The Role of Smart Meters in Enabling Real-Time Energy Services for Households: The Italian Case

Alessandro Pitì, Giacomo Verticale, Cristina Rottondi, Antonio Capone and Luca Lo Schiavo
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Alessandro Pitì: Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Giacomo Verticale: Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Cristina Rottondi: Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), University of Lugano (USI), CH-6928 Manno, Switzerland
Antonio Capone: Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Luca Lo Schiavo: Italian Regulatory Authority for Electricity Gas and Water (AEEGSI), 20121 Milano, Italy

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: The Smart Meter (SM) is an essential tool for successful balancing the demand-offer energy curve. It allows the linking of the consumption and production measurements with the time information and the customer’s identity, enabling the substitution of flat-price billing with smarter solutions, such as Time-of-Use or Real-Time Pricing. In addition to sending data to the energy operators for billing and monitoring purposes, Smart Meters must be able to send the same data to customer devices in near-real-time conditions, enabling new services such as instant energy awareness and home automation. In this article, we review the ongoing situation in Europe regarding real-time services for the final customers. Then, we review the architectural and technological options that have been considered for the roll-out phase of the Italian second generation of Smart Meters. Finally, we identify a collection of use cases, along with their functional and performance requirements, and discuss what architectures and communications technologies can meet these requirements.

Keywords: smart meter; smart metering; real-time services; load shifting; demand response; distribution system operator (DSO); in-home device (IHD); Internet of Things; Time-of-Use; Real-Time Pricing; energy awareness; home automation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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