The US Department of Energy's smart grid report in 2009 specifically stated that smart meters are the basis of smart grids. It not only provides power companies and consumers with information on the amount of electricity used and the time they consume electricity, but it also obtains information on market power usage, helping to coordinate the operation of electrical equipment and adjust energy consumption.
If this type of successful advanced metrology technology and related services cannot be widely and deeply provided to every household, it will widen the gap between energy supply and demand, thereby weakening the operational efficiency of smart grid infrastructure and impairing the public interest. On the other hand, according to Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Society, the successful development of advanced metering systems requires the use of new communication solutions and encryption technologies, making full use of a new generation of highly reliable, highly secure, low-cost smart meter integration solutions. One of the major challenges facing smart grid development is the cost issue. According to incomplete statistics, utility companies spend as much as $27 billion on advanced metering equipment.
In the smart grid, if not the most important factor, consumers of electricity are also factors that need attention in the design. The challenge here is to change consumers' consumption habits and attitudes. By increasing the transparency and interoperability of important information, consumers are provided with “selected†access to electricity and fully understand the benefits of reasonable “choicesâ€. Fortunately, the energy crisis has made people begin to pay attention to energy efficiency issues, and all walks of life have begun to participate in the development of energy-efficient products, as well as consumer-oriented energy management and automation products (such as smart devices, Internet portals, and similar services). Therefore, this is also the trend of the times. Globally, only 6% of the 1.6 billion meters currently installed belong to smart meters with two-way communication capabilities.
Consumers, driven by dynamic pricing information or other economic benefits, have begun to favor “smart devices†that can help reduce and adjust energy consumption. The price information is not necessarily obtained through a dedicated smart meter, but can also be transmitted via a user's Internet device such as a broadband router/gateway. For power companies and their users, the two transmission channels have their own advantages and disadvantages. They need to weigh information security (privacy), network security, and interoperability and commercial liquidity among various devices. The most basic requirement is that the two technologies can work alone or together. At present, the main focus is on the effectiveness of smart devices. Devices that integrate smart meters and dynamic price adjustment frameworks can give more definite results, significantly reduce the power consumption during peak periods, and effectively reduce the cost of electrical energy. Most of the initial work is based on a simple decision algorithm. Based on the received price information, it can more effectively control the running/off state of the equipment. The state control can also be based on more details, such as the classification and measurement results of the device, where the consumer can more flexibly manipulate the use of power and make more informed choices. This work is still in the development phase and depends largely on consumer cost-effectiveness requirements for measuring equipment.
Some major meter manufacturers have begun to develop smart products. This move is not only driven by the federal incentive plan, but also by consumers looking forward to participating and demanding greater transparency. From the power company's point of view, if this transparency is enhanced, consumers can better understand the true cost of equipment operations, cultivate good electricity habits, or rely on advanced systems (such as those created by Microsoft and Google). And to reduce equipment energy consumption and reduce related expenses, from any aspect, this can be a win-win result. The design of complex products requires attention to issues such as reliability, cost, and tailoring flexibility. Therefore, the semiconductor products used for energy measurement are no longer simply accumulating energy like the first generation products, but have more powerful functions.
The development process Even with the support of $400 million in incentive funds in 2010, development costs are still a barrier to the development process for medium- and small-scale power companies. The increase in the cost of smart meter hardware increases the risk of return on investment. These costs mainly relate to a complex set of communication-related functional devices such as data storage, encryption, multi-encrypted two-way communication functions for connection to the grid and home appliances, and remote relays and additional printed circuit board (PCB) disconnected states. The display. In addition, if it is impossible to successfully demonstrate the working conditions of these new products to the public, it is difficult to obtain public support and understanding.
Another additional cost is that these systems lack adequate programmability, product upgrades are difficult, and the security and interoperability requirements of smart grid development in the future are not sufficient. Taking these factors into account, the need for embedding larger-capacity memories and more powerful communication functions into the design for security reasons goes well beyond the recent usage requirements and, of course, increases system costs.
No one wants to quickly discover that after the equipment was brought to the market on a large scale, it was found that due to the lack of understanding of the development process of the smart electric power, the product was flawed and was quickly eliminated. The rush to market products that are not mature enough will inevitably result in the frequent replacement of basic equipment. This will bring high operating costs to the power sector and cause great waste. The more serious design challenges people face should be the shorter service life and lower reliability of these complex electrical infrastructures. Compared with old, simple equipment more than two decades ago, the new device contains more components and interconnection units, which also easily lead to frequent device replacement.
