Paper accepted for presentation at PPT 2001

'2001 IEEE Porto Power Tech Conference

lO"h 13th September, Porto, Portugal
Control and Monitoring of Electrical
Distribution Grid Using Automatic Reader
Systems
Joao Costa'Fernando Moreira
2
, Paulo Relvas
3
, Carlos Lourciro
4
INOV-INESC Inovario 1,2,3 _ Portugal, EDINFOR 4 - Portugal
Abstract- Technological innovation undertaken in the recent
years led to the introduction of electronics in metering apparatus.
Deregulation of electricity markets around the world is
pushing players to face competition. Supply companies are thus
lookng for ways to improve their efciency and to gain Client's
preference and confdence.
Takng advantage of the technological innovation, Automatic
Meter Reading (AMR) and Energy Management Systems (EMS)
can be a vital tool i such a competitive scenario. Providing a
wide range of services, from remote metering of electricity
consumption to monitoring of supply quality, these systems can
arm electrical utilities with necessary tools to improve supply
effciency and customers services.
Following these trends, electrical utilities around Europe and
all over the world arc testing AMR and Energy Management
solutions, and tailoring systems to their needs and modus
operandi.
Based on previous experience, gained with R&D work since
1991, EDP, the Portuguese Electrical Utility, is currently workng
on such systems and planning feld trials in several scenarios.
This paper presents EDP approach towards AMR and EMS,
describing the system architecture and services; the way
interoperability with existing commercial and technical
management systems is planned; how technical solutions are
planned to be tested and feld trials are designed.
Finally some results of the ongoing projects will be presented.
1. INTRODUCTION
F
ollowing the trend toward the improvement of efficiency
on distribution and customer satisfaction, EDP has started
Research and Development activities on AMR and EMS in
1991 with INESC and INET!.
Today EDP is involved in several projects with other
entities, namely INSC and !NET! as Research Centres, EID
as industrial partner and GDP and EPAL as gas and water
utilities.
J. Costa is wth INOV-1NESC Inova,ao, R.Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029
Lisboa (e-mail: joao.costa@inov.pt).
F. Moreira is with INOV-INESC Inova<ao, R.Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029
Lisboa (e-mail: femando.moreira@inov.pt).
p, Relvas is with INOV-INESC Inova,io, R.Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029
Lisboa (o-mail: paulo.re/vas@inov.pt).
C. Loureiro is wth EDINFOR, R.do Bolhao, 85-5, 4000-112 Porto (e
mail: carlos.loureiro@edinfor.edp.pt).
0-7803-7139-9/01/$10.00 200 1 IEEE
One of these projects has as objective the development of an
integrated electricity, water and gas AMR system for low
voltage customers,
The existence of a private communication network through
the electrical grid between and common to Distributors -
electricity, water, gas - and their Clients, allows for additional
added value services, ranging fom DA and DSM -
Distribution Automation and Demand Side Management - to
services regarding the security of premises (e, g. water and gas
leaks), These services will complement basic A services
such as remote reading of meters, remote control of electric
power employed, re-connection of the electricity, etc.
Such a system implementing Value Added Services (VAS)
and AMR services, by using a unique infastructre, saves
costs with synergy. Modular and open architectures allow any
future partnerships scenarios between utility actors, playing
together to reduce operational costs for AMR or acting
isolated to provide VAS.
The gradual introduction of Information Technologies
within the Distribution circuits will allow for perfect
monitoring, along time, of - electricity, water and gas - flow
and measurement, with temporal detail if desired, of
elementary or total consumption. The referred monitoring
process is therefore an indispensable element for optimising
the Management of energy resources,
This system intends the Company/Client connection, the last
link still dependent on hwnan interaction, to start being
automated, It will, thus, be possible to perform production,
transmission, distribution and detailed invoicing, precise and
timely, without any human intervention, integrating the value
chain,
II, SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
According to diferent feld installation scenarios, several
means of communication can be chosen, Distance between
counters, operational costs with communication and terminal
equipment costs in one hand, and benefts obtained with AMR
and VAS on the other, are relevant parameters to be
considered when deciding the most appropriate means of
communication,
General system archtecture is depicted in
Fig. I. As can be seen, the system has a multi-utility and
multi-communication medium (several communication media)
approach. The UCT is the Cental Unit Inforation System
responsible for managing all AMR inforation and deploying
the required information fom the diferent users, whether they
are customers, Utility personnel or Utility Cororate Systems
(commercial and technical).
The system uses three diferent communication media
linking the UCT to the Remote Units attached to the meters.
These are:

