So far we have talked mostly about the grid itself, but what advantages does it offer towards metering? You have undoubtedly heard of the term smart meter, but what is in fact a smart meter? Smart meters measure real time consumption, power quality, and power outage notification monitoring. It provides the power distributor with information about real time demand and the quality, but also allows for the distributor to send information back to the user. Our design could even further expand on this functionality. We aim to provide Ethernet communication between plugs over the power line, as TCP/IP is sighted to be a growing trend in smart metering (1). In this fashion, our plugs could communicate with a smart meter to provide even more information, like manufacturer, device type, etc. With this information, distribute would have an even better picture of the power consumption profiles of users. Reversely, the power distributors could relay messages to individual devices, requesting them to wait with an additional time period before beginning large consumption (i.e. refrigerator, washing machine) to even out power peaks on the network. This data mining could result in a healthier network with less faults, a more even power distribution, and could even provide manufacturers with data on how to improve their products.

 

(1) http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_051809.html

Picture: http://beta.dacomwest.de/bilder/smart_metering_gr.jpg