This posted to smartgrid@ostp.gov by Andrew Fry, Kansas Corporate Commission
Response to Q1 -- The smart meter should be the primary gateway for residential energy usage data, price data and demand response signals. With the meter being a necessary and existing fixture on the home, it would seem intuitive to utilize that connection for the baseline or primary connection to the home to provide data.
Important factors to evaluating the continuation of this practice might include clogging of the data stream. One might presume that as the presentation of this data develops, the amount of data transferred might also increase. More data types and a quicker frequency of updates up to real-time data are possible improvements. Streaming data or an increase could potentially clog or slow system data transfer of ageing systems.
Also, and maybe more importantly, the security of such a gateway and data transfer would be of utmost importance. Securing a consumer’s time of use, which could possibly indicate specific use of appliances by deduction, could be a concern to consumers. The movement in coming years to control in-home appliances and processes within the home, beyond the meter by a central hub, within the home, requires that the gateway point is not accessible to hacking or corruptibility. If this gateway were to be found to be weak in this area, another route or deeper encryption would be necessary.
Response to Q2 -- It is assumed that the term “gateway” implies that the smart meter would communicate with other components, such as visual displays or information hubs, which could be used in the home. This is as opposed to simply containing a display on what in most cases is a limited screen on the meter itself. Pertinent, urgent data such as pricing data and demand response signals would be best presented through a gateway in the meter, communicating with some sort of in-home display. Generally limited in their functions such display in contrast, may not be the best place to offer the consumer energy usage analysis, which can be more detailed and complex.
Possibly a better place for this data would be on a computer were the consumer can peruse and examine the energy usage more finely. A good example might be a consumer internet portal. With the majority of the public becoming computer savvy from a young age, it would seem a natural extension of these computer skills to put portions if not all this data online on a secure, personalized website. This would entail the meter sending back signals to the utility, rather than acting as a gateway into the home. Once the data was received by the utility, it would then be processed to be placed on the consumer’s individual web portal, possibly considered a second portal if the consumer already had an in-home display.
Looking ahead again to the proposed future advancements, control of appliances and devices within a consumer’s home will require some sort of hub device to send and receive these messages and inputs. In addition to controlling the devices it will allow the user to see their energy usage and the relation between their energy behaviors and the corresponding energy usage. Thus there will be communication between the meter and this hub. It may be wise to go ahead and utilize the meter as the main gateway and prepare for use of data hubs in preparation for such developments, rather setting up the infrastructure to support the internet energy usage reporting if it will be soon obsolete.
Rather than an alternative, it would seem that other currently available technologies would be appropriate parallel gateways of information. Text messaging, emails or automated voice recordings could be used to send out price data and demand response signals. These would allow the consumer to be informed of their energy status when they are away from home. These bits of information could then be employed to allow the consumer to access their device hub in the future via the internet to adjust their usage accordingly.
Response to Q3 -- It is not so much an alternative, but an addition to real-time electricity usage would be the concept exhibited in HANs in identifying the source of the energy usage. It will be only natural that as the HAN concept matures it will be integrated into new housing and remodeling projects. Rather than utilizing the current devices that plug into existing “dumb” outlets, or outlets that do not communicate with other devices, it seems rational that electric hardware producers and developers will incorporate control and monitoring capabilities into their devices. In addition to this, this concept could be expanded to monitoring specific circuits or isolating rooms to monitor and control. Besides allowing someone to identify appliances or devices, a consumer could identify rooms or persons residing in those spaces as regularly excessive energy users.
Andrew Fry
No comments:
Post a Comment