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Contribution: Introduction of efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems by Kansai Transmission and Distribution, Inc. (First half)
This article was contributed by Mr. Yasuo Matsuura, an executive officer, efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems by Kansai Transmission and Distribution Inc. The introduction will be divided into 2 parts: The first half and the second half. This article is the first half of that.
The serial articles have also been published as serialized articles, so please be sure to check them out.
- Article #2 “Contribution: Introduction of efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems by Kansai Transmission and Distribution Inc. (Part 2) — First half”
- Article #3 “Contribution: Introduction of efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems by Kansai Transmission and Distribution Inc. (Part 3) — First half”
Introduction
Kansai Transmission and Distribution Inc. (hereafter, our company) inherited the general transmission and distribution business from The Kansai Electric Power Co, Inc. in April 2020 in line with the revision of the Electric Power Business Law to ensure even greater neutrality in the transmission and distribution business, and commenced operations. In the process of depicting what our company aims for in the future and working company-wide on digital transformation (DX) where we transform ourselves toward that form, we have now decided to develop a smart meter system centered on the cloud, which is the first in Japan (*1).
We plan to blog about this initiative in a trilogy series as a whole. This time, as the first part, I will tell you about the progress of internal discussions leading up to decisions related to cloud and AWS adoption in smart meter systems. From the next session onwards, I will introduce specific directions and initiatives for next-generation smart meter systems that assume the use of AWS, and the situation of solving issues related to the cloud shift of current smart meter systems (*2).
(*1) “We have decided to develop a cloud-centered system for the first smart meter system in Japan (Japanese) ” (our website,2023/3/31)
(*2) The installation of our current smart meter was completed in March 2023. After that, as the validity period (10 years) of current smart meters gradually expires, replacement with next-generation smart meters is scheduled to begin in 2025.
What is a smart meter system
A smart meter system is a system that collects and stores customer electricity usage remotely, automatically, and regularly via a communication network, and consists of a smart meter, a communication network, a system that manages the collected data (meter data collection/management system), and a system (business system) that is responsible for operations related to electricity usage. A smart meter consists of a metering unit that measures and records the customer’s electricity usage and a communication unit that transmits the measured electricity usage data to a higher-level server. (Figure 2)
Not only has significant progress been made from the previous generation meter once a month to remote/automatic meter reading every 30 minutes, but by transmitting electricity usage data from smart meters to terminal devices (home energy management systems, building energy management systems, etc.) in the customer’s home, it is possible to grasp the time periods when electricity usage is high, etc., and achieve more effective energy saving It became.
The introduction of next-generation smart meter systems with revised specifications and improved functionality is scheduled to begin in 2025 compared to the current smart meter system, which was introduced in the first half of the 2010’s and is expected to be completed in all households throughout Japan in early 2020’s.
Moreover, that smart meters are the accuracy and the appropriateness as metering devices are guaranteed by the certification, and since the validity period of this certification is 10 years, it will basically take 10 years to replace all meters with smart meters.
Implementation history and actual situation
We have been proceeding with research and development of communication systems since the late 1990’s, with the aim of improving the efficiency of operations around measuring instruments. This development concept later became a general-purpose concept called a smart meter. At that time, running costs for communication networks such as mobile phone systems were high, so the major issue was how to build a communication network with connectivity and high reliability, using self-operated communication networks as the main focus. Also, at that time, analog measuring instruments called mechanical ones were the mainstream.
In 2005-2006, when a certain level of research and development aimed at making measuring instruments smart was established, discussions were held within the company, and full-scale studies aimed at making smart meters began. At that time, the term “smart meter” did not exist, and within our company, smart metering systems were called “new metering systems” and development was promoted. At that time, it was natural to visually check the meter’s display and meters, and to work on the meter side for connection/disconnection associated with moving etc., but since these operations changed drastically due to being replaced by a new metering system, dozens to one hundred dozen internal stakeholders went through one place, accumulated discussions, and repeated discussions decided the desired form of work one by one. Based on these discussions, as for system development, development vendors were decided in 2006, system requirements were also determined, development with each vendor was carried out in 2007, multi-vendor tests from communication networks to systems were carried out at the end of the same year, trial implementation began in April 2008, and full implementation began in 2012.
