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Choose Internet Protocol (and the Internet) for your Smart Grid communications

Electric utilities have till now used proprietary, closed telecommunications systems for communications with their AMR devices.  The Smart Grid and Smart Meters will ultimately require open, industry standard Internet Protocol (IP).  If you are contemplating Smart Meter deployment, you should choose a packet switched, IP telecommunications system, not a proprietary, circuit switched one. 

What is the difference between packet switched IP telecommunications and proprietary, circuit switched ones currently being used for AMR communications?

“Circuit switched” means that data is communicated in a continuous stream over a dedicated communications circuit.  The easiest example to visualize is the old telephone systems where the operator physically plugged your line into a switchboard for the duration of a conversation.  Almost all AMR devices in use today communicate via a dedicated telecommunications path or circuit which may be fiber, wire or wireless.  Some of them utilize power line communications by which each meter communicates via a signal superimposed over the distribution line back to the substation.  They may communicate simultaneously over a unique frequency band for each endpoint, or communicate serially, one at a time, or be multiplexed in some way.

“Packet switched” means that the message is broken into small, independent packets of data (1s and 0s) with an origination and destination address and indexing information to allow them to all be recombined when they arrive.  Each packet takes whatever path is available, and the packets do not necessarily all travel on the same path or arrive in the same order that they were sent.  This allows the packets of data to be rerouted in the event that any particular path (circuit) becomes overloaded or unavailable.  The Internet is the ultimate packet switched network.  Smart Grid and Smart Meter communications in the future will be mostly if not entirely via packet switched networks using Internet Protocol (IP).  In fact, most of this will ultimately occur via the Internet, not LANs and WANs owned and operated by the utility.

The advantage of packet switched communications over the Internet are many:

1.  Capacity, speed & reliability

The Internet is for Smart Grid and Smart Meter purposes, a practically infinite capacity, nearly instantaneous (i.e., no latency), two-way, digital, self healing network.  When is the last time that you remember the entire Internet being down?  Never!  When was the last time that you got an email back with the message “all circuits are busy now” or “the network does not have enough capacity to accommodate your message”? . . . or “your message wasn’t delivered because the Internet was out of service”?

2.  Open, industry standard

There is a global industry standard for packet switched telecommunications over the Internet . . . TCP/IP (transmission control protocol / Internet protocol).  Every Internet device uses this protocol.  With circuit switched telecommunications, bandwidth may be limited, latency may be significant, reliability may be poor, and not all transceivers are compatible on any given network.  For example, meters from different vendors using power line communications are not compatible or interchangeable, and cannot even coexist on the same system.  Even wireless communications from different vendors may not be compatible or interchangeable.  That means that if your current AMR vendor cease to be able to satisfy your needs, or another vendor offers better features, prices or terms, you may have to entirely replace your legacy system with the new vendor’s system.  For example, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Bastrop, Texas, is taking out their entire recently completed power line communications AMR system to replace it with a Smart Meter and IP based telecommunications system from Silver Spring networks.  In fact, Pike Research stated in a report released in November that, “Major utilities worldwide, enticed by savings and prodded by governments, are embarking on wholesale replacement of over 45% of the North American and European installed base by 2015, breaking the traditional 15-20 year meter replacement cycle.”  Smart Grid potential gated by broadband

3.  Mix and match vendors and devices

A global industry standard means that you can mix and match compatible equipment no matter the vendor, and within limits, no matter the vintage.  For example, if you need a new wireless router at your home, you can go get one at Best Buy and not worry at all which brand to get as long as it meets the global IEEE 802.1X standard.  Similarly, any Internet compatible “appliance” (e.g., hard drive, webcam, DVD drive, Smart Meter) regardless of the vendor will communicate via the Internet.

4.  Ubiquitous Internet vs constrained utility telecomm networks

In the not too distant future every single home or business in the USA will have access to broadband Internet.  Almost 80% already do.  In fact, they will likely have multiple means . . . wired and wireless.  Remember that most mobile telephone networks are increasingly Internet capable as well.  This means that it is no longer necessary for an electric utility to build and operate its own proprietary telecommunications network to communicate with its customers.  You’ll hear a lot of horror stories about “hacking the Smart Grid” but they are red herrings and straw men.  Billions of people worldwide use the Internet for communications, commerce & banking, entertainment and even remote monitoring and control with adequate safety and security. 

5.  Consumers will own and operate Smart Meters and home energy management systems

Consumers are already beginning to acquire and use their own metering methods and devices ranging from Google Power Meter and Microsoft Hohm to GreenSwitch and Tendril.  These will communicate via the Internet, most likely via wireless technologies.  Consumers are going to want to be able to access these devices and systems via the web, perhaps even by iPhone app, even when they are not home, and they may not be owned or operated by the electric utility.

6.  Consumers increasingly demand self service web portals

Many of your customers will want (if they are not already asking you for) the ability to do their business with you from service orders to billing / payment to monitoring service quality via self service web portals.  There is no way that you could offer the scope and range of communication over your own telecommunications network as can be obtained via the Internet.  Any of your members can communicate and do business with you with an Internet device anywhere in the world.

I believe that any Smart Meter technology that will remain viable into the forseeable future have to be able to communicate via IP on the Internet.  If the manufacturer that you are dealing with only has a proprietary communications protocol (i.e., a closed system with a proprietary method that no other vendors use) then you should only do business with them if they can demonstrate to you how you will be able to migrate to IP communications for some or all of the endpoints AND be able to accommodate and preferably integrate other Smart Meter and Home Energy Management System (HEMS) devices from other vendors.  I am convinced that in many ways the Smart Grid will simply be an extension of the Internet . . . or, as Robert Metcalfe says, the Internet will be the control plane for the Smart Grid Internet as control plane for Smart Grid.

Here are links to some more resources that you could take a look at:

    Packet switched communicaions for smart meters

    C/NET article about Smart Grid and broadband Internet communications

    Paper on implementing Smart Grid communicataions

Thanks for visiting and reading my smartgridblog.  Your comments are welcome.