1.2.2.4.Third parties services - data analysis

Meter Data Analytics refers to the analysis of data emitted by electric smart meters that record consumption of electric energy. Replacement of traditional scalar meters with smart meters is a growing trend primarily in North America and Europe. These smart meters send usage data to the central head end systems every minute from each meter installed either at a residential or a commercial or an industrial customer.

Analyzing this voluminous data is as crucial to utility companies as collecting the data itself. Some of the major reasons for the analysis are 1) to make efficient energy buying decisions based on the usage patterns, 2) launching energy efficiency or energy rebate programs 3) energy theft detection, 4) comparing and correcting metering service provider performance, and 4) detecting and reducing unbilled energy. This data not only helps utility companies make more efficient businesses, but also helps consumers save money using less energy at peak moments. So, it is both economical and green. Smart meter infrastructure is fairly new to Utilities industry. As utility companies collect more and more data over the years, they may uncover further uses to these detailed smart meter activities. Similar analysis can be applied to water and gas as well as apart from electric usage.

Data analysis is often used for creation e-services for end-users. For example two e-services have been developed on behalf of Smart System users in European Fund for Regional Development financed Latvia- Lithuania program project “SMART” in 2013.

The 1^st e-service enables metering data export from the System as Excel file. In such way the data related clients water consumption can be selected and retrieved according to predefined parameters Therefore Ūdeka staff and clients are able to skip manual monthly procedure aiming to collect measurement from water consumption meters, to deliver them to Customer department and to record manually into billing system. Furthermore Customer department can request consumption data as “ad hock” export.

Figure 1.6. The website for end-user

The 2^nd e-service (see Fig. 1.6) provides opportunity of sending e-mail to Ūdeka staff and to clients about deviations from the usual pattern in water consumption. The thresholds for alarming in case of deviation can be defined by user depended on consumption habits and object importance. Further the thresholds can be adjusted due to the user “real life” experience.

Ip service provider’s domain

IP service provider’s domain in fact encapsulate two main concepts of data service providers, this data transmission could be provided by critical infrastructure service provider, as an additional service, or as a service independent on internet service provider (ISP) as separate service to be integrated by customer. The general structure for ISPs is shown in figure 1.7 [20].

Figure 1.7. Example of internet service provider

1.2.3.Wireless sensor networks in smart metering

1.2.3.1.Main characteristics of wireless sensor networks

Wireless network today refers to any kind of communication that can be implemented without wires, such as wireless energy transfer and wireless remote control. Automatic detection, prevention, and recovery from urban disasters are one of many potential uses for wireless sensor networks. Despite their variety, all sensor networks have certain fundamental features in common. Sensors detect the world’s physical nature, such as light intensity, temperature, sound, or proximity to objects. Similarly, actuators, affect the world in some way, such as toggling a switch, making a noise, or exerting a force. Sensors perform monitoring and remote diagnostics, and they usually use battery-powered transceivers.

A conventional electric power system can be a next-generation electric power system called smart gird by putting development efforts into this embedded sensors topology. The smart grid’s connectivity, monitoring and control functions can be satisfied by placing hundreds or thousands of sensors in a small geographical area. This applies to wireless, where sensors are standalone, as well as to very low power system, where sensors are isolated. This low power application applies to short distance communication and low bit rate in its physical layer like fewer kb/s.

The IEEE 802 is a Local Area Network (LAN)/Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) standards committee that has working groups like IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, etc. Further, individual IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15 or any other IEEE working groups may have task groups associated with them.

The IEEE 802.15 Task Group 4 (TG4) focuses on the Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) standard that describes the Physical Layer (PHY) and Media Access Layer (MAC) that let wireless communication exist between two systems or devices.

