split phase 120/240 volt load measuring device.
The electricity meter was patented by Thomas Edison in 1881 and was electrolytic. Elihu Thomson developed a ‘Recording wattmeter’ in 1889 for General Electric which was suitable for direct current (we use alternating current – AC – now). Oliver Blackburn Shallenberger developed an induction type (AC) watthour meter for Westinghouse in 1894. Ludwig Gutmann, working for Sangamo, developed an electromechanical AC watthour meter in 1899. They have had many improvements over the decades, however the principle operation of the meter remains the same.
For over 100 years a residential power meter was electromechanical and used a spinning disk with a counting mechanism visible through a protective glass enclosure. While power was being used downstream of the meter you could see the disk spin and the counters increment. The distribution company would deploy a meter-reading workforce to view the counter values on a regular basis to pass on to the billing department for customer invoicing. Reading the meter provided the accumulated energy consumption at a single point in time. Nothing else. Remote metering was developed in the 1960’s using various technologies to collect and transmit the meter quantities external from the meter. Electromechanical meters disappeared through obsolescence around 2010.
Electronic meters came on the scene in the 1970’s however widespread use would take several decades for the development of reliable, robust and low-cost microprocessor based devices to take over the market. These devices evolved into modern Smart Meters.
What is a Smart Meter?
Smart meters do much more that measure electricity like the old electromechanical meters did in the past. Electromechanical meters provided a visual indication of energy consumption by a customer. A meter reader would travel to each customer premise and record consumption values on a prescribed frequency to enable billing.
A smart meter uses advanced electronics and communication technology to read and record hourly consumption for automatic reporting to a central data facility. Reporting is consolidated daily, checked for errors by multiple authorities and processed for billing. Manual meter reading is eliminated and consumption information is available to the customer for the previous day.
Power failures can be communicated to the central data facility and forwarded to the operating authority for outage response management. Meter internal failures are communicated to the utility and remote diagnostics or service orders can be initiated. Customer voltage can be monitored if required in cases where distribution performance problems are suspected. A history of supply reliability right down to the individual customer can be tracked for regulatory and asset management purposes.
Mass migration
The move to Smart Meters in Ontario was initiated in July of 2004 when the Minister of Energy issued a directive to the Ontario Energy Board to consult with stakeholders and develop a deployment plan by February 2005. A full history of the initiative is available from the OEB, case number RP-2004-0196.
Smart meters were required for the migration to Time-of-Use (TOU) rates so that consumers could manage electricity demand thereby improving efficiency of use and conservation. The timing of the initiative put Ontario on the ‘bleeding-edge’ of the technology since widespread implementation did not exist in 2005.
By 2014 there were an estimated 4.8 million smart meters installed in Ontario.
A rough road
Deployment and implementation of smart meters did not come without its share of problems.
We had 100 years to perfect the electromechanical meter.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that it will take some time to sort out the problems with the first generation of smart meters.
The infrastructure was designed around wireless technology which was a mix of proprietary and open standards. There is no way to mix meter systems between different vendors thus limiting choice and competitiveness for distribution companies.
At the meter level the wireless communication implementation is low-power with limited range. Most meters cannot communicate through walls or dense vegetation making high density urban indoor and rural applications problematic. Most smart meter architectures use data collection devices to concentrate data from many meters and forward it to the data centre via the commercial cellular telephone network.
Data is collected daily (overnight) by the distribution company or their agent, converted to a standard format and forwarded to the IESO for validation. The IESO reports back to the submitter on which accounts are suitable for billing and which ones require additional steps to resolve errors. The process repeats daily for over 4.8 million meters.
Areas with weak or non-existent cellular coverage cannot take advantage of the smart meter capability. Utilities like Toronto Hydro and Hydro One faced serious deployment problems since the technology simply doesn’t work for some locations and the Ontario government mandate was to include all customers.
The extent of smart meter limitations were left for the vendors and distribution companies to discover the hard way – trial and error. This has led to criticism of the technology even though it is a quantum leap with significant benefits for customers and utilities.
Reliability and obsolescence
Reliability and obsolescence of smart meters is a concern for some.
That 1963 Plymouth Valiant sure was a reliable car… with that slant six engine…
Well… unfortunately they’re gone and they’re not coming back anytime soon so we had best move forward…
There’s no going back to electromechanical meters and manual reading. It is critical that the industry continues improvement of Smart Meter technology.
