Internet of Lights Blog

Taking Smart Meters Beyond Billing

In 2008, SEAS-NVE, the leading utility in Denmark, issued a bid to replace its aging meter infrastructure, with the main goal to improve their billing system. Four years later, 380,000 Echelon smart meters, deployed by Echelon Networked Energy Services (NES) VAR partner Eltel Networks A/S, are fulfilling SEAS-NVE’s original goal — and more.

The ‘more’ is that beyond using the smart meters as billing devices, SEAS-NVE sees them as smart grid devices able to improve the monitoring of power quality and outages, including for the utility’s more than 3,500 solar installations, and better manage energy efficiency on its low-voltage grid.

The Echelon smart meters convey information and perform analytics that evaluate grid health. SEAS-NVE uses the meters’ advanced features for load profiling, power quality measurements, remote load control, remote disconnect, and maximum power limiting. The meters communicate with a control node — the Data Concentrator — that collects data from the meters, aggregates it, and sends it back in bulk to Echelon’s NES System Software. The NES management system provides infrastructure management, device management, event management, and data collection.

The Echelon smart grid solution is delivering big benefits to SEAS-NVE and the consumers who rely on the utility. Whether it’s identifying voltage quality issues even before consumers experience equipment malfunctions or failures, avoiding damages from surges, or recovering quickly from outages, the Echelon solution is taking SEAS-NVE far beyond its modest original goals of improving billing. But of course, the billing system has also improved.

Recommended Links:

• Echelon Smart Grid Optimization solution web page
• Echelon Smart Grid Optimization brochure
• Press release: Danish Utility SEAS-NVE Achieves Nearly 100% Reliability Using Echelon-based Smart Grid Solution
• Press release: Danish Utility Selects Echelon’s Advanced Metering System for 390,000 customers

 

Hurricanes and Smart Grids

Looking ahead after Hurricane Sandy, it is clear that our nation’s grid infrastructure needs updating.  Varun Nagaraj, Echelon's senior vice president of product management and marketing, highlighted the need for change recently in a Forbes opinion piece.   

The data from smart meters can help utilities identify inefficiencies in energy transmission, they can help utility customers gain more insight into and control over energy use, and they can play a key role in reducing power outages, which cost the U.S. up to $150 billion a year.  Outage-related costs for Sandy are still being tallied.

As Nagaraj points out:  "America’s negative perception of smart meters is causing the country to trail behind Europe, which is better positioned to profit from the technology."

European utilities are racing ahead of America by deploying smart meters, which are proving to also boost customer loyalty and satisfaction.  Nagaraj points out that European utilities gain visibility into their low voltage grid – the section between the neighborhood distribution transformer and the customer's meter – to remotely troubleshoot expensive problems such as power quality issues and outages.

Hurricane Sandy has demonstrated, in a particularly dramatic and devastating way, the need to build up our country's smart grid infrastructure.  After all, the lights must stay on.

How Can Street Lighting Be More Efficient?

Street lights consume up to 40% of a city’s utility bill. And, cities account for 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions. But what if street lighting could be made more efficient so that it could reduce energy costs and help cities cut back on their carbon footprint?

That’s where Echelon’s Smart Street Lighting solutions come in. Whether it’s quickly identifying problems with one or multiple lights, or controlling on/off cycles to boost efficiency without diminishing safety, cities that use Echelon smart street lighting approaches can reap enormous benefits. These smart cities can reduce energy costs by up to 30%, reduce maintenance costs by another 20%, and create greener, safer environments with Echelon.

This More Efficient Street Lighting video demonstrates how Echelon’s Smart Street Lighting solutions works – regardless of luminaire type —to put the control over green, efficient street lighting directly into the hands of city operators.

Recommended Links:

• Echelon Smart Street Lighting solution web page
• Echelon Smart Street Lighting brochure
• Press Release: At Light+Building 2012, Echelon demonstrated the fast payback of its Smart Street Lighting solutions powered by the Control Operating System (COS)

Connected World Names Echelon to its CW 100 List

Echelon was named to the 2013 Connected World (CW) 100, a prestigious list of companies honored for “demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technologies in connectivity.” Focusing on the machine-to-machine and connected devices marketplace, the CW 100 list is determined by the editorial staff of Connected World and its editorial advisory board.