Power Line Communications (PLC);

Radio Frequency (RF) communications;

GSM network, using SMS.
Corporate systems
(DP and other
. I Other
_ '
s
Systems

` Dedicated
..
< veT
Lines
"
L
PLe

GSMntor
ISMS)
d
Legend:
UCT - Central Unit
RTC - Telephone Network
UCBT - Concentration Unit
PLC- Power Line Communications
RF - Radio Frequency communications
GSM - GSM network
R - Repeater
URT - Remote Unit (attached to the electric meter)
Fig. I - General system architecture
Communication with water and gas meters is based on R
communications, since the different meters are uually in
diferent locations at the customer premises. The URT is used
as a gateway for water and gas information i the sense that
communication costs for using a PLC network are an efective
cost solution. The decision about the most appropriate
communication media for a specifc location is dependent on
the investment and operational costs obtained, which are
intimately related with distribution network topology and
meters geogaphical distribution. Consultants in utility will use
the most convenient solution according to feld conditions.
Electricity
Meter
Legend:
\
.
_ Water
+ Meter
/.-.
RF - Radio Frequency communications
URT - Remote Unit (attached to the electric meter)
Gas
Meter
URP - Transmission Unit (attached to water and gas meters)
Fig. 2 Connection to water and gas meters
III. SERVICES
The most relevant services provided by te system are the
following:
Remote reading (electricity, water and gas)

Fault detection (equipment and supply)

Tampering and faud detection

Remote confguration - Automatic download of
contactual parameters

Load balancing
Load diagram

QoS-Quality of Service monitoring
Other serices:

Pre-payment

VAS - to the customer (inforation)

