Data Management Q&A Series: Figuring Out Timing

To correlate data you need timestamps. What is going to provide the "heart beat" or timing?

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Traditional approaches to metering systems have relied on head-end systems connected to the utility corporate intranet to obtain time over the internal network using network time protocol. (Usually the corporate intranet has a time server that is connected via the internet to NIST Internet time service). Meters and other devices on the metering network are kept in sync through standard or proprietary time synchronization mechanisms between the head-end and device network.

These approaches could certainly be extended to Smart Grid deployments and may be prevalent for the forseeable future. However, the use of IP-based communications and mobile technologies allows for more reliable approaches with fewer issues related to single points of failure. For instance the GPRS module in the meter could be synchronized to time from the communications network and could be used to keep the metrology/application in sync. Alternatively the device could use NTP to get time directly from the Internet.

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