Intelligent buildings are based on the use of smart metering devices. Smart metering provides instantaneous and accumulative metering information to the service providers on electricity, gas, water etc. This information is also given to the customers for the purpose of reduction of costs, energy consumption and emission of CO2. The customers' saving of energy can be adapted dynamically using smart metering devices: this helps that the power generation and consumption are equally distributed in the smart grid. Liberalization of the metering market requires few strong security and privacy requirements for the metering data. Governmental organizations are responsible for the permanent correct delivery of metering data and are able to control and maintain the metering devices. The status of current smart metering progress in different countries is given in the paper with examples of successfully managed smart metering projects.
Smart Metering Systems
Smart meterA smart meter is a device installed at the consumer's premises (house or a facility) for measuring the consumption of commodities such as gas, water and electricity. The consumption of commodities can be measured in terms of volume or energy, e.g., gallons of water, cubic feet of gas or kilowatt hours of electricity. Smart meters are an advanced form of the traditional electromechanical devices with the ability to measure consumption of commodities in real-time and with the ability to communicate over one or more wired or wireless networks. They are equipped with digital displays for displaying the consumption of commodities and communication units for communication over a network. Nowadays, an energy importer / consumer can be an exporter / producer at the same time. The smart meters should therefore be capable to measure the amount of energy exported as well as imported.