The Meter Data Management industry has emerged
as one of the keys to Smart Grid implementations all over the world. Meter Data
Management systems provide the ability to manage, store and process consumption
data. It is a crucial element of operating the smart grid as well as creating
the value added services that lead to consumer efficiency and economic
viability.
This White paper explores the influence of
Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management system on a Smart Grid vision, goals, objectives
and implementation. As utilities try to optimize their operations by deploying
new smart grid technologies, Oracle MDM becomes a vital component in envision
their smart grid objectives. This paper analyzes
Oracle MDM state of art technology drivers and its core features to take an
integrated approach to meet smart metering requirements and present the factors
that contribute to an enterprise platform strategy so that utilities companies
can fulfil Smart Grid potential and make more informed technology decisions
down the line. This white paper is derived from the wealth of information pertaining
to Oracle utilities product operational, implementation and administration manuals
and various smart grid implementation case studies.
It is important to understand the participating systems around the Smart
Grid spectrum. These systems play major role in any successful smart grid
implementations.
Smart Grid integrates
new innovative tools and technologies from generation, transmission and
distribution all the way to consumer appliances and equipment. It provides
capabilities in monitoring, controlling, optimizing the efficiencies and
automating the entire energy delivery grid. Implementation of a Meter Data Management,
Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Distribution Management Systems and other
systems provide the information and control necessary to manage the operation
and improve the overall efficiency of the smart grid.
The major benefits of a smart grid implementation largely rely on
effective data collection and establishment of efficient commutation between
AMI infrastructure and the utility systems. Meter data management systems store and
analyze the meter level activities and consumption data, providing a foundation
for any Smart Grid implementation.
Head end system is a critical component of the AMI network. It is
typically hosted within the utility data centre and its primary responsibility
is to manage communications with the AMI network of meters and data
concentrators in the field. The Head End System is designed to be a real time
control and monitoring console for the AMI network, and it passes data between
smart devices and the utility. Head End Systems typically consist of server
hardware, software applications and database to perform the following
functions:
•
Meter data acquisition and collection.
•
Commissioning and decommissioning of meters and utility services.
•
Data concentrator status monitoring.
•
Meter configurations and parameters setup.
•
On demand meter reading and device check requests.
•
Firmware upgrades of the smart devices
AMI consists of both advanced meters and the supporting field networks that
control and manage meters. It makes use of various networking models to
establish communication with the smart meters in the field.
MDM system collects,
validates and persist advanced meter data that can be used by the various
utility systems such as billing, outage management and geographical
information systems. It permanently
stores meter data and uses business rules to transform them into billable usage.
The Customer Information Systems can make use of these usage data to bill their
customers. It provides a single repository for the data with a various analysis
capabilities and facilitates the integration with other utility systems. The benefits of meter data management systems
spread across the Smart Grid lifecycle, from project planning to deployment to
system operations and maintenance.
Smart Meter is the
advanced meter that enables communication between the customer and service provider,
allowing both to better managing their power usage. While the customer gets up
to date information about their consumption data, the utilities are able to
detect unusual consumption patterns, power status information and power quality
monitoring. Smart Metering is an essential information source that drives
enterprise efficiencies and benefits the distribution business.
Demand Response encourages consumers to reduce their demand, particularly during peak load
periods. Demand response programs are achieved by increased customer energy
usage awareness, modern technologies and new rate structures such as smart
thermostats, in-home displays, critical peak price alerts, real-time pricing, time-of-use
and interruptible rates. Demand Response leads to reduction of consumer energy
usage, increases system reliability, and supports infrastructure optimization.
It can potentially defer the utility’s investment in energy generation.
These are utility applications that use advanced meter data to improve and
expand functionality. Smart Grid applications include enhancements to existing
applications with data from advanced meters as well as entirely new
applications made possible by advanced meter data such as Outage Management Systems
(OMS), Market Settlement applications, and Distribution capacity planning systems.
A large number of utilities are implementing and leveraging smart
metering technologies. One of the primary consequences of implementing smart
metering technology is that it results in a flow of huge volume of meter data much
greater than traditional manual metering systems where the meter data is
collected on a bimonthly, monthly or quarterly basis.
This increased data volume will flow into the utility which manages the
distribution system and also be passed to and from third-party retailers for
processing under new market transactions. Utilities implementing Smart Metering
programs face the challenge of managing the huge volume of meter data and
transform them into business requirements. To meet these challenges Oracle Meter
Data Management system provides utilities with a business critical solution for
storing, validating, aggregating and processing large volumes of meter data and
preparing them for billing, settlements, analysis and other reporting needs.