The design of semiconductor devices considers the history of residential electricity meters beginning large-scale adoption of semiconductor technology, and also reflects the problem of product life. This technology began more than a decade ago, and currently about 85% of the world's new electricity meters, about 85% of the meters use semiconductor technology, and the rest is traditional mechanical farad meters.
In 2004, I visited one such factory in ECE Industrial Equipment Co., Ltd., Hyderabad, India. It was once a prosperous mechanical electricity meter manufacturing plant. Utilizing the technology imported from German metering companies, the maximum annual production reached 800 Million sets. This important industrial factory is located in a beautiful garden oasis. It is worth mentioning here that there have been many classic Bollywood films. But when I visited this factory building, it was already "people go to the empty building" and piled up some idle equipment. My guide (who used to be a foreman at this factory) explained to me sadly because of the advanced anti-tamper. With the rapid development of functional low-cost semiconductor meters, the plant has been completely shut down.
At that time, China also introduced the first generation of surface mount metrology ASICs with integrated analog-to-digital converters. The device converts the product of voltage and current to digital pulse output. The pulse signal is sent to the kWh counter for metering. . This generation of products has played an important role in the development of the emerging meter industry under the highly demanding environment for electrical equipment and basic electricity metering at that time. Many local OEMs have adopted this technology considering low-cost PCB manufacturing processes.
As the power industry shifted from the traditional basic rate management system to a market-led competition mechanism, it drove the second change in the metering structure of electricity meters. As power companies began introducing time-of-use billing systems, devices such as automatic meter reading (AMR), microcontrollers, radio communications, LCDs, and real-time clocks (RTCs) were added. These devices were integrated into metrology ASICs (also called analog front ends). Or AFE) to promote the application of multi-chip standardized solutions in residential meter design.
Special applications and metrology requirements often require higher levels of design. With the changing needs of the power industry and the globalization of design standards, combined with the design challenges of complex electronic system integration, access to this industry has become a global high-end supplier. The threshold also greatly reduces the number of professional manufacturers. The increasing importance of basic communication functions in metering equipment has further exacerbated this trend. Of course, not all suppliers around the world are experiencing this transition at the same time.
Smart Grid Advantage When IC vendors realize that IC suppliers will need to be around 2003 in order to meet mass production of low-cost, high-complexity, high-reliability products in a shorter time and require a large amount of OEM OEM support. The introduction of highly integrated and dedicated system-on-chip (SoC) products began. The on-chip system integrates common modules such as AFE, RTC, LCD driver, and MCU, and improves reliability, flexibility, and measurement performance, enabling OEMs around the world to develop reliable, low-cost meters faster. Using only a single-chip SoC with a communication module, you can quickly meet the basic requirements of a dedicated power industry.
The introduction of the concept of smart grid and the increasing requirements of the power industry standards require the addition of more memory, security, and communications capabilities in smart grid applications. This requires more digital circuits to be integrated into the device, and the degree of integration is increasing in accordance with Moore's Law. The development of the semiconductor manufacturing process also conforms to this application requirement. This represents a classic example of the value of semiconductor process development, which has accelerated the revolution in metrology.
The overall greater than some IC manufacturers can establish their own positioning in accordance with the part and integration, this difference may be very subtle, but it is very important. At first glance, Teridian's metering SoCs are just integrations of traditional modules, including basic meters. This fast copy-and-paste solution is similar to the fairly common design provided by a discrete digital-to-analog converter (ADC) or a microcontroller vendor. Separate designs are reference designs and related programs for specific applications, not chip-level designs.
According to market demand, Teridian's patented "single converter technology" integrates a 21-bit, 2nd-order Σ-? The ADC, seven multiplexed analog inputs, and a Programmable Computation Engine (CE) are shown in Figure 1. This architecture solves many problems with multiple data acquisition schemes, such as noise and imbalance. In the industrial temperature range, the ADC can still maintain the dynamic range of 2000:1, with the industry's best indicators. The 32-bit CE is a signal processor that implements standard measurement functions via hardware and can upgrade the system to support new user functions. Multi-phase measurement is realized through a multiplexer at the front end of the ADC, and a calculation engine is integrated to implement the measurement function.
