Page 2: Read the Echelon announcement >>

Smart meters get smarter with the introduction of Echelon's new Control Operating System (COS) software. Now meters from Echelon and its Open Smart Grid Protocol metering partners can be upgraded in the field to function as grid sensors. They'll still operate as billing devices, but the smart meters can separate billing data from grid power quality data – in other words information about voltage, frequency and power factor that can help utilities avoid service outages.

 

Echelon notes that by separating the data types, a utility can collect relevant power quality information on an as-required basis, instead of collecting large volumes of billing and operational data from each meter on every read cycle.

As Poul Berthelsen, project manager at Denmark utility NRGi sees it: "With a separate data set dedicated for power quality history and troubleshooting data collected on a different cycle than the billing data, we'll be able to review the previously captured data immediately and decrease the time and cost that it used to take for us to conduct analysis in the field."

 

According to Echelon, new capabilities enabled by the COS software include:

·         Improved relevance and data reduction with 4x16 channels of load profile data

·         Grid asset protection with per phase measurements at the transformer

·         Operational efficiency improvements with location services

 

You can read more about these capabilities in the Echelon announcement on page 2.

 

"As smart grids scale to incorporate more users, more distributed generation, and other applications like street lighting and electric vehicle charging, it will become increasingly important to collect and analyze power quality information in the distribution network, such as active and reactive energy and power, per phase voltage current and power, sine phase angle, power factor, frequency, etc. in near real-time," said Varun Nagaraj, SVP of Product Management and Marketing at Echelon. "This approach will simplify the 'big data' challenge and let the utilities improve service reliability and maximize the life of grid assets."

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Page 2: Read the Echelon announcement >>

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