January 2009 Smart Metering

Local Communications www.energy-retail.org.uk/smartmeters

This document provides a

short summary of the
report published in
December 2008 by the
SRSM Project covering
the subject of Local
Communications for
Smart Metering.

The full report addresses

the context, requirements,
solution options,
evaluation process and
recommendations for the
use of low power radio
(and other) technologies
with regard to smart
meters in Great Britain.

This summary provides a

‘plain English’ overview of
the content of the full
report.
SRSM & Beyond Project

Local Communications
Development Report
Version: 1
Author: Simon Harrison
Summary
 Local Communications Development - Summary

About the Energy Retail Association

The Energy Retail Association (ERA) is the trade organisation

which represents the major electricity and gas suppliers in the
domestic market in Great Britain.

A major component of its work is the preparation and

execution of policy on a range of key issues for the sector,
including selling, billing, transfers, regulation, energy
efficiency, social issues and new technology.

The members of the Association are:

About The SRSM & Beyond Project

The Supplier Requirements of Smart Metering (SRSM) project

has been running at the ERA since 2006. In that time it has
produced proposals and options for an Operational
Framework for Smart Metering, published in August 2007. It
has also worked alongside ERA members and other
stakeholders to produce documentation on key smart metering
subjects (communications, requirements, meter specifications
etc.) as well as providing responses to key government
consultations and initiatives on smart metering.

You can contact the project team via email to the project
manager, Jason Brogden:
jason.brogden@engage-consulting.co.uk,

Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright

All rights including copyright in this document or the information contained in it are owned by
the Energy Retail Association and its members. All copyright and other notices contained in
the original material must be retained on any copy that you make. All other use is prohibited.
All other rights of the Energy Retail Association and its members are reserved.

Disclaimer
This document presents development work on local communications for smart metering in
Great Britain. It does not present a complete and final definition of local communications for
smart metering in Great Britain and the options presented do not represent all possible
solutions. We have used reasonable endeavours to ensure the accuracy of the contents of
the document but offer no warranties (express or implied) in respect of its accuracy or that the
proposals or options will work. To the extent permitted by law, the Energy Retail Association
and its members do not accept liability for any loss which may arise from reliance upon
information contained in this document. This document is presented for information purposes
only and none of the information, proposals and options presented herein constitutes an offer.

Contact Details
th
Energy Retail Association, 4 Floor, 17 Waterloo Place, London, SW1Y 4AR
Tel: 020 7930 9175
Email: info@energy-retail.org.uk
Web: www.energy-retail.org.uk
Registered in England & Wales No. 4844678. Registered office at the above address

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Local Communications Development - Summary

Purpose of the Summary

This summary document is intended to give a concise, plain
English overview of the Local Communications Development
report which runs to over 150 pages, some of which is quite
technical.

It has been written, as far as is practical, in non-technical

language to make the summary accessible to as wide an
audience as possible.

Local Communications Development - Background

In January 2008, the steering group of the SRSM project

agreed to establish a working group, including a wide range of
stakeholders, to consider the solution options for in-home
communications (called ‘Local Communications’ by the
project) for smart metering in Great Britain.

Local Communications, it is important to note, are distinct from

communications to and from the home (called ‘WAN
Communications’ by the project). Technologies that could be
used to and from the home – e.g. cellular, long range radio,
broadband – are not necessarily suitable for communications
within a home.

Throughout 2008, the Government has been considering the

options for policy to support smart metering and much of the
framework for the operation of smart metering will depend on
Government policy decisions, particularly on the appropriate
market structure.. However, the technology to support smart
metering communication within a home is viewed as being
less exposed to the effects of industry market structure
changes, and therefore could reasonably be progressed whilst
the policy decisions remain outstanding.

The Group
The SRSM project team, using agreed terms of reference,
invited a broad cross-section of energy industry and metering
experts to participate in the work of the group.

In all, over 130 people were listed as members of the group

drawn from a range of experts, stakeholders and other
interested parties:
ƒ Energy suppliers & other energy participants, including
regulators and government departments
ƒ Meter manufacturers & metering service providers
ƒ Technology providers
ƒ Communications service providers
ƒ Home display and appliance manufacturers

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 Local Communications Development - Summary

ƒ Communications experts
ƒ Others – water utilities, telecare, software providers etc.

The group included a number of international participants.

Over the course of 2008, the group convened six full-day

meetings, all with over 40 people in attendance.

The Website
The SRSM project team has, throughout the process,
maintained a public website covering the activities of the
group. All of the materials used by the group are available to
view: the full version history of the report and comments
provided by reviewers; full details of group members and
meeting participants; all presentations and notes of the group
meetings; papers on the solution options, and general smart
metering information.

