• • • TEST & MEASUREMENT • • •
Electricity meter accuracy monitoring enabled by ADI’s mSure Technology
Innovation for utility companies is going beyond the hardware that is used to monitor energy consumption on the grid, bringing forth analytics to understand meter accuracy, which previously could not be tracked in field, says David Lath, applications engineer at Analog Devices; Mika Nousiainen, metering manager at Helen Electricity Network; and Juha Lohvansuu, technology manager at Aidon
I
n collaboration with Helen Electricity Network, a distribution system operator in Helsinki, Finland, and Aidon, an established supplier of
smart grid and smart metering technology and services in the Nordics), a field trial was performed utilising Energy Analytics Studio, an Analog Devices’ state-of-the-art, edge-to-cloud meter analytics solution using mSure technology. This solution monitors the accuracy of an
electricity meter through its deployed life and detects a wide range of tamper types. Meter accuracy monitoring is particularly pertinent to the Finnish market, and thus, the main focus of this trial.
Value of Accuracy Monitoring Meters deployed in industrial, municipal, and residential environments are subject to varying conditions over time, including harsh weather, unpredictable loading, lightning strikes, and more. As such, the measurement accuracy of the meter may drift or change, resulting in overbilling or underbilling, the implications of which mean that time and money need to be spent to fix the resulting problem rather than catching an error soon after or even before it happens. Even worse, it means that customer trust in
the utility company is lost if they have been incorrectly billed by the electricity meter. Today,
Figure 1: Pilot devices deployed in the field
most utility companies initiate periodic sample testing and replace meters at regular intervals, methods that are both costly and intrusive to energy consumers. The solution consists of a new technology
called mSure, which can be integrated in every single new meter in the field, and a cloud-based
analytics service that continually monitors and reports measurement accuracy of each meter in situ. The analytics service provides a utility company with visibility into the accuracy of all meters in its meter population to get ahead of meter issues, quickly replace meters that are outside of their allowed accuracy limits, and, if allowed by regulation, reduce and eliminate sample testing. A utility company can therefore take better advantage of the existing, powerful AMI network. In addition, as energy consumption becomes
more dynamic due to renewables, electric vehicle charging, and other variables, consumers’ electricity costs become more erratic, resulting in consumer inquiries or complaints. The solution allows for a utility company to quickly assess the accuracy of a specific meter, avoiding a costly field visit, and therefore improve customer satisfaction.
Figure 2: View of meter accuracy in cloud-based analytics service
Field trial deployment With the cloud-based analytics service, Helen Electricity Network has visibility to meter accuracy information for 40 evaluation devices using mSure technology deployed in the field since August 2018. Validation of the accuracy of these devices
34 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • MAY 2022
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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