At the beginning of implementation, we faced many new issues, such as communication congestion events in communication networks that could not be anticipated at the time of development, and we faced great hardships, but by resolving them, we steadily improved the reliability of the new metering system. After that, momentum for the introduction of smart meters increased throughout Japan, and full-scale implementation by the 10 electric power companies at the time began in 2014, and was gradually developed, and we completed the introduction of all households in March 2023. Until now, we have been actively working to realize safe and reliable meter reading work, improve convenience for customers, and rationalize the configuration of power distribution equipment based on accumulated electricity usage data by utilizing smart meter systems.
Utilization of electricity usage data
We began full implementation of smart meters in 2012, and completed the introduction to all households in March 2023. We have been working on utilizing electricity usage data collected every 30 minutes from the beginning of implementation, and we have promoted data utilization in a practical manner, such as the normalization and rationalization of power distribution equipment.
On the other hand, as described later, there was not the concept of a cloud system at the time of development, so an on-premise data collection system is being built in the current smart meter systems. For this reason, there were issues with the scalability of server systems to accommodate smart meters that are gradually expanding. Furthermore, detailed specification adjustments between vendors associated with system construction by multiple vendors are necessary, and furthermore, since it is composed of vendor-specific specifications, there are issues with flexible data extraction and processing according to needs, and there were hurdles in realizing thorough data utilization. In this situation, based on recent heightened interest in strengthening resilience and progress in the introduction and expansion of the distributed energy resources, starting with renewable energy etc., the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy established a next-generation smart meter system review meeting in September 2020 as a forum for discussions on advanced use of smart meter systems, and new specifications of smart meter systems suitable for the carbon neutral era and new functions that should be provided It was discussed and examined.
Based on current system issues and discussions at the Next Generation Smart Meter System Review Meeting, we have decided to realize both the current system and next-generation system with a full cloud based on AWS, with the aim of improving service levels and social resilience for customers using power networks by flexibly utilizing data obtained from smart meters, and improving social resilience. (Figure 3)
The scope of our smart meter systems on this article
The overall overview of smart meter systems, as shown in Figure 2, generally consists of smart meters installed in each home, communication networks, data centers that collect and store data, and various business systems that are responsible for related tasks.
This article focuses on systems configured on AWS, so in this article, as shown in Figure 4, the head end system (Head End System) is responsible for collecting data from smart meters among smart meter systems.(Hereafter, HES), and meter data management systems (Meter Data Management Systems), which are responsible for utilization of collected data and meter management. (The description is specific to MDMS) below. For this reason, unless otherwise indicated, only HES and MDMS are described as smart metering systems in this article.
Our challenges of the current smart meter systems
Since the term “smart meter” did not exist, we have been promoting development by calling it a new metering system. As there is currently no smart meter package software, etc., we have received cooperation from multiple system vendors and have been searching for system configurations and function arrangements through trial and error. As a result, we have succeeded in implementing the system by configuring a system with vendor-specific technology and specifications in an on-premise environment. Since the start of operation of this system, the server scale has continued to expand gradually along with the increase in the number of smart meters installed, while continuous stable operation has been achieved.
Our current smart meter systems are facing issues such as economic efficiency and future sustainability issues associated with adopting proprietary OS, commercial databases, and middleware, system blackboxing, and concealment of business processing logic against the backdrop of centralized outsourcing to system vendors due to systems created through these situations. These issues have become extremely important issues for our company, which aims to make advanced use of the huge amount of electricity usage data collected after 100% implementation of smart meters has been completed.
Also, in contrast to smart meters, which are being introduced and expanded over 10 years, it was also a major issue that the number of servers increased as the capacity increased, related OS and middleware were out of maintenance, license updates, and server replacement work occurred every year. Regarding these issues, verification work etc. occurred each time, so there were not only economic issues, but also an issue where the workload of members involved in our server maintenance relationship was increasing. Furthermore, in recent years, various issues, including future uncertainty, have become apparent, such as delays in server hardware procurement delivery due to semiconductor exhaustion.
Conclusion
This article, we have introduced our efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems, “up to issues with current smart meter systems.” For the latter half, please see “Contribution: Introduction of efforts aimed at cloud adoption of smart meter systems by Kansai Transmission and Distribution Inc. (Second half).”
Author
This article was translated by AWS Blake Horike, Riho Matsui, and Satoshi Aoyama.