For example, consider an electric utility with 1 million smart meters
where each meter sends its measurements 3 times a day will have 3 million
measurements each day. Each measurement is subject to validation, editing
(if they are obviously wrong), and estimation (if they are
missing). Assume if a meter configured
to measure 15 minute intervals will have roughly 2,880 measurements each month.
So, 1 million such devices results in 2,880,000,000 (i.e., 2.88 billion) measurements
each month. The normalized meter data is periodically transformed into more
concise and palatable usage data.
This usage data is then made available for the subscribing systems. For
example, if a CIS system subscribes to time-of-use totals based on peak, off-peak
and shoulder peak categories, it would receive only the aggregated 3 million usage
data per month rather than 2.88 billion measurements.
Oracle Meter Data Management system is built with it state of art
software and hardware platforms to handle such a huge volume of flooding data
in a more efficient way. Figure - 1 illustrates
Oracle MDM architecture including its touch points with upstream data collection
systems and downstream enterprise systems.
(Figure -1)
The rest of this paper discusses in detail about the core features of
Oracle Meter Data Management system and its role in smart grid implementations.
Oracle MDM does not own meter, service point, premise and customer
contact information. These are called master data and need to be made available
to MDM to be operational. A set of data synchronization processes brings these
data from the respective data owner systems into Oracle MDM. For example, a
utility using Oracle CC&B, the customer and meter information would be
synchronized into MDM through the synchronization process. Similarly, any information captured from the
field using head end systems will need to be synchronized back to the
respective systems.
Oracle MDM uses “Initial Sync” process, a set of batch process
activities to copy required master data information from CC&B into MDM.
This would typically be carried out during the production migration time of the
smart metering implementations. Once the system goes live, the new master data
and the filed updates are synchronized using “On-going Sync” process. For
example, a new customer enrolled in CC&B system should be added to MDM
system as and when required using this process.
Oracle MDM being the system of record for the meter data information collected
from the head end systems, the remaining master data required for its operation
would be synchronized to and from the participating systems. Data
synchronization process ensures that customer information is correctly
associated with the proper meter data in a timely manner. Oracle productized
integration pack for CC&B – MDM automates the data synchronization process and
helps the utilities to reduce the integration complexity and implementation
time.
One of the most important functions of Oracle MDM system is the data cleansing
process. This is commonly referred as Validation, Editing and Estimation (VEE)
process. Oracle MDM contains a wide range of pre configured VEE rules to process
the consumption data received from data collection systems on bimonthly,
monthly or quarterly basis as well as the interval data received from modern
AMI systems.
Though Oracle MDM supports a number of widely used industry standard VEE
rules out of the box, it also provides users with the ability to easily create any
custom validation and estimation rules for a variety of purposes. It requires
minimal configuration or programming and scripting to create such special rules
with very less cost and time associated with system deployment and operations. Oracle
MDM allows the user to create different VEE rules for different types of meter
registers and based on what the meter measures. The below is the list of pre
configured VEE rules supported by Oracle MDM.
·
Interval Adjustment From
Scalar
|
·
Interval Averaging
Estimation
|
·
Interval Interpolation
Estimation
|
·
Interval Profile
Estimation
|
·
Scalar Estimation
|
·
Scalar Profile Estimation
|
·
Interval Size
Validation
|
·
Interval Spike Check Validation
|
·
Sum Check Validation
|
·
Unit Of Measure Check
|
·
High/Low Check
|
·
Zero Consumption
Check
|
·
Negative Consumption
Check
|
·
Interval Missing Quantity
Check
|
·
Channel / Register
Multiplier Check
|
·
Scalar Calculation From
Interval
|
·
Scalar Replacement
Rule
|
·
Interval Replacement
Rule
|
VEE rules are often driven by the regulatory bodies in different
geography. There may be more complex VEE requirements imposed in a deregulated market
area where data need to be delivered to multiple market participants. Oracle
MDM uses more complex VEE rules to process the interval data than the scalar data
received from the manual collection systems. It can support different VEE work
flows for different jurisdictions, geography, service type or customer type based
on specific criteria as well.
Oracle MDM makes use of the customer measurement profile feature for the
estimation process where they can fill in missing data with the appropriate values
based on the profiles. The system
considers utilities requirements and overall business processes and decides under
what circumstances data are automatically estimated, and under what
circumstances should there be manual intervention and how are the exceptions generated
and handled. Oracle MDM demonstrates significant flexibility in order to maximize
effectiveness of the use of VEE component. Similar set of VEE rules can be grouped
together and can be reused in different places. A different set of VEE rules
can be applied for the measurement data received from head end system, the
estimated data and manually created measurements based on certain criteria.