The fourth-generation Teridian device uses a proprietary isolation technology (see figure), using low-cost current shunts to replace current transformers and copper feeders. Teridian's latest generation of measurement ICs integrates metering and interface functions. The difference in structure is mainly due to multiplexed ADCs and dedicated calculation engines for measurement.
Integrated communication function?
So far, most of the separate and SoC-based metering schemes use traditional metering and communication modules. This system segmentation is mainly based on the conventions of the AMR industry. Many communication infrastructure operators operate as independent business entities and provide meter connectivity through dedicated communication modules. However, this practice is beginning to change in large-scale power grids. Integrating communication functions into single-board designs or higher integration SoCs can effectively reduce hardware costs. This not only reduces the cost of the smart meter, but also improves the reliability of the product.
The smart grid that we are currently seeing undergoes a radical change in the design architecture, involving different industries and edge technologies, and in particular integrating measurement and communication functions into a single device. As of 2009, nearly 50% of smart meters were based on single-board designs, and SoC replaced many redundant microcontrollers, memory devices, and interfaces. In addition, many low-end transceivers in the design are replaced by RF/Power Line Communications (PLC) modems and integrate powerful protocol processing into the SoC.
As mentioned above, smart grids are developing applications for RF and PLC technology. In the United States, home connectivity solutions mainly use ZigBee, Homeplug, and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.15.11) technologies. Network connectivity (grid) may use any non-standard scheme, and a set of standard interfaces will be developed between communication modules and devices (such as smart meters and household appliances) (for details, refer to http://org/).
Indispensable to grid equipment is security and high-level interoperability (defined as ANSI 12.19) to ensure that various smart grid subsystems become interoperable and secure networks. The ongoing development of the SUN PHY (IEEE 802.15.4 Revision) and IEEE 1901 technology is dedicated to the development of a unified PLC technology (http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1901/). The development of these technologies makes it difficult for people to predict the standards that dominate the future market. But one thing is certain, consumers in the home network (HAN) will have multiple options in the market, and bridging solutions between communication links will soon be put on the market.
As for security, currently the HAN (ZigBee, Homeplug) adopts a 128-bit encryption scheme, and the power grid may adopt a 256-bit encryption scheme, such as ZigBee Intelligent Energy Management 2 and 802.16 WiMAX. Many AMI devices have data transfer rates of 50 to 100 kbps.
If this type of successful advanced metrology technology and related services cannot be widely and deeply provided to every household, it will widen the gap between energy supply and demand, thereby weakening the operational efficiency of smart grid infrastructure and impairing the public interest. On the other hand, according to Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Society, the successful development of advanced metering systems requires the use of new communication solutions and encryption technologies, making full use of a new generation of highly reliable, highly secure, low-cost smart meter integration solutions. One of the major challenges facing smart grid development is the cost issue. According to incomplete statistics, utility companies spend as much as $27 billion on advanced metering equipment.
In the smart grid, if not the most important factor, consumers of electricity are also factors that need attention in the design. The challenge here is to change consumers' consumption habits and attitudes. By increasing the transparency and interoperability of important information, consumers are provided with “selected†access to electricity and fully understand the benefits of reasonable “choicesâ€. Fortunately, the energy crisis has made people begin to pay attention to energy efficiency issues, and all walks of life have begun to participate in the development of energy-efficient products, as well as consumer-oriented energy management and automation products (such as smart devices, Internet portals, and similar services). Therefore, this is also the trend of the times. Globally, only 6% of the 1.6 billion meters currently installed belong to smart meters with two-way communication capabilities.
Consumers, driven by dynamic pricing information or other economic benefits, have begun to favor “smart devices†that can help reduce and adjust energy consumption. The price information is not necessarily obtained through a dedicated smart meter, but can also be transmitted via a user's Internet device such as a broadband router/gateway. For power companies and their users, the two transmission channels have their own advantages and disadvantages. They need to weigh information security (privacy), network security, and interoperability and commercial liquidity among various devices. The most basic requirement is that the two technologies can work alone or together. At present, the main focus is on the effectiveness of smart devices. Devices that integrate smart meters and dynamic price adjustment frameworks can give more definite results, significantly reduce the power consumption during peak periods, and effectively reduce the cost of electrical energy. Most of the initial work is based on a simple decision algorithm. Based on the received price information, it can more effectively control the running/off state of the equipment. The state control can also be based on more details, such as the classification and measurement results of the device, where the consumer can more flexibly manipulate the use of power and make more informed choices. This work is still in the development phase and depends largely on consumer cost-effectiveness requirements for measuring equipment.