These LR-WPAN models are developed for only two lower layers, PHY and MAC, which are a portion of Data Link Layer (DLL); they’re not extended to upper or higher layers. The major attractions of this LR-WPAN are very low cost manufacturing property, short range operation, low speed data transfer, extremely low power consumption, and simple and flexible installation with little or no infrastructure. How IEEE 802.15.4 relates to other IEEE standards is highlighted in Table 1 representing a part of IEEE standard association [3].

Table 1. IEEE 802.15.4 in the Context of Other Related IEEE Standards (p.12)

Standards Committee	IEEE 802: LAN/MAN Standards Committee
Working Group	IEEE 802.11: WLAN Working Group	IEEE 802.15: WPAN Working Group
Task Group	802.11a/b/g/n	802.15.1: WPAN/Bluetooth	802.15.3a: WPAN High Rate/UWB	802.15.4: WPAN Low rate/Zigbee
Promoter	Wi-Fi	Bluetooth SIG	Wi-Media	Zigbee Alliance

Source: Parker, Andrew D. “A Guide for the Clueless: IEEE 802.15.4 Standard for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN).” IEEE 802.15.4 LR WPAN. Last modified July 14th, 2004.

http://lecs.cs.ucla.edu/~adparker /EE202A/hw2/index.html

The LR-WPAN standard proves that the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is the most appropriate standard for such uses among other wireless connectivity standards, like IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. In similar applications, IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) provide wireless connectivity but it is less suitable for resembling low cost applications and not cost-effective. Hence, the use of IEEE 802.11WLAN is overabundance technology. The second option can be Bluetooth technology; it is more suitable and replaces IEEE 802.11 WLAN in this low cost application. However, Bluetooth’s high complexity flaw is negative. These standards will require battery replacement so frequently, in few months, and battery charging in a day or so, they are almost impractical and unsuitable in temperature sensors or other LR-WPAN applications.

In early 2000, IEEE 802 standard working group 15 announced the need for low cost and low power consumption wireless technology in such industrial purpose and residential uses as well. Among the three standards discussed above, the LR-WPAN has ultra-low complexity, the lowest data rate and longer battery life. Hence, IEEE 802.15.4 is the most appropriate solution for location awareness wireless communication, where simple information transferred from one point to another using sensor, compared to Bluetooth and WLAN. This does not mean LR-WPAN is the best in every application. WLAN is suitable for wireless internet connections or Bluetooth can be the best fit for wireless headsets, which require a data rate of more than 1 Mbps.

LR-WPAN device can operate on more than one frequency band, employing spreading parameters and data parameters. In summary, a general comparison of WLANs, WPANs and LR-WPANs is presented in Table 2:

Table 2. Comparison of LR-WPAN with Other Wireless Technologies

Parameters	WLAN (802.11)	WPAN (Bluetooth)	LR-WPAN (IEEE 802.15.4)
Range	~100 m	~ 10-100 m	~ 10 m
Data throughput	~ 2-11 Mb/s	1 Mb/s	< 0.25 Mb/s
Power consumption	Medium	Low	Ultra-low
Size	Larger	Smaller	Smallest
Cost/complexity	> 6	1	0.2

The high level properties of LR-WPAN are summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. Summary of Properties of LR-WPAN Standardization [4]

Property	Range
Raw data rate	868 MHz: 20kbps; 915 Mhz: 40kbps; 2.4 GHz : 250 kbps
Range Normally	10 cm to 10 m
Battery life	Application dependent , optimized for long battery life
Latency	10 to 15 ms
Channel Access	CSMA-CA and slotted CAMA-CA
Location Awareness	Optional
Nodes per network	Capable up to 65,534
Addressing Short	16-bit and 64-bit IEEE
Topology	Star and peer-to-peer (leads to mesh) topology
Complexity	Lower compared to current IEEE standard
Types of traffic	Data centric asynchronous communication
Temperature	Industrial temperature range -40 °C to +85 °C
Desired frequency band and channels	International band -868 MHz: 1 channel International band -915 MHz: 10 channels Unlicensed band-2.4 GHz: 16 channels