Smart meters are Internet of Things (IoT) devices that measure and transmit data about electricity, water, and gas consumption. Using connected sensors, they share information directly from utility meters, so providers don’t need to manually check installations to charge customers and manage infrastructure.
Through smart submetering, building owners and utility providers can monitor the resource consumption of specific units, facilities, or pieces of equipment. Increasingly, smart meters are also being used to measure energy production from solar panels and other equipment.
Some smart meter gateways can even connect to building automation systems, enabling customers to control heating, cooling, and other utilities based on resource consumption.
This technology is a crucial component of energy conservation efforts, helping customers use resources more efficiently and giving utility providers the insights they need to optimize infrastructure. And it all depends on IoT communication.
For manufacturers, there are several things to consider about smart meter communication. This article explores the various connectivity solutions for smart meters, the protocols they rely on for data transport, regulations surrounding smart meters, and how to prevent smart meter communication from being intercepted.
Let Wuxi Zhongyi Smart Technology Company introduce the smart meters commmunicaiton.
How do smart meters communicate?
Like all IoT devices, smart meters require a connection to a network. But there are some misconceptions about how that connectivity works for smart meters and what types of solutions are best suited for transmitting data to and from these devices.
For example, smart meters don’t always transmit directly to the cloud. They typically transmit data to a local smart meter gateway, which aggregates data from all meters in an area and then forwards it to the cloud, where providers and customers can access it through a platform.
Smart meter to gateway communication
By relying on a gateway to transmit data to the cloud, smart meters can use lighter communication technologies that don’t rely on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). These simpler solutions use less power, enabling the smart meters to operate on batteries. Since they’re less complex, they also cost less.
Wireless protocols
There’s a range of wireless solutions available for smart meter communication. Since most meters are battery-powered, it’s important for these to be lightweight solutions that conserve power. Most wireless solutions are Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs), which use low frequencies so that signals travel farther and use less power.
Wireless Meter-Bus
Wireless M-Bus is simply a wireless version of the M-Bus standard. It’s already widely available in Europe, but there was initially no official certification program, so smart meter manufacturers who served several countries could encounter challenges with interoperability. To resolve this issue and increase compatibility, the Open Metering System Group standardized the protocol, and now manufacturers need to be OMS certified.
Wireless M-Bus operates on three different frequencies, depending on the mode a meter or gateway uses. All three frequencies are sub-GHz, enabling signals to travel further and penetrate walls and buildings more effectively. As with M-Bus, smart meters that use wireless M-Bus need a gateway to convert the data to TCP/IP.
LoRaWAN
LoRaWAN is a popular LPWAN solution with widely available networks in 25 countries. Providers can connect to one of these networks or deploy their own. However, each LoRaWAN provider only covers a specific region, and there are no roaming agreements between Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). This means that when you choose a service provider and deploy in a region they don’t serve, you have to either select an additional LoRaWAN service provider and manage multiple contracts or deploy your own gateway to connect to your current MNOs network.
In smart meter-to-gateway communication, LoRaWAN is best suited for a clean slate deployment, where there is no infrastructure in place already.
WiFi
WiFi is ubiquitous. And while it can be used for smart meter communications, it’s not well-suited for it. WiFi has the same problem as Zigbee networks: WiFi networks all use the unlicensed 2.4GHz band. Additionally, WiFi has several other problems.
Since it requires your device to integrate with a customer’s infrastructure, it opens the door to security risks. Other devices on the network could be used to access your meter or gateway, and vice versa. WiFi networks are also very short range, and can’t use a “mesh” of devices like Zigbee to increase their coverage.
Additionally, staying connected to a WiFi network consumes significantly more power than other network types. Smart meters can use TCP/IP or UDP/IP to transmit to gateways via WiFi.
Wuxi Zhongyi Smart Technology specializes in the production of smart water meters, electricity meters and gas meters, We can fully meet your needs and customize products for you. At the same time, our smart meters support lorawan, nb-iot, GPRS, WiFi, M-BUS, RS-485 and other communication methods.Welcome to consult!
