According to Telit’s Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre, the global utilities market is fragmented and composed of companies that have different heritages and serve different types of end user demand. He tells George Malim that communications technology has the potential to revolutionise metering for the first time in more than a century to the benefit of utilities in terms of increased efficiency and to benefit consumers in controlling usage and spend
M2M Now: What are the major trends that you see in the utility market today?
Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre: In so far as it is possible to generalise in global terms, the main trend is the change of technology. Electricity meters were a revolution at the beginning of the last century but since then there has been no significant change. Now, we speak of smart metering and smart grids – everything is smart something. However, I don’t think this is necessarily smart, it’s more accurately connected.
It is the connectivity that creates an environment for innovation when it comes to meters. The possibility of connecting an iPad to a smart meter, for example, opens up a range of efficiency applications and ways for the consumer to manage their usage that
traditional metering simply couldn’t offer.
I think we’re at the stage of market development where it is difficult to predict what might happen. Only when the capability is there in terms of enabled meters deployed will we see applications be developed. However, obvious and likely examples include the ability for consumers to manage their consumption and power down their homes remotely.
Meters are still ultimately only tools to measure what you consume but that measurement becomes a tool for users to interact with and modify their behaviour and I think that is the key trend.
A connected meter allows you to know your consumption without waiting for your next bill and enables users not to have to pay in advance for their usage. Of course, that’s where the benefit to the utility companies comes in. There’s less meter reading required because it is automated and that’s particularly useful in countries that have seasonal differences, such as Europe. It’s less pronounced in the US where winter heating consumption turns to summer cooling consumption.
M2M Now: What’s driving the move to connected metering?
EM-D: More accurate billing without having to read the meter and pay the costs associated with that was the original intent and we have seen utility companies deploy technologies to address this since the 1980s. In the US, for example, radio frequency technology was deployed to enable power companies to perform drive-by meter reading.
Now though, communications technology advances have made that bi-directional and utility companies can not only take information from meters but also send it to them. They can command them to switch off or on or to change tariff, for example.
The second wave of the trend is to have remote interaction between the meter, the utility company and the consumer to facilitate minimised consumption. Energy is becoming a scarce resource and is being used more and more to power autonomous devices. Uses such as charging electric vehicles place a substantial load on the power grid. If everyone chargestheir cars at once, substantial investment in the power grid may be required so encouraging users to consume more intelligently is to the benefit of the power companies as well.
That will be served by apps on smartphones and tablets and a lot of new features are coming.
M2M Now: Given that national approaches to power distribution differ widely, can the utility market be served on a global basis?
EM-D: It’s very difficult to define a global trend in this market because nothing is global. In the US, for example, the voltage is different while the UK has different power sockets to European countries. Add to that the many people in the world who have access to no or only limited electricity and it’s clear this is not a one-sizefits-all sector and specific systems are needed for individual markets.
M2M Now: To what extent do you see smart metering enhancing utilities’ prepaid propositions? Where is prepaid well established, and where is it just beginning to gain traction?
EM-D: I think the prepaid market started in South Africa and other developing markets because prepaid is a good way to move nonelectricity users to electricity. It removes the credit concerns of utilities and enables new users to control their spending. Other markets, such as the UK, have a base of prepaid users for historical reasons that may be related to high turnover of rental property tenants.
Current solutions are not elegant and require users to charge up prepaid keys or cards with cash. The administration costs are substantial and passed on to the user.
In addition, with a smart meter, the utility can easily connect and disconnect customers. For me, prepaid should be an additional offering and it offers a strong benefit for utilities because they get paid in advance.
What has changed a lot is the traditional landscape in which a utility made everything from power generation to distribution and billing. The provider now, may only do the last of these things.
M2M Now: What are the obstacles to and drivers for adoption of smart metering?
EM-D: In general the large legacy infrastructure of meters presents a barrier to utilities. It is a big roll-out covering tens of millions of homes and that may be easier in markets where there are only one or two providers. Where there are more and there is no government involvement, deployment certainly moves more slowly. Remember electromechanical meters can have a lifespan of 10, 20 or even more years so this is not a fast moving sector.
Of course, communications technology moves much more quickly and there are concerns among utilities about ensuring they choose the right technology. That is a difficult process because of the lifespan of the meters. In Australia, for example, the state of Victoria started to deploy WiMAX meters because it was the best technology available at the time but now it is not.
The pace of technology evolution is very fast and makes the decision for utilities quite hard. In the Netherlands, two of the largest utilities have chosen CDMA 450 because the cell is bigger. A key barrier is the cost of replacing meters. It does depend upon how the utility approaches deployment but the logistical part is typically more than 50% of the total cost of the project.
Managing the cost of installation and implementation is therefore particularly important. The fragmentation among power providers means that some will want to do this themselves, perhaps using powerline communications, while others will turn to mobile network operators to provide the service to them.
Every country is and will be different because of their historical approaches to metering.
M2M Now: How does Telit approach this market?
EM-D: We understand that this market is heterogeneous so we have developed a range of modular solutions that utilities can use to address all or some of their needs. For instance, we have a short range module and a GNSS module and have modules to address specific needs such as in Brazil where GPS is required for meters. That needs to be very accurate to support the smart
grid concept.
We understand that you need to be able to offer as much as possible and therefore offer communications modules including EVDO, CDMA, 2G, 3G and 4G and for ZigBee and other dedicated proprietary networks.
There is always additional communications technology coming in so Telit stays close to and follows developments to help partners put each technology into their designs. We also try to have the same form factor for all technologies so when a customer installs 2G and wireless mbus or ZigBee and 3G they can be in the same PCB and provided by populating that with a different module.
We work closely with providers to ensure the technology is right and all utilities engage in extensive pilot projects to try to achieve the right technology selection.
Recently we have introduced our ONE STOP. ONE SHOP proposition where services are added on top of hardware. You can find everything you want at Telit. All you need to do is add your particular expertise. In this market, that’s where the meter functionality is added. We want our customers to do that because they’re the experts in their verticals.
We’ll then do all of the rest if they want, using the building blocks that we offer. You can take everything in the Telit portfolio or just what you need.