Services interconnected to Domotic applications.
I. FUNCTIONALITIES RLATED WH CONTROL AD
MONITORING OF ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION GRID
From the above referred serices there is a goup of
fnctionalities with direct application to Distribution
Automation and Monitoring ofthe electrical grid.
At the Distribution Grid level, SCADA systems are usually
related with the pr substations interfacing the high
voltage with the medium voltage level. With a generalized
installation of an AMR System at the secondary substations
(between the medium voltage and the low voltage level), the
utility has the possibility of monitoring the complete energy
balance in a more detailed way and collecting the inforation
at the key control points: central dispatch or local contol
centres.
With information on every seconda substation load, the
dispatcher ca have a more precise idea over te critical areas
in tenus of overload and the implementation of preventive
measures becomes possible, before the presence of dangerous
situations.
In another point of view, the medium and long term
planning is more accurate with this new source of information.
The Planning Deparent has a new tool and the defnition of
typical load diagrams is more precise with all the set of
information provided by an AR system.
The liberalisation of the electical market has introduced
new requirements in ter of accurate definition of Quality of
Serice (QoS) parameters and measures, not only i a general
way but also in very restricted situations (as, for example, in
case of customer complains). With very few improvements
(voltage and current individual measurement), the presented
AR system can collect 15 minutes measures and the Cental
Units can calculate the necessary QoS parameters envisaging
the control of te service available not only at te secondary
substation level but also at the customer premises if necessary.
In this sense, AR systems can be seen as a new branch of
SCADA systems and a very powerfl tool in terms of contol
and monitoring of te last mile up to the customer - the low
voltage grid.
V. INTEROPERABILITY WITH EXISTING SYSTEMS
The A Information System (UCT) generally perfors
the management of AM information and supplies this
inforation to cororate systems.
One basic principle adopted w to develop an information
system in an open architecture, able to communicate with
several systems both up-strea and down-stream. For this
reason the UCT implements two generic interfaces: one to
communicate with the AR system (Interface II) and another
to communicate with the corporate system (Interface I).
The UCT is periodically updated with meter information
and behaves as an application serer, providing information
both to users and corporate systems of several Utilities.
The Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 illustrate the way the Information
System ad interoperability wit existing systems is
implemented.
The potential market volume, i Portugal, rounds 5 million
meters. So, AR systems have to follow distributed modular
architectures, in order to achieve scalability. In order to reach
this goal, several applications have been developed to maintain
a stable perforance, basically achieved by the use of
distributed communication managers (UCT-GST) and
performance test diagosis unit (UTT) able to test and supply
statistics on performance of the overall AR system.
Intlllll dllun S)tC1ll
IUCT\
Stndad Interce II
. t
-
-
.t .t
.t ft
Fig. 3 - Infonnation System block diagm
AMRSystem
(UCT-GST)
QQ
INTERNET/INTRANET
(TCPIIP)
Coote Systems
Coae Systems
Networand Remote Uni
Fig. 4 - Infonnation System physical architeture
Vi. TECHICAL AND ECONOMICAL VIABILITY
In a competitive business the economic viability of the new
projects is very important.
EDP has performed a preliminary costlbenefit analysis and
some very interesting statements can be listed, indicating that
the implementation of such a system in a large way should be
done through remote metering of low voltage customers and
also through a portfolio of added value services and control,
apart fom monitoring fctionalities, envisaging extra value
to the Utility:
A AR system cannot be justfed simply as an alterative
to manual meter reading; it must cover the widest possible
range of added services.
Shorter-term payback can be achieved if investment is
shared in AMR infastructure among several Utilities and/or
service providers.
There is not a unique communication medium, at least in the
Portuguese context, that suites and leads to an optimisation of
costs (e.g. PLC, R and GSM). Several media must be used,
according to several parameters (e.g. distribution network,
geographical dispersion of customers and fequency of
information flow).
Integration of communication facilities with electronic
meter technology reduces the initial cost of hardware and
performs easy upgrades of fctionalities.
VII. UPDATED SITUATION OF THE PROJECT
At this moment, the first prototypes are now completed and
testing has started, step by step.
250 units (electricity, gas and water) will be installed.
Several concers are now being evaluated:
Target prices have not yet been accomplished, and
extra eforts in this pre-industrialized step have to
be done in order to achieve a healthy and
commercial product.
Total integration of electronic metering and PLC
communication is a must for the new equipments to
be installed in the electricity domain, in order to
step down global investments.
Services diversification is considered in this
Project in a narrow band communication concept.
But integation in new added value services
addressed by Broad Band Communication is to be
exercised, allowing a proficuos and not overlapped
expansion of these solutions for communication.

How fast and with what criteria shall all the above
services be expanded in feld, in a context of
intensive liberalisation, considering the several
partners/utilities involved and will be market
driven?
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
A a result of some R&D projects performed alone or in
partnership with other institutions, EDP has been investing
Automatic Meter Reading Technology, mainly communicating
through the Power Line (PLC) in narrow band concept.
Field experiments have shown system capabilities to
implement DLMS/COSEM communication based services,
and statistic information is being gathered in order to better
evaluate system performance under field constaint situations.
Today VI.O of product is under production to be installed in
clients' homes. V2.0 release is in its final stages so that a
production series of some thousand units will be installed.
After the development phase it is now necessary to evaluate
the application domain to the system fctionalities.
The costfbeneft analysis indicates that there is a complete
set of technical domains where the information provided by
the AMR system can be used with important added value to
the Utility business.
Value Added Services (VAS) is possible under fair
information volume exchanged in pears of a PLC network at
1200 Baud rate.
The first of the referred domains is the control and
monitoring of the secondary substation and dependent low
voltage grid.
The paper indicates some of the possible applications of the
AMR at the contol and monitoring of electrical distribution
gid domain and related tools, such as SCADA, GiS, and
Technical Databases.
Present AMR system demonstrates good analysis
capabilities of network performance in what concers to
samples acquisition for determination of load curves
characteristics in EDP network.
IX. ACKOWLEDGMENT
Acknowledgements to the very competitive team of
Engineers of Consortium "Telecontagem Nationaf' formed by
INESC/INOV, INET!, EID and EDP.
The authors grateflly acknowledge the vision and
contribution of Prof. Luis Vidigal.