Making Smart Grids Smarter: Deploying Next-gen Fiber-tothe-Meter (FTTM)
Contents
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Executive Summary
01
Emerging Smart Grids and their Requirements
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The Exploding Demand for Bandwidth: Challenges facing Utilities
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Fiber Optic Communication: Providing Robust Data Networking
03
Building Intelligent Networks: The Cyient Expertise
04
Accelerating Smart Grid Services: The Benefits
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Establishing Future-ready Communication Networks
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Author
06
References
06
About Cyient
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This paper discusses how extending fiber network to smart grid infrastructures can allow utilities to collect real-time data, perform ondemand outages, and monitor and optimize power utilization effectively.
Executive Summary Utility service providers face multi-faceted challenges in maintaining and managing their network as well as assets while delivering efficient services. Although emerging technologies and adoption of smart grids enable utilities to use data effectively to manage generation, distribution, and demand, the existing communication networks restrict their ability to realize these benefits. To seamlessly manage instant flows of information, utilities need to modernize their communications infrastructure with nextgeneration networks (NGN). Implementation of fiber optic cable can offer significant advantages in terms of viability, reliability, resiliency, and efficiency. It can not only help simplify but also accelerate data access and, in turn, improve overall network efficiency. Historically, different solutions have been developed for utility systems’ control and telecommunications network management environments. While utilities are slowly adapting to the changing market demands, process standardization is still at an early stage compared to the telecommunication industry, especially in terms of information modeling and communication networks. This paper discusses how extending fiber network to smart grid infrastructures can allow
Standard meters Fig. 1| Conventional Data Collection Process 01
utilities to collect real-time data, perform ondemand outages, and monitor and optimize power utilization effectively. It also suggests that collaborating with communication service providers can help utilities reduce the cost and complexity of building and maintaining two separate communication networks. The paper also showcases our expertise in implementing smart communication solutions that can help utilities derive maximum benefit from their existing assets and infrastructure.
Emerging Smart Grids and their Requirements The utilities industry is undergoing an unprecedented change in the way services are metered and billed. Conventional meters are being increasingly replaced by webbased smart meters that enable real-time communication between the meter and the central system. They help consumers optimize energy consumption while enabling faster outage detection and resolution for utilities. However, a fast and reliable communications infrastructure is critical for realizing the potential of smart grids. Doing this will make consumed data available instantly at any point of time in case of both up and downstream while enabling auto switch of power.
Manual processing
Database
Fiber-tothe-x (FTTx) architecture can help industry players easily meet the growing demand for high bandwidth and better equip themselves to deliver nextgeneration services.
Optical fiber communication In house display
Advanced meter
Data collector
NMS & database
Fig. 2| Advanced Data Collection Process
Smart meters require the support of better communication channels to ensure seamless and uninterrupted flow of data in an increasingly digital age. Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) architecture can help industry players easily meet this growing demand for high bandwidth and better equip themselves to deliver nextgeneration services. In fact, communications service providers (CSP) consider FTTx to be the best method to deliver their telecom services to subscribers, and are increasingly deploying fiber across the network. FTTx has many network variations depending on the termination point—premises (FTTp), home (FTTh), curb/cabinet (FTTc), node (FTTn), or utility (FTTu). According to a market research company, FTTP penetration is likely to reach 50% in most of the Scandinavian and Arab states. The report also says that China aims to connect 200 million households to fiber networks by the end of 20151. Fiber infrastructure offers immense advantages in terms of bandwidth, reliability, flexibility, and security. They enable CSPs to deliver innovative high-speed telecom services such as IPTV, video-on-demand, voice, high-speed data access, infotainment, and edutainment. Utilities can also leverage fiber networks to efficiently deliver their services for grid operations.
