Fiber, Copper or Wireless?

Smart Meter Options

What's that best way to connect smart meters to the local power company? Each community will have to decide on their own. Electric companies have a mandate to ensure power delivery, so they will likely have the most influence in the decision. Options include:

Fiber Optics

Many utilities already use fiber optics for backbone transport within the WAN to support communications and applications between the utility control center and the service territory. This data is used for distribution feeder automation, protective relaying for high voltage lines and other mission-critical applications. Utilities can extend fiber networks to the home for smart grid communications. Speed is important for smart grid communications and control and fiber is blazingly fast.

Also, fiber may be the preferred choice in communities that have, or are planning to install, Fiber to the Home (FTTH). Smart grid communications can be bundled with revenue-generating FTTH services at nominal cost. Expect smart grid communications to accelerate further FTTH deployments.

Fiber optics will likely be used in many other smart grid applications as well, particularly long range monitoring. See article on fiber optic intrusion detection systems (page 15). Fiber optics can also be used to detect hot spots on high voltage transmission lines.

Copper

Using PowerLine Networking (PLN) technology, communications can be sent over the same cable that transmits electrical power. This includes high, medium and low-voltage transmission lines. With most PLN systems, transformers prevent communications from crossing between different voltages so multiple PLNs are sometimes required in larger networks.

Wireless

Wireless smart meters have been developed that use mesh technology to interconnect them to one another and also to the local utility company.
Mesh networking enables new smart meters added to the NAN to be detected and linked automatically with other devices in the network. One benefit of a mesh network is that it provides additional paths that enhance redundancy and fault tolerance which can be useful in emergency situations. Some people have expressed concern that having smart meters interconnected might make them more vulnerable to hackers.

Communications Inside the Home

Within the home, the smart meter must be connected to various 'smart' equipment including smart sockets, load control devices, and energy dashboards. Options include:

Radio Frequency (RF) Networks – Many homes and businesses already use WiFi for internet access and for interconnecting network devices such as computers and printers. WiFi can also be used to for communications between electrical devices and the smart meter. Other RF options include Zigbee, Zwave and INSTEON. NIST is encouraging interoperability among the different RF technologies.

PowerLine Networking (PLN) PLN has appeal in that it is a "no new wires" technology that can use existing home wiring to monitor and control electrical devices.