Design Article
Speeding the adoption of smart meters and smart appliances
Ed Pazmino, Accent S.p.A. (Vimercate, Italy)
5/31/2011 10:34 AM EDT
Chapter 2: ASMgrid target market applications
Advanced metering market overview
As described by Pike Research, Smart Meters are the vanguard of Smart Grid deployments, and will represent a $3.9 billion global market by 2015, with penetration in that year still only reaching 18 percent of total installed electric meters. The opportunity is unprecedented as the industry undergoes a disruptive transition to incorporate new technologies enabling a more efficient, reliable, and bi-directional power distribution and transmission infrastructure.
As meters have transitioned to advanced smart meters, the path has followed a non-integrated approach, from both a silicon and component perspective.
Standard silicon offerings for these products lack high integration due to the investment cost plus challenges involved with silicon integration. At the equipment level, utilities have forced meter manufacturers to multisource components to reduce deployment risk and cost. The hope has been that interoperability among suppliers would lead to increased bargaining power and reduced deployment risk from supply-chain interruptions.
Another belief is that by using an integrated, standard offering, a meter manufacturer may lose their differentiation advantage. This lack of integration, however, results in higher part count and meter costs, which is contrary to the needs of residential markets where cost is critical to deploy in large volumes. Now, with the introduction of ASMgrid, Accent is able to address all the concerns of both meter manufacturers and energy suppliers.
More specifically:
. Increasing Differentiation: ASMgrid moves board design down to the silicon level. ASMgrid’s modularity enables customers to dictate the final configuration insuring their end-equipment differentiation (versus a one-size-fit-all standard component approach).
. Accelerated Return-on-Investment:
o ASMgrid’s pre-integrated approach and turnkey offering dramatically reduces upfront development cost and time required with silicon development, making it more similar to an off-the-shelf silicon offering or ASSP.
o ASMgrid integrates an unprecedented number of technologies guaranteed to reduce a Smart Meter electronic BOM (up to 50 percent), benefiting manufacturers and utilities.
. Risk Reduction:
o Production is controlled by customer requirements, avoiding end-of-life or supply issues common with standard silicon providers.
o With ASMgrid1.0, meter manufacturers can start development today versus in years compared to a custom IC design approach.
Next: Accent in smart metering
Advanced metering market overview
As described by Pike Research, Smart Meters are the vanguard of Smart Grid deployments, and will represent a $3.9 billion global market by 2015, with penetration in that year still only reaching 18 percent of total installed electric meters. The opportunity is unprecedented as the industry undergoes a disruptive transition to incorporate new technologies enabling a more efficient, reliable, and bi-directional power distribution and transmission infrastructure.
As meters have transitioned to advanced smart meters, the path has followed a non-integrated approach, from both a silicon and component perspective.
Standard silicon offerings for these products lack high integration due to the investment cost plus challenges involved with silicon integration. At the equipment level, utilities have forced meter manufacturers to multisource components to reduce deployment risk and cost. The hope has been that interoperability among suppliers would lead to increased bargaining power and reduced deployment risk from supply-chain interruptions.
Another belief is that by using an integrated, standard offering, a meter manufacturer may lose their differentiation advantage. This lack of integration, however, results in higher part count and meter costs, which is contrary to the needs of residential markets where cost is critical to deploy in large volumes. Now, with the introduction of ASMgrid, Accent is able to address all the concerns of both meter manufacturers and energy suppliers.
More specifically:
. Increasing Differentiation: ASMgrid moves board design down to the silicon level. ASMgrid’s modularity enables customers to dictate the final configuration insuring their end-equipment differentiation (versus a one-size-fit-all standard component approach).
. Accelerated Return-on-Investment:
o ASMgrid’s pre-integrated approach and turnkey offering dramatically reduces upfront development cost and time required with silicon development, making it more similar to an off-the-shelf silicon offering or ASSP.
o ASMgrid integrates an unprecedented number of technologies guaranteed to reduce a Smart Meter electronic BOM (up to 50 percent), benefiting manufacturers and utilities.
. Risk Reduction:
o Production is controlled by customer requirements, avoiding end-of-life or supply issues common with standard silicon providers.
o With ASMgrid1.0, meter manufacturers can start development today versus in years compared to a custom IC design approach.
Next: Accent in smart metering
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cdhmanning
5/31/2011 5:53 PM EDT
It seems to me that SmartGrids have been massively over sold and over hyped.
What can you **really** do with SmartGrid/SmartMeters that you can't do with current technology?
Current technology already provides load shaping for water heaters and space heaters via ripple controllers. That makes sense because: water heating is inherently a background activity which can happen any time so long as hot water is stored for when it is needed. Water heating is also a large load and controlling it has dramatic effect.
Applying the same model to most other domestic load just does not work. When I want to sit down with my bowl of popcorn to watch a TV program, I expect my corn popper and TV to work **now**, not at 3am when the power company has some surplus generation.
Ripple control of water heaters also works because there is absolutely zero effort from the consumer and very close to zero impact. Providing people with information is pointless unless they are prepared to work their lives around it.
Are you really going to gate your decision to wash some clothes or make a cup of coffee on a change in power costs that the power company offers to you?
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docman1
6/1/2011 12:14 PM EDT
@cdhmannig,
You make a point that is often overlooked. How will this actually save the consumer money or reduce power usage? Do I shut down my A/C during the heat of the day and turn it on at night when it is cool? Turn off the refrigerator during the day, so my food spoils and the freezer thaws out? How about my clothes? Do I stay up to run my loads at 2am in order to save $1? SmartGrid has great promise in allowing the power company to monitor outages and automate meter reading. Other uses are not well defined. I suppose that they can seriously jack up the rates during the day, but that is NOT going to save the consumer any money.
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