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In May 2016, there was an inconspicuous news item in the press about the beginning of consumption trading on the energy market. In other words: consumers will receive payment for allocated consumption. Unfortunately, this is one of the first, tangible outputs of the European Commission’s ’20-20-20 strategy’. The Challenge of Energy Investment The key question is, […]

IoT, sub-GHz, LPWAN… Everyone who is aware of contemporary trends in telecommunication technology and its evolution could not have missed these ‘magical’ abbreviations. All prominent manufacturers of microcontrollers, sensors, communication chipsets and their components offer some ‘IoT ready’ components. At first, it may seem the bells have tolled for PLC (power line communication) and that the future […]

The idea of smart grids and smart cities are based on EU directive 27/2012 which defines objectives and operations for energy demand decrease (carbon footprint) across a multitude of activities. They share a number of joint characteristics: Smart cities and smart grids are actively promoted because they are expected to drive cost savings. However, they are […]

The technical parameters for an e-meter are defined by totally outdated standards today. These standards do not reflect the current state of knowledge and real state of the power supply system. European bureaucrats introduce savings based on smart meter rollouts, but they do not quite take into account the way of connection to the end […]

A data concentrator is an often-overlooked element of smart grids. Often it is seen as a gateway between a TCP-IP network and a communication network of electricity meters. In fact, the concentrator performs a number of other very important tasks, which have a significant impact on successful data retrieval from meters and the usability of […]

It seems that there is something wrong with current system’s interoperability. In the beginning, there were plenty of presentations about how smooth and reliable future operations would be because of interoperability. Today, the initial skepticism of the realists is being realized. Savings in Interoperable Smart Grid Systems Although there were plenty of installations and rollouts […]

There is no doubt that power lines are part of critical infrastructure. Power engineering is now at its most dramatic development phase. Unfortunately, progress in technologies and political decisions tend to complicate development. After the EU strategic plan 20-20-20 is realised, we are likely to face the paradox of a reliable supply of power still […]

In the past, the rapid development of power distribution networks was mirrored by the same development in energy measuring. There were big names involved in electric meter development such as Thomas Edison, Lord Kelvin, and even Sir Hiram Maxim, the machine gun inventor. Conservative Evolution in Power Distribution It is possible to draw another parallel […]

Calibration of e-meters is vital when operating at high frequencies with high harmonics. Failure to do so will result in incorrect measurement and readings. Simple solutions are available to measure harmonics with high accuracy. When operating at higher frequencies electronic meters are not always able to reliably measure current and voltage. Classic calibration is done at 50 […]

Examines the role of current interoperability standards and calls into question whether these are truly interoperable. Examining PRIME, G3-PLC, and OSGP and determining whether the interoperability is truly across the entire system, or just within a few reference layers of the whole communication model. Growing Smart E-Meter Projects: Hype vs. Reality The number of pilot […]