smart meters

This blog entry is part of a series of posts introducing the topic of smart meter disaggregation.  In previous posts we've looked at the wider reasons for wanting to reduce energy consumption and we've taken a brief look at smart meters.  In the following blog post, I want to introduce the concept of smart meter disaggregation, also known as "non-intrusive load monitoring" or NILM for short1.  The main aim of smart meter disaggregation is to infer two things from a smart meter signal: 1) which appliances are active in the signal and 2) how much energy has each device consumed.  This blog post will summarise the arguments for disaggregation and we'll look at some of the main challenges.

This blog entry is part of a series of posts introducing the topic of smart meter disaggregation.  This specific post looks at the wider reasons for reducing energy consumption.  In other words, this post explains some of the reasons which keep me up at night when I'm not distracted by work! The reasons for reducing energy consumption typically fall into one of two categories: financial and environmental.  We'll focus mostly on the consumption of electricity but the arguments are mostly applicable to the consumption of all sorts of energy.

Financial reasons

There's been a lot of coverage in the press recently about high energy prices.  In January 2012, for example, the Citizens' Advice Bureau stated that 43% of people are worried that they can't afford their next fuel bill.  The following plot shows average annual domestic electricity prices in the UK from 1994 to 2011 (data from DECC, 2011).

Electricity prices have risen from 2004 to today; but, when compared to data from the 1990s, today's prices are not quite as earth-shatteringly high as some news papers would have us believe.

What has caused the 35% price rise (in real terms) from 2003 to 2011?  I'm no expert but let's discuss two datasets which shed some light on what's going on.

This blog entry is part of a series of posts introducing the topic of smart meter disaggregation.

Your existing electricity meter probably looks something like this:

(image taken by Kristoferb at en.wikipedia)

By 2019, the UK government have mandated every electricity meter in homes and businesses will be replaced by a "smart meter" (that's a grand total of 53 million meters).  A smart meter is simply a digital meter with some basic communications functions.  It will be paid for and installed by the utility company.  It will talk to the utility company over a GPRS data connection; and it will also be able to talk to the "home area network" to provide data to in-house energy displays.

The draft spec for smart meters in the UK was published by the Smart Metering Design Group in August 2011.  The specification states that the meter must be able to supply meter readings to the home area network at a rate of one reading every five seconds.  The meter will measure voltage, real power and reactive power (in both directions).  Some utility companies have already started to install smart meters; British Gas plan to have 2 million smart meters installed by the end of 2012 (Centrica, 2010). 

If you can't wait for a smart meter to be installed then you could buy and install a "home energy monitor". These are available for around £40; although some utility companies give them away for free.  Home energy monitors are user-installable.  I used a Current Cost home energy monitor for my MSc project on disaggregation.  It recorded a sample of apparent power once every six seconds.

This is a reading produced by my Current Cost home energy monitor:

The value of sample at time t is the sum of the power being consumed by every appliance active at time t​.

During the academic year 2010-2011, I did a computer science MSc at Imperial (which I thoroughly enjoyed). During the last 3 months of the course, each student does an "individual project". Mine was on "Disaggregating Smart Meter Readings using Device Signatures" and the PDF is now available on the Imperial website (note that my birth name is "Daniel" although I've had the nickname "Jack" since I was 11!)

This MSc project formed the basis for my PhD (I'm doing my PhD with the same excellent supervisor with whome I did my MSc project). 4 months into my PhD, I now recognise that my MSc project was pretty naive but it was lots of fun!

I've been doing some research on exactly what parameters UK smart meters will record.

I've found DECC's "Functional Requirements Catalogue".

These are proposed requirements rather than confirmed requirements but, none the less, they are useful.

Consultation question 24: Do you think that there are other requirements that the Government should adopt in the SMETS? Please explain your reasoning.

Make reactive power readings available over the HAN/WAN

Information received in an email from Current Cost:

1) Yes, the data is sent from the transmitter every 6 seconds. It's an instantaneous reading taken every six seconds.

I've had my AlertMe smart meter for a few days now. Here's a quick attempt to annotate my power consumption

Peckham Power are currently developing a Power Meter project.  Anna and Hugo have been testing the kit and now it's my turn.  We're testing the AlertMe meter.  There are two main components: a small device which clamps (non-invasively) to the cable coming into the house and a base station which wirelessly communicates with the clamp and connects to the broadband modem.  The data is sent to AlertMe and then to Google Power Meter which allows you to analyse your consumption and figure out where you can save energy and money.