Carolyn Kinsman, President
Automated Communication
Links, Inc.

Unlike many other industries that have been revolutionized through new technology, utilities’ quest for “Smart” has never been granted the same span of time to properly evolve. Time ensures the stabilization of technology and for the industry to acquire the necessary in-house expertise to grow with that technology. In this way utilities will be assured of a seamless transition of legacy systems into the all-encompassing Smart Grid. Right now the Smart Grid Road Map still needs a lot of brush clearing, blasting and pavement.

The Where & Why of “Smart”

Within the span of a single year – 2005 – the term ‘Smart Meter’ came into our industry vernacular to articulate function and feature enhancements beyond that which could be acquired through Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). “Smart Grid” followed closely thereafter and sparked frenzy as the industry attempted to reach a consensus on what the term actually meant.

While these terms were still being defined, actual technology to address “Smart” was lagging further behind than what many visionaries had originally predicted. In fact, the vendor community was still establishing the evolutionary path from Advanced Metering Infrastructure to Smart Meters, while utilities were still trying to determine the operational and customer benefits that could be achieved when moving beyond AMI.

Over time the utility industry came to understand that “Smart Anything” meant the requirement to implement better, more comprehensive solutions, able to acquire operation and usage information that could be used throughout the utility operations, including dissemination to the utilities’ customers. Simplistically, the complete utility “Smart” vision is a parallel concept to that currently used by manufacturers who have instituted Just-in-Time principles and systems.

Why “Smart” Now?

The rush to embrace “Smart” in the utility industry was spawned from a number of events that took place almost in unison. This included access to cheaper, more robust electronics, utility acceptance of solid state meters and a growing understanding across the vendor community of what was needed to place telecommunications technology in one of the most unfriendly environments there is: Under the meter cover.

These factors were also fueled by other issues including the drive to maximize currently available energy resources; start building renewable energy resources; and recognizing that the current grid was built – and was continuing to be expanded – based on historical estimations rather than what is really occurring at the customer level.

While “Smart” was now defined, no one was ready to actually make it happen. “Smart” had pushed the fledgling fixed-network AMI industry into high gear.

Smart… at Warp Speed

AMR vendors, meter manufacturers and newly formed MDM (Meter Data Management) companies transitioned their strategies from development of the low-cost, dependable “Volkswagen-style” AMR/AMI systems to the more full-featured, data hauling Ferrari.

The rapid acceleration had caught Vendors by surprise and within a year of the term “Smart” the thinly upgraded AMI systems vendors were trying to launch into the Smart market were quickly shelved and replaced with total build-outs of completely new systems.

At the same time, consultants and utilities were busy building new business models, cost justification methods, technology evaluation and deployment methods to address these new “Smart” systems.

With hype travelling faster than reality, the Smart industry experienced some major disconnects regarding what could realistically be delivered to meet regulators’ interpretations of “Smart”. Utilities found themselves suddenly faced with the challenge of trying to meet these far reaching expectations. In a nutshell, the “Smart” hype was becoming the biggest risk factor for any utility that dared to test the Smart Meter waters.

Vendors Work to “Make it Smart”

All vendors in – or wanting to be in – the Smart Business stepped up investment in R&D. Meter manufacturers launching the first round of fledgling solid state meters believed that these meters should be low cost, providing very basic functionality. In the majority of early Smart Meter deployments that was what all utilities selected to attach to their Smart Meter systems. However, early experience taught meter vendors and utilities alike that while the initial concept of “dumb meter/Smart AMI” originally made good business sense, there was greater value to the overall Smart Grid if enhanced functionality was incorporated into the meter end point.

The bad news was that the litany of enhanced “Smart Meter” functions and features required considerably more communications bandwidth and a much more robust network architecture. Expansion of the bandwidth combined with improved data compression techniques have now been systematically introduced by most AMI Vendors. This expansion of bandwidth is probably the biggest and singularly most challenging requirement Smart Meter Vendors currently face.

Throughout all of this activity with both the Smart Meter and Smart System evolution, MDM software continued to be written, re-written and modified to deliver the necessary processing of Smart Meter data that is needed to deliver the level of data sharing, reporting functions, and of course, accurate billing coordinates required for new variable rate structures. The MDM is becoming a vital cog for the sharing of system data throughout the utility Smart Grid.

Getting Ready to Turn the Corner

While the road to Smart Grid realization has certainly not been pretty, the complete Smart Meter Infrastructure that in most cases forms the foundation for Smart Grid is finally reaching a level of clarity. This is a critical achievement toward ensuring the success of other systems being incorporated into the Smart Grid architecture. We can thank those utilities that were the early adopters, investing serious dollars, manpower and exemplary courage to deploy and work with the vendors to get us to this point.

Recent utility announcements indicate that some of the major projects that have been slowly deployed, evaluated, modified and then re-deployed may be reaching expected and approved levels of an acceptable system service deliverable. Those utilities that could not afford to take a multi-million dollar gamble were probably right to wait.

Going forward, the industry will continue to experience corrections when it comes to “Smart” anything, but we are seeing – dare I say it – a measure of stability? The pioneers of “Smart” will probably struggle a bit longer, but progress is definitely being made and the measure of Smart continues to grow.

Complete industry acceptance will be gained as technology risk continues to diminish with the momentum of successful Smart Meter deployments.

About the Author

Carolyn Kinsman is President of Automated Communication Links Inc., a well known, industry qualified and reputable AMI/Smart Meter Consulting firm. ACL is one of the first AMI consulting firms in North America and is a leader in setting the standard in unbiased, knowledgeable technical and strategic business consulting services solely to utilities.