Some major meter manufacturers have begun to develop smart products. This move is not only driven by the federal incentive plan, but also by consumers looking forward to participating and demanding greater transparency. From the power company's point of view, if this transparency is enhanced, consumers can better understand the true cost of equipment operations, cultivate good electricity habits, or rely on advanced systems (such as those created by Microsoft and Google). And to reduce equipment energy consumption and reduce related expenses, from any aspect, this can be a win-win result. The design of complex products requires attention to issues such as reliability, cost, and tailoring flexibility. Therefore, the semiconductor products used for energy measurement are no longer simply accumulating energy like the first generation products, but have more powerful functions.
The development process Even with the support of $400 million in incentive funds in 2010, development costs are still a barrier to the development process for medium- and small-scale power companies. The increase in the cost of smart meter hardware increases the risk of return on investment. These costs mainly relate to a complex set of communication-related functional devices such as data storage, encryption, multi-encrypted two-way communication functions for connection to the grid and home appliances, and remote relays and additional printed circuit board (PCB) disconnected states. The display. In addition, if it is impossible to successfully demonstrate the working conditions of these new products to the public, it is difficult to obtain public support and understanding.
Another additional cost is that these systems lack adequate programmability, product upgrades are difficult, and the security and interoperability requirements of smart grid development in the future are not sufficient. Taking these factors into account, the need for embedding larger-capacity memories and more powerful communication functions into the design for security reasons goes well beyond the recent usage requirements and, of course, increases system costs.
No one wants to quickly discover that after the equipment was brought to the market on a large scale, it was found that due to the lack of understanding of the development process of the smart electric power, the product was flawed and was quickly eliminated. The rush to market products that are not mature enough will inevitably result in the frequent replacement of basic equipment. This will bring high operating costs to the power sector and cause great waste. The more serious design challenges people face should be the shorter service life and lower reliability of these complex electrical infrastructures. Compared with old, simple equipment more than two decades ago, the new device contains more components and interconnection units, which also easily lead to frequent device replacement.
The design of semiconductor devices considers the history of residential electricity meters beginning large-scale adoption of semiconductor technology, and also reflects the problem of product life. This technology began more than a decade ago, and currently about 85% of the world's new electricity meters, about 85% of the meters use semiconductor technology, and the rest is traditional mechanical farad meters.
In 2004, I visited one such factory in ECE Industrial Equipment Co., Ltd., Hyderabad, India. It was once a prosperous mechanical electricity meter manufacturing plant. Utilizing the technology imported from German metering companies, the maximum annual production reached 800 Million sets. This important industrial factory is located in a beautiful garden oasis. It is worth mentioning here that there have been many classic Bollywood films. But when I visited this factory building, it was already "people go to the empty building" and piled up some idle equipment. My guide (who used to be a foreman at this factory) explained to me sadly because of the advanced anti-tamper. With the rapid development of functional low-cost semiconductor meters, the plant has been completely shut down.
At that time, China also introduced the first generation of surface mount metrology ASICs with integrated analog-to-digital converters. The device converts the product of voltage and current to digital pulse output. The pulse signal is sent to the kWh counter for metering. . This generation of products has played an important role in the development of the emerging meter industry under the highly demanding environment for electrical equipment and basic electricity metering at that time. Many local OEMs have adopted this technology considering low-cost PCB manufacturing processes.
As the power industry shifted from the traditional basic rate management system to a market-led competition mechanism, it drove the second change in the metering structure of electricity meters. As power companies began introducing time-of-use billing systems, devices such as automatic meter reading (AMR), microcontrollers, radio communications, LCDs, and real-time clocks (RTCs) were added. These devices were integrated into metrology ASICs (also called analog front ends). Or AFE) to promote the application of multi-chip standardized solutions in residential meter design.
Special applications and metrology requirements often require higher levels of design. With the changing needs of the power industry and the globalization of design standards, combined with the design challenges of complex electronic system integration, access to this industry has become a global high-end supplier. The threshold also greatly reduces the number of professional manufacturers. The increasing importance of basic communication functions in metering equipment has further exacerbated this trend. Of course, not all suppliers around the world are experiencing this transition at the same time.
