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Smart metering and smart grid applications are rapidly finding their place in the market in order to improve the provisioning process efficiency of electricity, gas, water and heat. The usage of communication technologies is a major stepping stone for these applications. These applications are commonly structured along a hierarchical four-layer architecture. However, the current technologies, initially developed for the local (primary) communication, leave significant room for improvement in terms of energy efficiency, range and cost.
This contribution discusses the state-of-the-art of the wireless metering protocols, identifies the restrictions, and discusses possible solutions to overcome these limitations. This paper further discusses the problems faced when integrating the results from scientific research projects into real-life protocols and products. It is based on research work in progress in two large European research projects in this field, i.e. ME3GAS (Smart Gas Meters & Middleware for Energy Efficient Embedded Services) and WiMBex (Remote wireless water meter reading solution based on the EN 13757 standard, providing high autonomy, interoperability and range).
Efficient, low-cost, secure and reliable communication solutions are a major stepping stone for smart metering and smart grid applications. This especially holds true for the so called primary communication or local metrological network (LMN) between a local meter or actuator and a data collector or gateway, where the highest requirements with regard to cost, bandwidth, and energy efficiency have to be taken into consideration. Multiple developments and field tests are going on in this field, however, energy autarkic devices are hardly found, yet. This contribution describes the development of an automatic water meter reading (AWMR) technology based on Wireless M-Bus to provide water utility companies with an automatic remote water meter reading solution. It addresses the special needs of home utilities by providing a remote metering solution independent from the electricity infrastructure, both in terms of data communication and in terms of power supply. For this project, a cost efficient integrated energy harvesting system powered by the available water flow was developed, to enable operation independently of the mains grid, and eliminate the need for battery replacement for near-zero maintenance costs.