The website also includes a discussion forum, which has seen

some lively debate, particularly on the merits of individual
solution technologies.

www.srsmlocalcomms.wetpaint.com

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Local Communications Development - Summary

The Report
Presented below are short summaries of each of the sections
of the full report.

Setting The Scene

The document includes an introductory section explaining the
scope of the SRSM project and some of the important
conventions used within the report.

This includes the important project definition of ‘what is a

smart meter?’, where meters are located, and what the
difference is between a ‘meter’ and a ‘metering system’.

It also includes an extensive seven page glossary of terms and

acronyms used, which is particularly useful for some of the
more technical areas of the document.

What Are Local Communications?

In other smart metering markets, Local Communications might
be known as the Home Area Network (HAN), but the SRSM
project draws an important distinction, as customers may
already have existing HANs.

This section of the report sets the context for all that follows,
explaining why it is expected for smart meters to communicate
with devices in a home. It sequentially demonstrates how:
ƒ smart meters can talk to each other (gas to electricity and
vice versa) and to display units to provide customer
feedback in near real-time – i.e. the smart utility context
ƒ establishing a standard for the smart utility context will
allow energy retailers and customers to consider different
options for how to display energy consumption information
within a home. Examples mentioned have included TVs,
personal computers and mobile phones. This type of
activity is called the smart display context
ƒ as a result of developing a solution to meet the smart utility
and smart display requirements to transfer data between
different devices in a new network, a platform should
therefore be available that could include other devices.
Examples mentioned in the report include water meters,
thermostats, home appliances etc. This is the smart home
context

By requiring that all smart meters use the same solution and
data formats, the smart home context should deliver an
interoperable platform that allows energy data to be viewed
and shared by a number of devices and applications.

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 Local Communications Development - Summary

As an example of the use of smart metering in the illustration

below, consumption and tariff information could be used by
home appliances to run only when the energy is cheapest and
to send data to a range of display devices. It also shows how
other applications could make use of the link from smart
meters to remote systems – for example smoke detectors,
security systems or home health sensors.
Microgeneration ‘Cluster’

Sensor ‘Cluster’

Display Device ‘Cluster’ Utility Meters

White Goods/Demand Response ‘Cluster’

Smart meters could use Local Communications technology to

work with renewable and microgeneration devices to optimise
the energy efficiency of an individual home.

A key point in this section of the report is that, by making sure

that smart meters from any meter manufacturer can work with
each other, and any display device, an opportunity is created
to encourage innovation in the home management and
appliance sector – all of which should support the critical
requirement to reduce overall energy consumption.

Associated Topics
The report includes consideration of a number of key topics
associated with Local Communications for smart metering.

This includes:
ƒ an extensive section on the need for a national
specification within all energy meters
ƒ options for using combinations of wired and wireless
technologies, particularly for buildings that are challenging
for low power radio
ƒ the potential for the same technology to provide a link to
remote parties, such as energy suppliers, through the use
of existing or new communications infrastructure
ƒ opportunities to support third party applications using the
smart metering communications platform within homes
ƒ general topics such as security, privacy, device
classification, potential uses and processes, types of data

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Local Communications Development - Summary

Further into the report, sections are presented covering

Network & Addressing Protocols, Frequencies and Data
Exchange Formats.

Principles
The group agreed the following key principles:
ƒ Utility focus – the key requirement remains the
communication between smart meters and energy
information display/control devices. Support for other
services and applications will be as a result of developing a
practical solution to the utility requirement.
ƒ The utility focus should necessarily result in a low
bandwidth platform – energy consumption and tariff data
and control commands do not require high data throughput
rates.
ƒ The smart Metering Systems themselves will be
responsibility of the energy Supplier. The Home Area
Network may be owned by the customer. This allows
customers to add or remove Local Devices.
ƒ The Local Communications solution will be interoperable –
supporting a range of metering products and local device
applications.
ƒ The Local Communications solution will make use,
wherever practical, of open standards and architecture.
ƒ The intention is to adopt (and potentially develop) an
existing solution for Local Communications rather than
develop a new one. This includes the protocol and data
definition.
ƒ The Local Communications baseline solution will be the
same in all energy smart meters – establishing a national
specification.
ƒ The Local Communications solution will be energy
efficient.
ƒ The Local Communications solution will be secure, as
described in the requirements below. Additional security
measures may be implemented by the Metering System
and the application software. The Local Communications
solution will be secure in the context of providing
networked communications using low power radio (or
similar) and ongoing technological developments in
security.
ƒ The Local Communications solution shall, as far as
possible, be future flexible – supporting innovation at the
same time as supporting legacy systems.

