On the Challenges and Opportunities of Smart Meters in Smart Homes and Smart Grids

Abstract

Nowadays, electricity companies have started applying smart grid in their systems rather than the conventional electrical grid (manual grid). Smart grid produces an efficient and effective energy management and control, reduces the cost of production, saves energy and it is more reliable compared to the conventional grid. As an advanced energy meter, smart meters can measure the power consumption as well as monitor and control electrical devices. Smart meters have been adopted in many countries since the 2000s as they provide economic, social and environmental benefits for multiple stakeholders. The design of smart meter can be customized depending on the customer and the utility company needs. There are different sensors and devices supported by dedicated communication infrastructure which can be utilized to implement smart meters. This paper presents a study of the challenges associated with smart meters, smart homes and smart grids as an effort to highlight opportunities for emerging research and industrial solutions. Conventional Grid Smart Grid Electromechanical meters Digital Meters One way communication Two-way communications Few sensors Multiple sensors Manual monitoring Automatic monitoring Limited control Unlimited control Few Customer choices Many customer choices Manually generate fees Automatically generate fees Centralized generation Distribution generation distributing data over the network to the utility company. Thus, the utility company has the ability to produce a billing for the customer, which has all information about the energy consumption and other information. Moreover, Table I shows that

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