It reminds me of the migration of cars to microprocessor controls in the 1980’s. The first generation had plenty of problems. I remember finding myself stranded on the side of the road with my 1986 Dodge and lifting the hood to see what was wrong. It wasn’t like my 1970’s cars that I could troubleshoot and fix myself. There was nothing to tinker with under the hood… it was all electronic controls. It was time to tow it to the dealer.
Fast forward to today and all cars are microprocessor controlled and most are fly by wire. They are much more reliable (on average) than a 1963 Plymouth Valiant and provide a much better owner experience.
Do you see the similarity with Smart devices?
Social media reporting
There have been some highly publicized incidents regarding smart meters actually catching fire. I have news for some… electromechanical meters were known to catch fire or explode as well. We just wouldn’t normally hear or pay any attention to it. That was before we had social media on the scale we have today.
Some of theses smart meter failures were attributed to the customer-owned meter bases – not the smart meter. It is not nearly as newsworthy to report out on meter base failures. They are just too boring. The public is well protected from catastrophic meter failures by manufacturing standards, however, sometimes thing do go horribly wrong.
Try not to hang around metering equipment unless you are a professional.
Installation life
Meters have an installation cycle tied to regulations on accuracy. Even though an electromechanical meter can last longer than a ‘smart’ alternative, they will still require periodic removal for testing and re-certification (re-sealing). With both the old and new meters, they will require removal from the customer premise during their life cycle.
Smart Meter construction
Smart meters typically have 2 main internal assemblies. One assembly measures the electricity flowing through the meter and the other has the memory, network and communications. If the communication technology relies on the public cellular network, obsolescence will be tied to communications. The large telecom giants like Rogers and Bell make decisions on when they migrate to the next generation technology. Historically migrations happen in a cycle of 10 years or less. Smart meter vendors such as Trilliant use a low-power proprietary communication technique between meters that extends the obsolescence beyond that of the cellular network, however they eventually rely on cellular communications at collector devices for data back-haul.
Radio Frequency Emission from Smart Meters
Before you rush out to find yourself a tin-foil hat it helps to have an understanding of what risk you may face due to the smart meter’s radio signal.
Smart Meters must comply with Industry Canada – Radio Frequency (RF) Exposure Compliance of Radiocommunication Apparatus to be installed in Ontario.
Devices emitting radio frequency energy are regulated federally by Health Canada as described in Safety Code 6 :
In a study conducted by the Electricity Power Research Institue (EPRI) in 2011 on 47,000 smart meters in Southern California, 99.5% of them transmitted for 3 minutes or less in a 24 hour period.
Radio frequency emissions from smart meters are a tiny part of a greater overall exposure people face due to other environmental factors like WiFi, cellular phones, wireless home phones, Radio and TV stations and local EMS radios.
Your local distribution company is responsible for your Smart Meter and you should contact them if you require information regarding the specifics of your meter.
Covering your meter
Social media has an abundance of characters that exist on the fringe of society. A Google search will produce about 100 million hits on the subject of covering your smart meters. Apart from being completely absurd, there are a large number of misconceptions about what this will achieve. I’ll try to address some of the common ones.
Your Local Distribution Company owns your meter…
Don’t mess with it or, in accordance with your Conditions of Service, you can be disconnected.
You won’t reduce your bill – you will just make it more inaccurate
By covering your meter the actual energy consumption will not be communicated to your Local Distribution Company (LDC). They will most likely attempt to estimate your usage and bill according to their best guess. You may not be happy with the result and you have nobody to blame but yourself.
You will increase the operating costs of your utility and drive costs up
For some bizarre reason there are those who believe covering you meter somehow reduce costs for your LDC. It does the opposite. If your meter fails to read the LDC creates a trouble ticket, rolls a truck and shows up at your door to see what the problem is. That’s a cost added to every rate payer and takes a service person away from performing some other legitimate work.
It is not likely to improve your health
Unless you live deep in a valley surrounded by mountains containing mostly magnetite, you are already being exposed to radio frequency energy much greater than anything you will get from a smart meter. That doesn’t mean health effects are impossible – just highly unlikely. Your health is absolutely critical and the authorities responsible have worked to ensure your safety around these devices.
You should contact your LDC and see a health professional if you are experiencing health problems that you associate with a smart meter. Keep in mind that there are over 4.8 million smart meters in Ontario, all of which are compliant with regulatory requirements.
Smart Meters are one element in the overall smart grid plan. They are key to the success of conservation and customer service initiatives.
Should you still decide to go the tin-foil hat route please do not go outside during electrical storms.
Derek
Next article… Microgids
