Ireland’s smart meter communications network choice

Ireland is going to roll out smart meters but it has yet to decide whether to use the country’s existing cellular system or commission a dedicated long range radio network. By Neil Adams.

The government of Ireland – like that of all European member states – is under pressure to reduce the country’s carbon emissions, increase its use of renewables, and secure future supply to meet energy demand. It needs to be successful in all of these areas to meet European Union targets, such as a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions and a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency. It is no small task.

A smart meter rollout is an essential part of achieving these aims. In order to meet targets now and in the future, the energy providers, regulators and the government must have as complete a picture of energy consumption as possible. Consumers will also need to be educated if energy suppliers are to expect them to change their behaviour, and vary or reduce energy consumption. Relying on billing statements is not enough.

A successful smart meter rollout will depend on connectivity. Once a meter is installed, it must be able to communicate data to and from the network regularly – much like an increasing number of smart devices and connected “things” in the home. These connected, smart objects – the Internet of Things (IoT) – are part of the explosion in the amount of information being created and shared. A 1997 estimate suggested that there were a few thousand petabytes of data in the world in total. Cisco has predicted that in 2016, not even twenty years later, we will see at least a zettabyte (or a million petabytes) of data transferred across IP networks. By 2019, this will have doubled to two million.

So how can data from a smart energy network – a piece of critical national infrastructure – have priority with so much data being shared? Anyone who has sent a text message on New Year’s Eve or watched Netflix while downloading a large file knows that capacity is a finite resource. As the amount of data increases, so must the capacity to carry the data to where it needs to go. This is why the communications network that Ireland selects for smart metering is so vital.

There is a fundamental choice to be made in Ireland: use existing cellular (mobile) infrastructure or use a dedicated network. There are some advantages to using existing mobile networks. Without the need to build a new network, smart utilities can focus on collecting and analysing the data, but some consumers could be disadvantaged where coverage is poor. Any major infrastructure project comes with headaches, so it is tempting to use shortcuts wherever possible.

The challenge for cellular network operators is that the networks have been developed for, and already have a purpose – to transport data from mobile devices, tablets, mobile broadband-enabled laptops and thousands of other non-critical IoT devices that are being switched on every day. These networks will be hard-pressed to meet their existing commitments without significant additional investment, before factoring in the guarantees needed to provide a truly utility-grade network.

Cellular networks also suffer from blackspots, where no coverage is available. This is sometimes due to the cellular network characteristics being unable to penetrate buildings, or gaps in the network caused by the placement of hardware. All network providers are limited in where they are able to place their infrastructure, and for network technologies with a limited reach this will fundamentally undermine their ability to guarantee coverage for all.

Cellular networks work best when it comes to reaching phones and tablets in dense urban environments. Reaching remote rural areas, and deep into buildings and cellars, is more challenging. Ireland, like almost every country, is a combination of the two – built-up cities and towns separated by swathes of rural land, small villages and farms. Ireland’s geography, plus the problem of sharing capacity with an increasing number of connected devices, and an ever-increasing amount of data, means a dedicated network for smart meters is necessary.

What Ireland needs is a network that will cover close to 100 per cent of the population regardless of location or building style, be totally secure, and expand to accommodate future applications. Long range radio offers the speed, reliability and security that a smart energy network requires. It is the only communications technology that can achieve 99.5 per cent first-time connection, with a single technology – no need for expensive in-fill technologies to bridge the gap such as small cells or mesh.

Long range radio also has the pedigree. It is proven and is being rolled out to 10.2 million homes in the north of England and Scotland as part of the GB smart meter programme. It will comprehensively cover an area that includes six of the ten biggest cities in the UK, and large rural areas – an area similar in size, topography and population spread to Ireland. Any network that wants to capture data in this area not only needs to deal with dense urban areas but also connect with meters in the cellars of homes in the remotest of rural locations. Long range radio, and not cellular, is capable of this.

The choice facing Ireland is whether to choose a connectivity solution that lumps together smart meter data with all the rest, or a dedicated, utility-grade network.

Neil Adams, director, strategic customer team EMEA & Asia Pacific, Sensus