A smart meter consists of a microcontroller with onboard ADC and DAC, a voltage and current sensing element, an AC/DC power converter, a backup battery, and wireless or wired communication capabilities.
Currently, most residential and commercial buildings in the United States still use old-fashioned electromechanical meters to track electricity usage. These meters are reliable and inexpensive, but they are not suitable for power distribution systems that require accurate, repeatable metering and wired or wireless communication; in other words, they are not suitable for the upcoming smart grid power distribution systems.
Smart grids rely on smart meters with robust communication capabilities to monitor energy use, enabling residential and commercial consumers to make informed decisions about energy consumption and usage time. However, smart grids also face challenges. While the federal government has passed relevant legislation, such as the 2007 Energy Act and the 2009 stimulus package, utilities effectively distribute electricity on a state-by-state basis. California and Texas are the two states most actively transitioning to smart metering in preparation for a smart grid.
Regardless of whether the smart grid can be implemented smoothly and seamlessly at the national level (in the United States), a significant market has already emerged with enough independent utilities procuring and installing electronic meters. Global utilities may replace 500 million meters over the next 10 years.
A smart meter consists of a microcontroller with onboard ADC and DAC, a voltage and current sensing element, an AC/DC power converter, a backup battery, and wireless or wired communication capabilities.
In addition to intelligence and communication capabilities, smart meters must also be able to prevent tampering.
Several companies supply meter ICs, including Texas Instruments (TI), ON Semiconductor, Maxim, Analog Devices, Teridian, and e2v. These ICs are essentially microcontrollers that track electricity usage information and information returned from utilities. They can perform DSP calculations on voltage waveforms and quality, transmit information to a display screen, and store information to be sent.