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The Exploding Demand for Bandwidth: Challenges facing Utilities With smart meters, utilities can collect data across services including electricity, water, gas, and heat. This data is sent to a data concentrator, which acts as a local collector of the information for a particular street or area, depending upon the density of houses in an area. The total amount of data from the data concentrator is then forwarded to the network management system (NMS) or data center for computation and billing. To enable this flow of data, service providers need all three of the above mentioned links to enable two-way communications for data—sending and accepting service requests/commands, service quality, and service failure monitoring. However, conventional power lines or copper networks fail to offer the bandwidth and speed required to facilitate effective power distribution, intelligent monitoring, and better power management at consumer premises. Utilities are increasingly adopting newer networks for the smart grid to modernize and transform communication lines. Many players are deploying technologies such as broadband, RF Mesh, cellular, etc. over conventional power lines, although these networks do not offer the solutions required to remain competitive in the digital economy. Moreover, utilities are also under unprecedented economic pressure
Electric lines Electric head end Gas meter
Electric meter
Water meter
Gas head end
Water head end
Fig. 3| On-demand Meter Reading Process
to optimize the cost of their assets to remain viable as well as competitive. Utilities need fast, secure, and reliable infrastructure that can support instant data availability and power to move upstream and downstream, enabling two-way communication in real-time. In addition to this, governments around the world are focusing on providing high-speed digital broadband access to help stimulate economic growth in the 21st century, while creating an eco-friendly environment that saves energy. Smart city initiatives are looking at leveraging digital technologies to optimize cost and resource consumption, and deliver sustainable and high-quality living. Their core focus is to enable enhanced flow of information and better engagement with citizens. Fiber optic communication, referred to as FTTx, is becoming an increasingly popular communications method for smart city 03
communities and smart grid applications including on-demand meter reading, outage management and continual power quality monitoring. The high speed, low-latency networks are also ideally suited for dataintensive applications such as distribution automation and demand response which enable utility companies and their customers to interact in near real-time.
Fiber Optic Communication: Providing Robust Data Networking Fiber optic connectivity offers very high bandwidth over extended distances. This makes it an ideal channel for device-to-device connections and communication. It enables faster, simultaneous information access from across end points. Fiber optics can be deployed through advanced technologies of micro-trenching and microducts or rollover electrical poles as fiber optics are free from
The high-speed, low-latency fiber networks are capable of ondemand meter reading, outage management and continual power quality monitoring.
electromagnetic interference. These advanced laying techniques encourage utility companies and CSPs to work together to provide integrated solutions for end users. The large network infrastructure is built on a bundled, single mode fiber optic transmission system. This type of system allows multiple signals (one per fiber and multiple fibers per bundle) to travel very long distances at very high transmission rates. This facilitates seamless real-time communication between grid points that are thousands of miles away. Fiber is now being extended further down the network line to offer utilities and energy providers an unprecedented opportunity to modernize and fully utilize their own data. These high-speed, low-latency networks are capable of ondemand meter reading, outage management and continual power quality monitoring.
Building Intelligent Networks: The Cyient Expertise We offer SMARTCOMMS, a communications solution for utility service providers. It automates communications processes and allows real-time monitoring of meter readings and data consumption from a centralized management location. The solution helps enable detection of service related problems, change tariffs as per requirements, limit or increase the pumping capacity, deliver accurate invoices, and provide specific information for monitoring and energy management purposes. The SMARTCOMMS solution especially enables the utility operators to access or make available the required data to their end-users instantly at any point of time. The technology used for this solution is nextgeneration fiber optics communications integrated with Gigabit Ethernet and RF nodes that communicate between advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and smart 04
meters. SMARTCOMMS helps to measure, collect, and analyze energy usage from advanced devices such as electricity, gas, and/or water meters, using optical fiber communication systems on request or on a pre-defined schedule. This solution is both integrated and automated as the infrastructure includes hardware, software, communications network, customer associated systems, in-house display systems, and meter data management (MDM) software. SMARTCOMMS systems are often combined with asset and work order management as well as diagnostic tools that help manage the infrastructure effectively. Deploying advanced optical fiber based communications for utility service provider’s AMI is key to modernizing the grid operations. AMI needs advanced and reliable communications as it provides access to the information to make intelligent decisions; enables the ability to execute those decisions; and helps optimize cost and resource utilization. In addition, system operators are able to greatly improve consumer service by refining utility operations and asset management processes based on AMI data. Another important component of SMARTCOMMS is the AMI system controller that hosts the AMI network management applications. The AMI network management applications perform several important functions including management of the AMI communications network; scheduling and collection of meter readings; and coordination of routine consumer and meter data changes to ensure that all meters are read and updated. In conjunction with high-speed optical fiber communications network technologies, an MDM system can be installed to integrate with the proposed systems through multiple interfaces. Transport technologies such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), passive optical network (PON) or next generation ethernet PON (NGPON) are used