Published since 2003, the CW 100 has become the definitive referenced directory highlighting the most important and influential providers of machine-to-machine and connected devices. Companies appearing on the CW 100 are chosen from a selection of hundreds of firms, both private and publicly traded. The selection criteria cover three topics: sales and earnings growth, contribution to the connected-devices space, and innovation in multiple markets served during the past 12 months.

For Echelon, inclusion on the CW 100 is significant because it recognizes that Echelon’s seminal contribution to machine-to-machine communications is our LonWorks platform. The proven LonWorks standard and technology encompass the elements necessary to design, install, monitor, and control a network of diverse devices. This technology powers more than 100 million connected devices across applications as diverse as building automation, industrial automation, street lighting, transportation, and smart metering.

Recommended links:

• Echelon’s LonWorks web page
• Introduction to the LonWorks Platform technical documentation
• LonWorks Product Database, to find LonWorks-enabled products offered by manufacturers worldwide

Helping Utilities Protect Revenues

It’s estimated that even the most advanced countries in the world lose 6% to 8% of their energy in the transmission and distribution network. In many high-growth economies worldwide, it’s not uncommon for theft of service to reach 30% annually.

Finding loss on the low-voltage grid can be challenging, especially in areas with aging equipment and/or problems with electricity theft. But pinpointing losses and finding their causes are crucial for achieving optimal grid efficiencies — and for preserving utilities’ revenues.

This Revenue Assurance video outlines how Echelon’s Revenue Assurance application, part of our Control Operating System (COS), identifies areas of loss on the distribution network by tracking and comparing energy usage at distribution transformers and at all meters attached to the transformers.

By accurately identifying the voltage distribution along the various feeder lines, and comparing measured loads between transformers and their attached meters, you can see where potential losses are centered, in time to do something about it. From there, it’s easier to determine if losses are due to a technical loss in the environment, inefficiencies somewhere in the grid, or outright theft of service.

 Recommended Links:

• Echelon COS Revenue Assurance web page
• Echelon Revenue Assurance datasheet
• Press Release: Echelon introduces new COS application to assure revenue and improve grid efficiency

Smart Management of Outages and Power Quality

Interruptions in power cost the U.S. up to $180 billion and the EU up to €150 billion annually, according to estimates published by The ABB Group in its Smart Grid Reliability Bulletin white paper. But most utilities remain blindsided by outages or degradations in power quality (e.g. voltage sag, swell and total harmonic distortion) and often have to scramble to find and fix these problems and restore service to consumers.

 This Outages & Power Quality video demonstrates how Echelon’s Service Quality Assurance application that runs on Echelon’s Edge Control Nodes (ECNs), makes it easy for utility operators to monitor, detect, resolve, and respond to outages and power quality issues — plus get accurate reporting on outages, so there’s no over-reporting to regulators.

 This application gives utilities greater control over their service quality, which leads to operational cost savings as well as more satisfied consumers.

 Recommended Links:

• Echelon Service Quality Assurance application web page
• Echelon Service Quality Assurance brochure
• Press Release: Echelon introduces new COS application for service quality assurance

Protecting Transformers in the 21st Century

In many countries, the installed base of distribution transformers is aging, with less than one percent being monitored in real-time.  Without monitoring, it is difficult to know the health of your transformer fleet or be able to accurately predict when these assets should be replaced.  And unless someone is watching the transformer’s cabinet door 24/7, how would you know if there was an intrusion into the high-voltage transformer environment?

 In this short Transformer Protection video, Echelon shows how its Transformer Protection solutions can monitor electrical parameters such as energy and maximum current per phase, along with physical parameters relevant to the transformer’s health, such as temperature, moisture level, and door open/close status.

No one enjoys a sudden power outage. Smart technology like Echelon’s could help utilities extend the useful life of transformers and avoid transformer-caused outages – saving costs for utilities and keeping consumers safe, powered and happy.

 Recommended links:

• Echelon COS Transformer Protection web page
• Echelon Transformer Protection datasheet
• Press Release: Echelon introduces new COS application to monitor and protect transformers

Echelon Demonstrates Multi-Application Platform at Metering Europe

At Metering Europe 2012, Echelon showcased its Multi-application Energy Control Networking platform with a live demo wall that highlighted the following solutions:

• Transformer Protection
• Outage Management and Power Quality Assurance
• Revenue Assurance
• Residential Demand Response
• Smart Street Lighting

Watch the video below and see how Echelon can help you reduce grid more stress points on the low voltage grid!