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Utility companies and consumers can better understand how we use energy by replacing conventional electricity metres with smart ones.  This is due to the fact that while non-smart electricity metres only give us the overall amount of energy used at the end of each month, smart electricity metres may provide more comprehensive information about energy usage in real-time and with detail breakdown. The information can the help user to manage the energy consumption and achieve a more sustainable living.

This article will go over some of the advantages of smart electricity metres or smart energy meter and how they can alter the way you consume electricity.

What is a smart metre?

An advanced metering system, commonly referred to as a smart metre, is a digital electricity metre that can track when and how much electricity is used. These gadgets can send this data right to your utility provider. The amount of energy used is merely recorded on conventional or analog metres, which are checked once a month by a utility company personnel.

Benefits of smart electricity metres

• Increased accuracy of metre readings

Your readings are automatically sent by the smart metre, ensuring that you are only ever charged for what you use. Power companies will have to estimate how much energy you consumed during the billing period if you have a normal (non-smart) metre and forget to submit a reading. They guess depending on how much energy you often use or how much they anticipate you will consume. When the supplier doesn't have a lot of information about your usage, their predictions can occasionally be off. With a smart metre, you can prevent building up a huge final cost at the conclusion of your tariff in addition to avoiding false shock bills.  The data from smart meter can also be feed to analytic software to identify any abnormal change in the energy consumption which might be due to faulty equipment or meter. Power companies can then plan service trip base on the analysis.

• Better energy management for consumers

With a smart electricity metre, you may have more control and understanding over your electricity use. By displaying your daily electricity usage, advanced metering can make it easier for you to understand your electricity bill. It can aid in identifying energy-guzzling items and suggest strategies to stop energy waste at home.  The data from the smart meter can also be utilised by intelligent software such as NILM (Non-Invasive Load Monitoring) which can help to analyse and breakdown the consumption of individual appliance.

• Reduced energy consumption and costs

You can see exactly how much energy you're consuming and how much it costs on the in-home display. It keeps track of and promotes energy-efficient behaviours, and some households who use smart electricity metres have already seen big energy savings.  With the intelligent system such as NILM, the detail consumption of individual appliance can be visualised (eg, a particular appliance such as Air Conditioning consumption increased 20% in this month vs previous month, etc).  Therefore, the user can better understand their electricity consumption pattern and adjust accordingly to reduce consumption. 

• Improved grid efficiency

This actually helps improve the power company's ability to see the entire grid. The ability to identify peak demand periods and places is one of the main advantages of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). This means that the smart electricity metre is better and can satisfy thousands of customers' needs.

What are the Types of Smart Metres?

First and second generation smart metres are available, namely in the form of the SMETS1 and SMETS2 smart metres.  Second-generation smart metres are presently being installed by energy companies (SMETS2). They are immediately linked to the main wireless network, so all energy providers ought to be able to run them. First-generation smart metres were installed when energy providers started installing them.

What Challenges Are Associated with Smart Electricity Metres?

• Data privacy and security concerns

The main privacy and security issues that come with the installation of residential smart metres are that smart metres will reveal the activities of people inside a home by monitoring their frequent and cumulative electricity, gas, or water usage. Another one is that insufficient cyber security measures surrounding the digital transmission of smart metre data may expose it to abuse by authorised and unauthorised users of the data.

• Potential for technical issues and failures

Some areas may frequently struggle to establish a solid connection because the signal is insufficient, which is a common issue with smart metres. The person installing the smart metre, however, must have made sure that the signal in your home is strong enough to support a smart metre. So, it should unquestionably be powerful enough to transmit the readings to your energy provider.  The issue due to lost network connection can also be overcome with local temporary storage for the measured data, so that the missing data can be transfer when the network connection is re-established. 

• Consumer education and awareness

Despite the growing awareness regarding the rise of smart electricity metres, some households still have reservations regarding making the switch to this new technology. Luckily, with its popularity nowadays and the list of advantages it brings, consumers are further expected to create demand for smart metres. 

Global Implementation of Smart Electricity Metres

Due to government mandates, increased expenditures in the digitization of grids, and public-private partnerships, the majority of countries in the Asia Pacific smart metre market now hold a dominant position and are anticipated to maintain it over the course of the projection period. In addition to having a sizable population and high electricity usage, Asia also has a sizable amount of unauthorised electrical connections. The main driving forces for the expansion of smart electric metering in the area are the rise in investments in smart grids, the need for high-quality power, energy-efficiency goals, and the dependability of the power infrastructure.

Smart Metre Installation

The current gas and electricity metres in your home must be accessible to engineers. Your old metres will likely need to be changed, which should only take a few hours. During this period, you might experience a brief power outage.

Smart metre features are no longer futuristic what-ifs as we replace our outdated electricity infrastructure with more sophisticated systems. New levels of control, convenience, energy efficiency, and cost savings are introduced by real-time, two-way communication between customers and electrical providers. Also, when more customers install smart metres, the environment will become cleaner and more sustainable for everyone. 

In conclusion, embracing the future of home energy management is now more accessible than ever with the installation of Smart Electricity Meters. L3 Homeation is a trusted leader in the smart home automation sector, and they excel at providing top-notch services like the seamless integration of Smart Electricity Meters into your home.  L3 Homeation is also working with partners on the intelligence NILM solution for energy consumption analysis.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to optimize your home's energy usage. Choose L3 Homeation as your partner in smart home automation and take the first step towards a more sustainable, energy-efficient and environmentally conscious lifestyle today.