In the past, utilities were collecting the measurements on monthly or
quarterly basis. With the advent of Smart Grid applications utilities are
collecting interval data on a possible smallest interval periods. For example,
a utility having 1 Million commercial and industrial electric meters with 15 minutes
interval would collect 2,880,000,000 (i.e., 2.88 billion) measurements each
month. So, Oracle MDM becomes the key for handling this huge volume of data generated
by the smart meters.
Oracle MDM enables loose coupling between systems. Multiple AMI systems can
send their data via their respective head end systems to Oracle SGG (smart Grid
Gateway), where the data is unified and queued to be processed by Oracle MDM
system. Once the measurements are received, Oracle MDM will run the VEE
processes to create a clean bill ready measurement data. This process will also
fill any gaps (for the missing data) based on the VEE configurations.
Downstream utility systems such as Billing Systems, Data Warehouse Systems and
Outage Management Systems can subscribe their data from the Oracle MDM for
their specific purposes.
For example, Oracle Customer Care & Billing system can obtain
billable usage data for interval and scalar meters from Oracle MDM without
worrying about which AMI system collected the measurement data from the
customers. This service oriented architecture creates a virtual plug and play
capability and ensures the flexibility during system upgrades or change of any sub
systems with minimal cost, disruption and effort.
Oracle MDM manages interaction among different data
collection technologies and provides information to billing system upon
request. For example, Oracle CC&B initiates requests for billing data based
on specific billing cycle or on demand off cycle business processes. Oracle MDM
is responsible for interpreting the CC&B usage request and forwarding it to
the appropriate AMI system if necessary. Finally it returns the response back
to CC&B. In this case, Oracle CC&B manages the cash flow of the
utility, determining when and how customer consumption data are converted into
billing information.
With Productized integration pack, Oracle MDM
can be configured to push the usage data to CC&B at the end of every
measurement cycle and letting CC&B make use of the usage data for billing
purpose. On the other hand, CC&B can
also be configured to pull the usage data from Oracle MDM during bill cycle. To
deliver bill-ready data Oracle MDM normalizes the raw measurement data received
from the AMI system into billing determinants and delivers service point level
billable usage to the CC&B.
Oracle provides a range of Smart Grid gateway (SGG) adapters to
integrate multiple AMI systems that use different technologies, protocol and data
formats to share meter data with other systems. This feature effectively
decouples downstream applications from Advanced Metering Infrastructure. It
also allows the integration of new technologies as they emerge, and the
decommissioning of old technologies, without being restricted to a single
vendor or AMI implementation. This means consumers can use Oracle MDM as a
single consistent interface across the various AMI systems with data presented
in a centralized repository.
To enable utilities to deal with multiple AMI systems, Oracle MDM abstracts
the business process from specific implementation details. Each Head End System
vendors may implement their AMI systems using CMI, Multispeak, IEC 61968 or any
other vendor specific proprietary interfaces. Oracle SGG provides abstraction
from vendor specific interfaces and acts as a data communication bridge in the
overall enterprise architecture ensuring flexibility and extensibility
throughout the life of Smart Metering programs.
Oracle MDM categorize the device events send by the different Head End Systems
into standardized event types. Oracle
has delivered productized SGG adapters for Landis+Gyr, Echelon, MV90, Sensus
RNI, Silver Spring Networks and Itron OpenWay Head End Systems. Utilities can also
make use of Oracle Application Development Kid (ADK) to build the integration
layer for any other Head End Systems.
Oracle MDM plays a vital role in enabling bi-directional smart metering
infrastructure networks to communicate with other systems. It provides routing
and management components for implementing the required two-way processes. Oracle
MDM is capable of handling the following smart metering commands with Oracle
SGG:
·
Remote Connect - Initiates power flow from
the source through the meter. This does not mean that the device is being
installed. Once command is being sent, it is assumed that the device has
already been installed. The Head End Systems typically require more than one
communication to facilitate this process. Utilities may also want to retrieve a
start read for scalar subtractive meters during this command.
·
Remote Disconnect - Stops power flow through
the meter. This does not mean that the device is being removed. Like connect
command, disconnect typically involves more than one communication to the Head
End System. Utilities may want to retrieve an end read for scalar subtractive
meters during this command.
·
Device Commissioning - Drives the registration
or discovery of the device by the Head End System. This process does not always
require an explicit communication. Utilities won’t always receive an explicit response
to a commission request. Sometimes receiving measurements could be an indication
of a successful commissioning.
·
Device Decommissioning - Notifies the Head End System
that no further data will be arriving from the device
·
On Demand Read (Interval) - Accommodates near
real time requests for readings.