Smart Grid Advantage When IC vendors realize that IC suppliers will need to be around 2003 in order to meet mass production of low-cost, high-complexity, high-reliability products in a shorter time and require a large amount of OEM OEM support. The introduction of highly integrated and dedicated system-on-chip (SoC) products began. The on-chip system integrates common modules such as AFE, RTC, LCD driver, and MCU, and improves reliability, flexibility, and measurement performance, enabling OEMs around the world to develop reliable, low-cost meters faster. Using only a single-chip SoC with a communication module, you can quickly meet the basic requirements of a dedicated power industry.
The introduction of the concept of smart grid and the increasing requirements of the power industry standards require the addition of more memory, security, and communications capabilities in smart grid applications. This requires more digital circuits to be integrated into the device, and the degree of integration is increasing in accordance with Moore's Law. The development of the semiconductor manufacturing process also conforms to this application requirement. This represents a classic example of the value of semiconductor process development, which has accelerated the revolution in metrology.
The overall greater than some IC manufacturers can establish their own positioning in accordance with the part and integration, this difference may be very subtle, but it is very important. At first glance, Teridian's metering SoCs are just integrations of traditional modules, including basic meters. This fast copy-and-paste solution is similar to the fairly common design provided by a discrete digital-to-analog converter (ADC) or a microcontroller vendor. Separate designs are reference designs and related programs for specific applications, not chip-level designs.
According to market demand, Teridian's patented "single converter technology" integrates a 21-bit, 2nd-order Σ-? The ADC, seven multiplexed analog inputs, and a Programmable Computation Engine (CE) are shown in Figure 1. This architecture solves many problems with multiple data acquisition schemes, such as noise and imbalance. In the industrial temperature range, the ADC can still maintain the dynamic range of 2000:1, with the industry's best indicators. The 32-bit CE is a signal processor that implements standard measurement functions via hardware and can upgrade the system to support new user functions. Multi-phase measurement is realized through a multiplexer at the front end of the ADC, and a calculation engine is integrated to implement the measurement function.
The fourth-generation Teridian device uses a proprietary isolation technology (see figure), using low-cost current shunts to replace current transformers and copper feeders. Teridian's latest generation of measurement ICs integrates metering and interface functions. The difference in structure is mainly due to multiplexed ADCs and dedicated calculation engines for measurement.
Integrated communication function?
So far, most of the separate and SoC-based metering schemes use traditional metering and communication modules. This system segmentation is mainly based on the conventions of the AMR industry. Many communication infrastructure operators operate as independent business entities and provide meter connectivity through dedicated communication modules. However, this practice is beginning to change in large-scale power grids. Integrating communication functions into single-board designs or higher integration SoCs can effectively reduce hardware costs. This not only reduces the cost of the smart meter, but also improves the reliability of the product.
The smart grid that we are currently seeing undergoes a radical change in the design architecture, involving different industries and edge technologies, and in particular integrating measurement and communication functions into a single device. As of 2009, nearly 50% of smart meters were based on single-board designs, and SoC replaced many redundant microcontrollers, memory devices, and interfaces. In addition, many low-end transceivers in the design are replaced by RF/Power Line Communications (PLC) modems and integrate powerful protocol processing into the SoC.
As mentioned above, smart grids are developing applications for RF and PLC technology. In the United States, home connectivity solutions mainly use ZigBee, Homeplug, and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.15.11) technologies. Network connectivity (grid) may use any non-standard scheme, and a set of standard interfaces will be developed between communication modules and devices (such as smart meters and household appliances) (for details, refer to http://org/).
Indispensable to grid equipment is security and high-level interoperability (defined as ANSI 12.19) to ensure that various smart grid subsystems become interoperable and secure networks. The ongoing development of the SUN PHY (IEEE 802.15.4 Revision) and IEEE 1901 technology is dedicated to the development of a unified PLC technology (http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1901/). The development of these technologies makes it difficult for people to predict the standards that dominate the future market. But one thing is certain, consumers in the home network (HAN) will have multiple options in the market, and bridging solutions between communication links will soon be put on the market.
As for security, currently the HAN (ZigBee, Homeplug) adopts a 128-bit encryption scheme, and the power grid may adopt a 256-bit encryption scheme, such as ZigBee Intelligent Energy Management 2 and 802.16 WiMAX. Many AMI devices have data transfer rates of 50 to 100 kbps.
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