Smart Grid Case Study: How HD-PLC Enabled The Realization Of A Large Scale Smart Grid Network In Taiwan?
ChallengesNetwork construction for smart meteringS...
Nessum Alliance
The global smart grid technology market is expected to reach $61 billion by 2023.
As more property developers and owners begin embracing smart grid and smart metering technology, one essential question arises — what is the best networking solution for these applications?
As the NuriFlex case study shows, this solution might just be HD-PLC.
In this article, we will:
The word “grid” in smart grid refers to an electrical grid or power grid — the infrastructure that helps transfer electricity from suppliers, such as power plants, to the end users — households and businesses.
By comparison, a smart grid is the evolution of the regular electricity supply grid that has two key characteristics:
Smart grids usually consist of three main systems:
Smart grid is a broad term that generally refers to the electric power industry and large-scale applications.
However, it’s commonly used to denote smaller and more consumer-facing use cases — such as smart metering networks, which are among the most common applications of grid networking technology.
As the name suggests, a smart metering network consists of smart meters — devices that measure and transmit the consumption figures of utilities, such as electricity or water.
Following the principles of smart grid technology, smart meters can support two-way communication through the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).
As a result, the devices within the smart meter network — which is commonly a part of a larger grid — can send information to the network operator through the electricity lines that power them.
The key idea behind the increasing adoption of smart grids is efficiency — both energy and operational.
Smart grids symbolize a more conscious approach to energy saving and smarter energy management. That’s precisely the reason why they are becoming so widely used in solar power plants and energy storage infrastructures.
At the same time, the networking solutions that are commonly used in such applications are often inefficient, in terms of the resources and labor that are required to build and maintain them.
In most residential buildings, commercial buildings and factories, the metering infrastructure is usually installed in secluded spaces, such as basements or external areas.
Connecting these areas to the wider network can be difficult and expensive.
For instance, wireless communication solutions are often not powerful enough to cover large areas or penetrate concrete walls. As a result, they require more precise planning and additional investments into signal repeaters — which adds to the overall cost.
These aspects are precisely where HD-PLC stands out as a promising solution for metering applications.
HD-PLC technology has several inherent advantages that help resolve the main challenges of grid connectivity:
These are just a few of the benefits of HD-PLC that make it a prime solution for smart metering applications.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of smart metering and HD-PLC, let’s take a better look at NURI Telecom and their HD-PLC use case.
Founded in 1992 in South Korea, NuriFlex is a global provider of energy IoT solutions that focus on the advanced metering infrastructure.
NuriFlex provides advanced metering infrastructure solutions to clients all over the world, who wish to replace their outdated metering systems with automated, smart metering networks.
A key innovation in NuriFlex’s approach to advanced metering infrastructure is the AiMiR Smart Grid platform. This platform helps adapt some of HD-PLC’s key features, such as Wavelet-OFDM modulation, for advanced metering infrastructure and automated meter reading (AMR) solutions.
The platform comes as a result of NURI Telecom’s commitment to HD-PLC technology. Prior to adopting HD-PLC, NURI mostly relied on low-frequency wireless and narrowband PLC solutions — more specifically, G3-PLC or Prime-PLC.
Those narrowband PLC are designed specifically for smart metering applications. However, this PLC standard quickly became insufficient once the metering technology became more common and smart metering devices became more sophisticated.
Over the course of the project reviewed in this case study, NuriFlex found out just how inefficient both narrowband PLC and wireless solutions can be for smart metering applications.
NURI Telecom was approached by a Japanese client who commissioned the company to update the smart metering architecture across several apartment buildings.
NURI’s key objective for this project was to provide a networking solution that was:
However, apartment buildings are among the most challenging application cases when it comes to building an AMI.
The area that the network has to cover is vast, and the layout of the building can significantly hinder the performance of the network.
The client referred to in this case study had previously considered both wireless and wired solutions for their metering infrastructure.
However, deploying a wireless network proved to be costly and time-consuming, as it would require a lot of man-hours spent on monitoring and adjusting the signal strength.
On the other hand, implementing a narrowband PLC solution would not have been sufficient performance-wise for both the current and the future iteration of the metering system.
For instance, the G3-PLC protocol — even though it was developed with smart metering applications in mind — operates at kilobit speeds and kilohertz frequencies. As a result, its performance is hardly enough to support a sophisticated network of dozens of smart meters.
The limitations of both wireless and narrowband wired networks led NURI Telecom to turn to HD-PLC as the networking solution for the project.
NURI Telecom partnered up with MegaChips — another member of the HD-PLC Alliance — to develop an HD-PLC solution for their smart metering network.
The system was based around MegaChips’ MLKHN1501A system-on-a-chip HD-PLC adapter that supports Multi-hop functionality.
The key characteristics of the MegaChips solution used in the project include:
Apart from all of these benefits, the HD-PLC solution NURI Telecom chose for the project also featured a built-in mesh networking functionality which made the installation process effectively plug-and-play.
As a result, NURI Telecom was able to achieve the main objectives of the project, including:
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