Requirements
The group extensively discussed the requirements, working
from a baseline developed by the energy suppliers as part of

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 Local Communications Development - Summary

preparing the Smart Metering Operational Framework

proposals from 2007.

Seventeen distinct requirements are presented in the following

categories:
ƒ General requirements
ƒ Communication requirements
ƒ Security requirements
ƒ Data requirements
ƒ Network requirements
ƒ Installation & Maintenance requirements
ƒ Customer requirements

The definition of user requirements has been highlighted in the

report recommendations as a key area for future development.

The report also includes extensive notes on factors related to

the agreed requirements, and notes that there may be
additional requirements – from other parties or that arise as the
overall smart metering programme develops.

Solution Options
Following the establishment of the group, it was agreed that it
would not be possible to consider all of the potential low power
radio solutions. Six technologies were selected for detailed
evaluation, based upon experience and application in smart
metering, use in the ‘home automation’ communications
markets and recommendations by group members.

The six technologies below have an understandably European

basis, except for ZigBee which has been successful in similar
smart metering initiatives in America and Australia.

Evaluation

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Local Communications Development - Summary

The report provides details of eight alternative technologies

that could also be considered.

For each of the selected six solution options, the report

presents a detailed set of information using a standard
template. It covers such items as hardware, cost, data
transmission speed, frequency, protocols, maturity and use in
other markets and applications.

Desktop Evaluation
One of the major pieces of work by the group was a desktop
evaluation of the solution option technologies against a set of
agreed evaluation criteria specific to smart metering in Great
Britain.

A full description of the process undertaken, and the outputs,

can be found in the report.

The group agreed thirty six weighted criteria grouped into the
following categories:
ƒ Fit with requirements
ƒ Interoperability
ƒ Power
ƒ Data Performance
ƒ Radio Performance
ƒ Security
ƒ Future resistance
ƒ Cost considerations
ƒ Maturity – i.e. use in other markets, applications and
products

The group then saw presentations by each of the solutions

representatives and over the course of two meetings used a
traffic light system to evaluate the solutions against each of the
criteria.

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 Local Communications Development - Summary

A great deal of supporting information was provided for each

of the solutions by the representatives, and this forms one of
the major elements of the report.

Whilst completing the desktop evaluation process, it became

evident that a number of solutions should be technically
capable of meeting the requirements, and that the desktop
evaluation process would not be sufficient to reach
conclusions. Therefore it was agreed that one of the key
recommendations from the group would be to undertake
physical tests and trials to determine which would be most
suitable.

Conclusions & Recommendations

The report concludes that the exercise had been particularly
successful in engaging a wide audience on the topic, and that
all concerned had learnt from working together. It further notes
that, as a result of the work of the group, the solutions options
are making encouraging steps towards meeting the
requirements for smart metering in Great Britain.

It further concludes that the work started by the group will

provide a solid foundation for subsequent work, and
importantly, that there are a number of technical options that
are likely to be capable of delivering the requirements of smart
metering in Great Britain.

The report recommends a number of actions, key amongst

them are:
ƒ That work in this area continues in a timely manner, and
that an earlier decision would help all parties to develop
products supporting smart metering as soon as possible
ƒ That the evaluation process moves from the desktop to
independent field and laboratory testing
ƒ That further work is done to understand and document
specific user requirements – i.e. how much data would be
sent, how large the files might be and how often they are
expected to be sent
ƒ To include stakeholders that have not, so far, been party to
the work of the group – electricity distribution network
operators are an example

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Local Communications Development - Summary

The recommendations section also includes an evaluation

criteria/testing cross reference table to identify how each of the
criteria could be evaluated in further work.

It also includes short summary statements from the project on

each of the six main solutions considered in the document.

Finally, the report notes that there are still some outstanding
issues to resolve, around data ownership, network ownership,
last mile coverage etc.

Document Appendices & References

The report has several appendices:
ƒ A cross check section to ensure the evaluation criteria
cover all of the requirements, principles and assumptions
ƒ A suggestion of criteria to evaluate technologies for ‘Last
Mile’ suitability
ƒ A synopsis of an early field test undertaken by members of
the group
ƒ Supporting statements and information on ZigBee,
Bluetooth and AtEx regulations

The report also provides a comprehensive list of

documentation and online references.

The Full Report

The final version of the SRSM Local Communications
Development Report is available to download or read online:

From the group website:

http://srsmlocalcomms.wetpaint.com/page/Report

From the ERA website:

http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/smartmeters.html

If you have difficulties

accessing the document,
please send an email to the
project team (details are
above).

You can also order a printed

and bound version for less
than £4.50 (excl. postage) to
cover printing costs only from:

http://www.lulu.com/content/5273504

10 ©2009