Greentech Lead America: Echelon, a provider of energy
control networking for smart grid, smart city and smart building applications,
has launched new Control Operating System (COS) software for its smart meter
portfolio.
Partners can upgrade Echelon smart meters and its Open
Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) meter to function as multi-parameter grid sensors,
in addition to serving as billing devices.
These smart meters separate billing data from grid power quality
data – such as voltage, frequency and power factor.
Utilities can collect power quality information on an
as-required basis, instead of collecting volumes of billing and operational
data from each meter on every read cycle. This enables the utility’s
communications infrastructure and analytics applications to minimize the volume
of data collected and processed, while increasing its usefulness.
“Echelon smart meters are an essential piece of our
smart grid solution. The use of the meter as a grid sensor gives us a unique
opportunity to collect measurements for analysis of any problems in the network
without affecting the 15-minute interval measurements we use as the basis to
bill our customers,” said Poul Berthelsen, project manager at NRGi, a leading
utility in Denmark.
With a separate data set dedicated for power quality
history and troubleshooting data collected on a different cycle than the
billing data, NRGi will be able to review the previously captured data
immediately and decrease the time and cost.
“As smart grids scale to incorporate more users,
more distributed generation, and other applications like street lighting and
electric vehicle charging, it will become increasingly important to collect and
analyze power quality information in the distribution network, such as active
and reactive energy and power, per phase voltage current and power, sine phase
angle, power factor, frequency, etc. in near real-time. Utilities need to have
a plan to deal with this potential data deluge,” said Varun Nagaraj,
senior vice president of Product Management and Marketing at Echelon.
Echelon also expanded its smart meter portfolio by today
introducing the modular MTR 0600 Series. The MTR 0600 is an affordable, modular
smart meter designed for utilities in emerging markets to stage their smart
grid investment, while improving reliability.
Utilities can replace their existing meters with the MTR
0600 in standalone mode, and subsequently upgrade them in the field with a
communications and control module that allows them to plug into the rest of the
Echelon energy control networking platform. The communicating MTR 0600 serves
as both an automated billing device and a grid sensor and integrates with the
utility’s billing and analytics applications.