The rapid popularity of smart meters

At present, the world is advancing the use of smart meters, linkage with home energy management systems, and two-way communications. The required functions and technologies have been basically established, and their impact has even spread to other fields such as home appliances and automobiles.

Thomas Edison invented practical incandescent light bulbs in 1879. Since then, the grid has started to spread all over the world. In recent years, even cars have begun to receive drive energy supplies through the power grid. The grid is currently ushering in the "hundred-year" period of change. This is a measure to simultaneously control the power generation of the power company and the electricity demand of the demand side and improve the reliability and efficiency of the entire power grid. As the core of these initiatives, "smart meters" are rapidly gaining popularity around the world. Smart meters refer to electronic meters and gas meters. They have a communication function and can remotely monitor meter readings. North America and Europe have become popular centers, and even in countries such as Sweden and Italy, almost all homes and businesses have adopted smart meters.

Fig. 1 Conceptual diagram of the global adoption of smart meters Taking Europe and the United States as the center, smart meters are used to begin. In Japan, Kansai Electric Power and Kyushu Power are adopted in stages, and Tokyo Electric Power also plans to adopt it from 2014.

Forming a market of 140 million units four years later, Japan has also begun adopting smart meters in stages. Including the test, Kansai Electric Power Co. has already set up about 1.5 million units, and Kyushu Electric Power Company has set up about 180,000 units. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd., which has the largest contractual user in Japan, has also adopted it since 2014. Tokyo Electric Power plans to install approximately 17 million smart meters by 2018, equivalent to installing smart meters for more than 60% of users in its jurisdiction. Regarding Japan as a whole, the Japanese government has proposed a policy of using smart meters to meet 80% of total power demand before 2016. At present, the total number of meters used in the country is about 78 million, and most of them use the original simulation method, but they will all be replaced by smart meters in the near future.

Is exploring the use of smart meters, not just Europe and the United States and Japan. In Asia, for example, China and South Korea are also promoting adoption plans. US investigation company IDC said that the global supply of smart meters is expected to increase from 25.4 million units in 2011 to 56.2 million units in 2012, more than doubled, and is expected to reach 14.02 million units by 2016. It is said that there are currently 1.7 billion meters in the world, but most of them will be changed to smart meters sooner or later.

Annual Forecast of Global Availability of Smart Meters In addition to North America, Asian countries such as Europe, Japan, and China are also promoting the use of smart meters. It is predicted that the annual shipments in 2016 will exceed 140 million units.

The popularity of smart meters has brought tremendous impact on the electronics industry. In addition to companies that provide meters for power companies and gas companies, they have also affected other areas. For example, for the semiconductor and electronic components industry, this will also become a major business opportunity. This is because the parts of the original analog meter are almost all mechanical parts. The analog meter uses the principle of electromagnetic induction. By rotating the disk, the power consumption is recorded mechanically. The smart meter is equipped with a large number of semiconductor and electronic components. Compared with analog meters, the number of parts in smart meters has also increased, so the unit price per unit will also increase. A person in charge of an electric meter company said: “The price of ordinary analog electric meters (the wholesale price offered to power companies) is 6,000 to 7,000 yen per unit. The price of smart meters is 2 or more times.”

Figure 3 smart meter consists of semiconductors and electronic components The United States Itron's smart instrument "Sentinel SS5S2L" motherboard. A large number of MCUs, capacitors, and resistors are mounted on the substrate.

Smart meters use analog ICs, microcontrollers (MCUs), AD converters, rectifiers, quartz crystal resonators, and liquid crystal displays that display measurement results, such as power and gas consumption. In addition, a communication module is also required for remote meter reading. Most of the components are used for general products such as consumer products, and the demand for components of smart meters is not easily affected by changes in the economic situation. And, after the spread, it is expected to produce stable replacement demand. Japan stipulates that electric meters must be replaced once a decade.

The impact of smart meters has also spread to the communications and home appliance industries. This is because smart meters must transmit meter readings to power companies and gas companies, and must perfect the communication network. An industry insider said: "The huge M2M (Machine-to-Machine) market will be formed. Communication companies also have a lot of interest."

In addition, the linkage between smart meters and energy management systems for homes and businesses (home energy management systems: HEMS, home energy management system, or building energy management systems: BEMS, building and energy management systems) will also generate new services. For example, in the field of power, there will be such services: notify the user's HEMS or BEMS of the tight supply and demand situation of the power grid, propose requirements for reducing power consumption, and in some form benefit contract users. In this way, according to the overall balance of supply and demand, the service mechanism that changes the user's energy usage is called "Demand Response (DR)." If many households have adopted smart meters, demand response will also expand, and the HEMS-related businesses promoted by home appliance companies will also take advantage of further development.