Specialised smart metering maintenance saves costly cleanup, says Arkossa.
The Operations & Maintenance of the heterogeneous telecommunications network that comes with the deployment of smart metering systems – that may include plc communications on the low voltage, BPL on medium voltage, fiber-optics, cellular network, etc., – with multiple technologies including PRIME, BPL, GPON, GSM, etc., that convey new and complex challenges.
When the number of smart meters connected to the network reaches millions of units, achieving secure and reliable communications is one of those new challenges. Even more challenging is to guarantee the real-time capabilities often demanded by smart grid applications.
This article was originally published in Smart Energy International Issue 4-2021.
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For such situations, highly performing communications are required for the successful rollout of smart metering systems.
The need for qualified personnel with extensive and cross-sectional knowledge of the infrastructure is another of the challenges that any electrical distributor encounters when carrying out the deployment, operation, and maintenance of these new smart grids.
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Arkossa has broad, hands-on field experience with smart meter deployments and an in-depth understanding of the practicalities of deploying, optimising, maintaining, and operating powerline communications networks.
Arkossa offers a unique value for providing customized services and solutions to satisfy the needs of our customers related to powerline smart metering systems.
We roll out smart meters with the added benefit of guaranteeing reachability and readability. We also manage the powerline networks to keep the reachability and readability to the optimum level. This is achieved by operating and maintaining the network with the added-value of identifying and solving issues, including fraud, loadbalancing, powerline communications issues,etc, using our proprietary extensively trained data analysis.
An example of one of Arkossa’s recent successes is the usage of our plexus service to support E-REDES’s network in Portugal. With plexus, Arkossa is carrying out the tasks of training technicians, network analysis, optimisation and generation of work orders for the low voltage networks.
This network is currently covered with the service of all the meters of 1,500 transformer stations. This allows improving the operation and maintenance of the digital electricity network deployed by E-REDES, increasing and maintaining the performance of the metering infrastructure, guaranteeing the cybersecurity of said infrastructure and therefore expanding its life cycle – in order to guarantee the full operability of the network at all times.
E-REDES is using the plc PRIME protocol, that allows to respond to the demands of the system operator in terms of data transmission and measurement control, focused on the provision of high-quality services to consumers.
About the author
Arkossa CEO Víctor Domínguez Richards is a telecommunications engineer with nearly 30 years experience in the energy and telecoms sectors. Richards has extensive experience managing organisations, some of which he has founded.
These include founding Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2), managing Comtrends’ technical dept. and managing two companies of the Amper Group. He also holds a professor post at the Polytechnic University of Valencia where he has lectured for 18 years and is an inventor in several patents related to Broadband Powerline Communications. He has also been active in the regulatory and standardization arenas, having been a board member of ETSI, the chairman of the ETSI PLT committee and an active member of many international bodies including CENELEC, IEEE, ITU, ARIB, NIST and IEC.
About the company
Arkossa Smart Solutions is a company specialised in developing and offering the services and solutions required by the new digital electricity networks for their optimal deployment, operation and maintenance. With more than 7 years accompanying distributors in more than 7 countries, Arkossa has positioned itself as one of the world leaders in value-added services for new digital electricity networks.
More info: www.arkossa.com