·
Device Status Check (Meter Ping) - Returns
the working condition of a device, and this might involve more than one
communication.
The Smart metering commands can be enabled by end to end process automations.
For example, an utility using Oracle CC&B and MDM systems could include the
integration of “turn-on/turn-off” business process by combining both manual collection
method and smart meters with an integrated remote connect disconnect command.
In this case, once CC&B system determines that customer power is to be
turned off, Oracle MDM system can be implemented to determine, depending on the
meter type, whether the turn-on/turn-off requires a field service order, or can
be executed directly through the smart metering infrastructure systems using
the SGG smart metering commands.
Oracle SGG benefits the customer by reducing costs to implement and
operate smart grid processes and programs, minimizes data duplication and
improves system performance, provides a common set of commands to foster
application interoperability and improves the security and better audit of
smart grid processes.
Smart meters are capable of detecting and producing various events to
alert a utility that something significant has happened to it, such as an
attempt to tamper with the device, a loss of power, or that the device has a
low battery indicator. While loading a device event, the Oracle MDM first
determines from which Head End System the event is received and then finds out
which device produced it. Based on the Head End System that sent it, the system
finds the standard event type that corresponds to the event sent. Oracle MDM then determines if any additional
processing is needed for the event. For example, some events might arrive in
pairs (power outage and power restoration) are handled differently than
singular events. External applications can subscribe to receive events of
certain categories. After events have been analyzed and stored, they are sent
to the subscribing application using the business process defined for the
subscriber.
The below is the list of standard events supported by Oracle MDM system.
Any new event categories can also be configured using the custom extensions.
- Low Battery Detected
- Low Voltage
- Magnetic Tampering
- Power Outage - (Last
Gasp)
- Poor Power Quality
- Power Restoration
- Reverse Rotation
- Momentary Outage
- Tamper Alert
Smart meters are capable of measuring the
interval data. They are configured to records energy consumption of a customer at
a defined regular interval (For example, every 60, 30 and 15 minutes). Oracle
MDM has the ability to define TOU (Time of Usage) code configuration to denote
on peak, shoulder peak and off-peak consumption. Using the TOU mapping, the
interval consumptions are accumulated under the respective TOU category.
Utilities make use of
TOU pricing to reflect the cost of electricity supply. Prices in the market can
rise and fall during a day based on demand and the type of supply available.
When demand is lower, less expensive sources of electricity are used. When
demand rises, more expensive forms of electricity production are called upon.
TOU prices take into account when as well as how much electricity a consumer
uses as recorded by the consumer’s smart meter.
TOU prices are
designed to encourage consumers to shift energy use from high price periods (on
peak) to lower price periods (shoulder peak and off peak). They are
developed as part of the Regulated Price Plan (RPP) for those with smart meters.
Oracle MDM provides the utilities as many as different views of the Time of Use
Data for their analysis and decision making processes.
The below
pictographs shows Oracle MDM capability to analyze the energy consumption
pattern of a customer with respect to different time of use codes and seasons
(on-peak winter, off-peak winder, shoulder peak winter and holiday). The energy
consumption with respect weather pattern (temperature data) of the customer’s
geography also compared and analyzed.
Critical Peak Period (CPP): Using Oracle MDM normal TOU map could be overridden by
a dynamic TOU map option to handle Critical Peak Period situations. A different
pricing can be applied for such TOU periods. The utility could have a program
that credits customers for conservation during critical peak periods. A
consumer receives a credit for consumption during a CPP event that is lower than
their "normal" consumption.
Demand Response (DR): The utility could have a program where customers can
optionally participate in demand response programs. The utility can declare a
DR event for any upcoming time span. When a DR event starts, the system sends
smart meter messages to turn off the customer's equipment. When the DR event
concludes, the system sends another smart meter message to turn on the
customer's equipment. The utility would like to measure the amount of
consumption conserved during these events.
Net Metering allows a customer (energy
generator) to receive a financial credit for power generated by their onsite
system and fed back to the utility. The credit is used to offset the
customer's electricity bill. Net energy metering is an important element
of green energy policy framework supporting direct customer investment in distributed
renewable energy generation.
Distributed generation programs allows homes and businesses to generate
their own power from renewable sources such as wind, water, solar and
agricultural biomass and distributing any excess electricity back to the grid. An
electrical converter called an inverter turns the DC (direct current) power
coming from your renewable energy source into AC (alternating current) power,
which matches the voltage of the electricity flowing through the power line. The
excess energy is being generated can be recorded by the power meter, giving credit
to a customer. Oracle MDM is a vital
application to provide benefits to Demand Response and Distributed generation
programs as it meets the business drivers include billing, customer service and
efficient analysis through the below features.