AMI network management system
Head end Data Voice
Optical Fiber Communication
Meter data management system (MDM)
Meter data management
Utility management system
Video
Data repository
FDH cabinet/ splitter
Splitter
MH/HH/ PIT
MH/HH/ PIT
FDMS & De-multiplexer
ONT
Utility system
Settlement system
SMART COMM
Customer presentment (WEB, IVR)
(Outage management)
Utility Box Office Customer information
Telecom Management System Gas meter
Electric meter
Water meter
Home Area Network (HAN)
OSS/BSS
Third Parties
OLT
Telecom network inventory system
Fig. 4| The SMARTCOMMS Solution
for communicating meter data from digital meters to gateways, and from the gateways to data collectors/concentrators. The data concentrator then distributes the bulk data to different utility end points or network management centers. MDM has the potential to provide valuable information about performance of AMI system and health of newly-installed meters. It can help optimize operational efficiency by regularly validating, editing, and estimating the data received by the AMI system. However, efficient data transfer from MDM to other utility applications such as outage management, enterprise asset management, and distribution automation is critical for the applications to perform at their maximum potential. 05
Accelerating Smart Grid Services: The Benefits A RF network with fiber optic connectivity offers instant availability of very high bandwidth over extended distances. Fiberlike, high-speed and low-latency networks are ideally suited for a variety of smart grid applications, including on-demand meter reading, outage management, and continual power quality monitoring. In addition, fiber networks are capable of handling data intensive applications such as distribution automation and demand response. This allows utility companies and their customers to interact in real-time during outages, and perform price signaling and
Our SMARTCOMMS solution can be leveraged for collection and communication of massive amounts of data at a very high frequency. For large-size organizations, this frequency can be near real-time or real-time.
other conservation and cost-saving activities. Moreover, it provides extensive scalability in terms of bandwidth to accommodate newer services and technology upgrades. Lastly, fiber cables are far more cost-effective to maintain compared to copper or cable. A welldesigned infrastructure can make the network redundant and almost fail-safe. Our SMARTCOMMS can be leveraged for collection and communication of massive amounts of data at a very high frequency. For large-size organizations, this frequency can be near real-time or real-time. Types of data that can be collected include service quality, outages, load, meter inventory, tampering, etc. The solution helps increase the amount of data usage for analysis, thereby enhancing decision-making.
Establishing Future-ready Communication Networks In a nutshell, fiber optic connectivity offers very high bandwidth over extended distances for utilities looking to improve their grid operations, enabling them to transform into next-generation smart grids. It is the perfect network infrastructure to facilitate deviceto-device connections for utility operators. With communication service providers looking for additional revenue and utility companies looking for ways to improve their two-way data collection efforts, a stronger partnership between the two can promote a symbiotic relationship that mutually benefits both parties and offer advanced solutions to the end-users. With FTTx being deployed by many CSPs, it would be ideal for telecom operators and utility companies to work together to accelerate a smart grid roll-out. Such a collaboration can help CSPs and utilities avoid the cost and complexity of building and maintaining two 06
separate communication networks. Utilities that adopt FTTx proactively will gain access to extensible and secure communication networks for smart grid services backed by robust speed and bandwidth, making the networks cost-effective and future-ready.
Author Kiran Solipuram works with Cyient as a Sr. Solutions Consultant for Telecommunications in the Business Support (GBS) group. He has 17 years of experience in planning, designing, installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and operations of telecom network infrastructure with various multinational telecom operators. He is highly skilled in fixed communications networks for green and brownfield architectures, including active and passive optical networks (xPONs). His innovative solutions on broadband and FTTx technologies have been recognized. He has worked with several global communications service providers, including SDH, xDSL/ Broadband, ATM, Metro-Ethernet (MEN), FTTx, xPON, Mobile backhauls, and IPTV/CDN technologies. Kiran is a regular speaker and has presented at many global conferences. He has also published many papers in communications magazines throughout his career. Kiran holds master degrees in computer applications and business administration (with a specialization in information systems). He is also an accredited member (CFHP) of FTTH Council, North America and certified with CCNA, TMF-eTOM & ITIL-V3.
References 1
http://www.budde.com.au/Research/GlobalBroadband-and-FttP-Key-Statistics-andInsights.html?r=51
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