British Research is at the fore front of smart meter research & design and is committed to providing the latest technology to its clients and partners.
British Research focuses on the latest innovative developments in the metering industry, providing design expertise, existing & future technologies, information and guidance to utilities and its clients. These allow its clients to sourcing suitable equipment and traverse the varying technologies and products for their market and environmental conditions. One of British Research’s main aims is to provide meter to its clients that are designed to that individual customers needs. We understand that different clients have different needs that can vary for many reasons such as their location, the conditions in which the meter are fitted or the purpose for which the meter is needed.
Most of the electricity meters in our homes are mechanical devices using long-outdated technology.
The main purpose of smart meters is straightforward – to match consumption with generation. Traditional electricity meters only tell you how much energy you have used. However, by contrast, smart meters give you information on how and when the energy was used. The introduction of smart metering is also one of the first steps on the way to the creation of smart grids.
A further purpose of a smart metering system is to instigate energy and CO2 reductions by influencing consumers and displaying consumption in the home. Here data is collected via half hourly readings, to allow for the evaluation of electricity consumption habits of consumers, so that energy reductions can be made. In order to accommodate the volume read out of large quantities of meters every half hour, a dedicated communication network is needed.
There are many facets to energy reduction which range from flexible tariff change to credit meters that can be remotely converted to prepayment meters and home energy monitors that allow consumers to monitor their usage.
One advantage of the smart meter is that it removes the need for contact between the customer and the utility employee; this reduces the risk of collusion. Further to this it allows for the monitoring of energy use, which means the provider can detect and record energy theft. Unlike electromechanical meters, smart meters can detect tamper conditions and assure correct billing, with the introduction of smart grids this will allow for the detection of tampering to be done remotely. Smart metering also gives the provider the ability to disconnect and reconnect customers remotely.
One of the more critical elements of the system is the communication method and there are many proposed methods each with advantages and disadvantages. Of note is Zigbee which is a meshed system ideal for WAN (Wide Area Network) but unable to communicate with the now common blue tooth devices hence not ideal for STAR network. For example, a separate home energy display is required instead of displaying the energy on a Bluetooth enabled PDA/mobile phone, which would be more convenient. Bluetooth on the other hand is ideal for STAR networks communicating with appliances, but cannot be meshed, and therefore is not ideal for WAN. Of note is the relatively new BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) which could do both.
Smart metering is all about communications this is an area that British Research holds a lot of expertises in and for further information please visit our page on Communications.