- Meter Channel - The ability to record
and store at least two channels of energy interval data, Consumed energy
from the Utility the Generated energy by the consumer.
- Net metering - Consumer is billed
for net energy use during the various tiers.
- Sophisticated validation and estimation routines - Account for energy imports from customers, also accommodate
negative net energy usage in an interval.
- The ability to perform “net usage” functions - The consumer is compensated for energy delivered onto the grid
using a separate generation tariff.
Benefits of net metering
- The system is easy and
inexpensive. It enables people to get real value for the energy they
produce without having to install a second meter or an expensive battery storage system.
- It allows homeowners and
businesses to produce energy which takes some of the pressure off the
grid, especially during periods of peak consumption.
- Each home can
potentially power two or three other homes. If enough homes in a neighbourhood
use renewable energy and net metering, the neighbourhood could potentially
become self reliant.
- It encourages consumers
to play an active role in alternative energy production, which both
protects the environment and helps preserve natural energy resources.
- Homes that use net
metering tend to be more aware of and therefore more conscientious about
their energy consumption.
- It saves utility
companies money on meter installation, reading and billing costs.
Oracle
MDM uses Measuring Components (MC) to map the smart meter registers (channels) with
the following characteristics to identify what it actually measures.
·
Unite Of Measure (UOM) – What is
measured by the register.
·
Seconds per Interval (SPI) – The
interval (15 or 30 or 60 min).
·
Service Quantity Identifier (SQI) –
Generated or Consumed.
An
SQI is used when multiple measuring components measure the same thing, but in
different ways. For example a meter that measures both generation and
consumption. A smart meter capable of measuring the consumption and generation
of energy can send data to Oracle MDM, and get stored in the meter data
repository. This data can be made available to downstream applications for billing
computation and analysis purpose.
If the customer has generated more energy than
used, at the end of the year, the electric company may pay back for the extra
power at the retail rate. Net metering can be measured over the month or year.
Annualized net metering provides a more accurate measurement because it takes
into account your changing energy usage and production over the four seasons.
In addition to consumption data, Oracle MDM can also receive events,
status messages, alarms and alerts from AMI systems to provide real time
monitoring of the network and field devices. The information provided can generate
insight into operational issues, the health of devices and analysis of
operational trends. Utilities may make use of these operational reports to dispatch
meter technicians to the field and review trends that may indicate quality
issues with a particular device.
If the data stored with in MDM properly
analyzed and correlated with other information, it can provide a wealth of
actionable insights. Oracle Utilities MDM Analytics make use of the measurement
and event data and creates enterprise data warehouse to generate various historical,
operational and business analytics reports and graphs. These reports include:
• Load
forecasting by time of day, seasonal weather, areas, customer types, etc.
• Projecting
weather or climate forecasts as related to usage patterns.
• Consumption
by time of usage to inform load-shifting programs.
• Instantaneous
outage and tampering information, including “last gasp” notifications.
• Identifying
anomalies in consumption patterns that may indicate theft or other losses.
• Long
term forecasting of demand supply requirements.
• Consumption
at empty or vacant premises.
• Zero or very
low consumption at occupied premises.
• Field crew
reported problems (fraud/damage/blocked meters/dangerous situations, etc)
• Meter
communication failures (In case AMI meters).
Utilities across the world are fulfilling key components of their smart
grid initiatives by rolling out Smart Metering, AMI systems, MDM and CIS
systems. These systems are designed to support and enable end to end business
processes of utilities. While each utility will have varying business drivers,
they will all share the need to maximize the return on their investment as
quickly as possible. Oracle MDM enables utilities with multiple meter data
collection technologies to bridge the technology gap between old and new
technologies to deliver better customer service and optimize revenues with new smart
metering roll out. The availability of pre built productized integrations
between other Oracle utilities products enables the utilities to quickly realise
the benefits of their smart grid pilots and implementations. Oracle MDM being
the centralized repository for the meter and event data, Oracle Utilities analytics
applications can easily access these data for operational and historical
analysis. Finally, the importance of Oracle MDM depends on utilities priorities
and the capabilities they need to add to achieve their Smart Grid vision.
Senthilkumar Manipillai is working for Oracle Utilities, India, has expertise in consulting
and supporting various gas, electric and water utilities in Smart Grid and
Smart metering implementation initiatives. His 15+ years of experience includes
product development, project implementation and consultation for water and electric
utilities in Europe, US and APAC regions. He holds MSc degree in Computer
Science and is a certified Oracle Meter Data Management and Customer Care &Billing implementation specialist.
