IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 8, NO.
1, JANUARY 2017
Syncretic Use of Smart Meters for Power Quality
Monitoring in Emerging Networks
Mihaela M. Albu, Senior Member, IEEE, Mihai Sănduleac, Member, IEEE, and Carmen Stănescu, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Operation of distribution networks undergoes
dramatic changes in the era of smart grid deployment, due to the
higher penetration of distributed generation (usually from inter-
mittent resources), to an ever-increased share of power electronics
mediated energy transfer, but also thanks to advancements in
instrumentation including smart meters (SMs). In this context,
alternative power quality (PQ) monitoring and control, based on
a lightweight assessment of voltage parameters to be implemented
in new SM would allow optimal real-time network operation and
market-correlated services. To this, the authors propose a signal
analysis framework for simplified PQ informative assessment
method using the so-called instrumentation values available in
most of today’s SM. It is highlighted that the voltage character-
istics made available with high reporting rates can be efficiently
used in deriving information on quality of the electricity sup-
plied by public electricity networks. Further applications like
smart grid synchro-SCADA observability and voltage control are
also addressed in a novel design of SM, with negligible impact
on cost.
Index Terms—Smart meter, smart grid, instrumentation
values, power quality, voltage characteristics, P95%, synchro-
SCADA, IEC standards.
I. S MART M ETERS AND P OWER Q UALITY
ISTRIBUTION networks and especially their LV infras-
D tructure undergo dramatic changes, not only due to the
higher penetration of distributed generation, power electron-
ics mediated energy transfer, mobility of prosumer nodes or
a changed paradigm of energy markets, but also because the
emerging active distribution networks are in the first line of
interaction between the power engineering professional com-
munity and the 21st Century end-users. Although the role of
power engineer evolved over decades [1], the answer to politi-
cal and societal engagement is still delayed compared to other
sectors. For example, even though Smart Meters (SM) are rec-
ognized as a major enabler of new energy services [2], their
Manuscript received September 24, 2015; revised March 26, 2016 and
July 3, 2016; accepted July 26, 2016. Date of publication August 8, 2016;
date of current version December 21, 2016. This work was supported by the
European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under
Grant 646184. Paper no. TSG-01196-2015.
M. M. Albu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Politehnica University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania (e-mail:
albu@ieee.org).
M. Sănduleac is with ECRO, 020685 Bucharest, Romania (e-mail:
m.sanduleac.ro@ieee.org).
C. Stănescu is with Transelectrica S.A., Metering Branch OMEPA,
550245 Sibiu, Romania (e-mail: carmen.stanescu@transelectrica.ro).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2016.2598547
1949-3053 c 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
485
role has been limited to the interface between technology and
markets, whereas little effort has been done to promote the
instrumentation dimension of the metering infrastructure.
Power Quality (PQ) is on the contrary a field associ-
ated with technology advancements, not yet correlated to the
energy market and services. PQ monitoring requires dedicated
instruments, assessment algorithms and standards [3]–[5].
For example, European Norm [4] specifies particular defini-
tions and limits of the characteristics of the supply voltage
concerning frequency, magnitude, waveform distortion and
symmetry of the line voltages. However the assessment is
based, for most of specified limits, on statistics derived
from 10 minutes aggregated data [3] on 1 week observa-
tion. The shared responsibility of customers and utilities in
liberalized markets has been analyzed in [6], together with
an inventory of methods of assessing the quality of sup-
ply voltage. However, the proposed indices require dedicated
instrumentation. Recently power system instrumentation has
been enhanced with synchronization modules and phasor mea-
surement capabilities [7], [8] and best placement methods in
a distribution grid are investigated [9], [10].
Smart Meters are on the way to become ubiquitous
technology in active distribution networks, at least in
Europe [11], [12]. Although their functionalities [13] are still
artificially kept limited, efforts have been made [14], [15]
to integrate PQ information into an existing SCADA-
framework [16], with real-life examples [17], [18] of includ-
ing data flux from PQ monitoring systems, advanced metering
systems and other sensors available in the distribution network.
Concern is raised in [19] on the way Distribution System
Operators (DSO) can exploit the capabilities (including remote
switching) of smart metering systems in the absence of a pre-
vious analysis of the potential impact on PQ indices. Such
testing scenarios might require new, standardized procedures
of assessing the PQ impact of DSO remote actions. Other
approaches consider designing new instruments [20], [21],
however not to be assimilated to SM.
The main impediment in including calculation of PQ
parameters among the functionalities of a SM appears to
be their additional cost, mainly due to the fact that PQ
is a well-regulated field, with detailed standards and norms
in use [3]–[5], [22]. There have been only a few attempts
to design low-cost PQ devices but these fail to comply
with the minimal requirements imposed, for example, by
the metering codes [23]. A major barrier for enhancing
SM with PQ capabilities is represented by the computa-
tional demands for harmonic analysis recommended in [22].
486
Some authors developed digital filtering techniques outside
the frequency framework [21] and added a wide range of fea-
tures to digital single-phase PQ measurement device, including
series arc-fault detection by using wavelet multi-resolution
analysis whereas the total harmonic distortion is estimated
using a computationally efficient and accurate Goertzel fil-
ter. Other attempts [24], [25] are relying on the developments
in DSP components, like ARM Cortex with Digital Signal
Processing (DSP), allowing complex computations for energy
measurement with low uncertainties. In this context, the
authors are looking for an alternative, light solution to [3]
perform PQ analysis in the framework proposed by IEC, tai-
lored to the latest SM design, enabling highly informative PQ
monitoring to be performed by every SM.
This paper deals with the normative framework of
smart metering and IEC standardization for PQ monitoring.
Section II reviews the SM instrumentation layer and its poten-
tial use for further data processing. Section III proposes an
architecture able to integrate new functionalities into existing
SM, with details on a new framework for PQ light assessment,
to be included in newly designed, modular SM, with further
benefits for Smart Grid deployment. Last section concludes
the paper with details on the practical implementation of the
proposed structure.
II. S MART M ETERS , A R ELIABLE S OURCE
OF R EAL -T IME DATA
In order to assess the PQ aspects, it is important not only
to select the appropriate method but also to make sure that
the input data is of good quality. Meters (we are using this
term for electricity meters only) have been designed to accu-
rately measure the active and reactive energy transferred from/
to the end-user, be this classical energy end-user, prosumer
or generation plant. As long as the information is associ-
ated with financial transactions (the energy bill), particular
attention is given to ensure the measurement accuracy of the
entire measurement chain, by complying with standards like
MID, IEC 62053-21, IEC 62053-22 (for active energy) and
IEC 62053-23, IEC 62053-24 (for reactive energy). With the
increased complexity (and number of functionalities) of the
SM, some quality of service features (SAIDI, SAIFI), and
characteristics of the voltage waveform have been included:
for example, following the time-aggregation proposed in [3],
the 10 minutes mediated rms-values of the voltage are to be
reported [23] for further statistics over larger timeframes (one
week). In this section we underline that most of existing digi-
tal meters can make available valuable data for voltage quality
assessment.
Additionally, most of the today’s meters can provide wave-
form measurements, with reporting rates of up to 1 frame/s,
representing the so-called “real-time values” of voltage and
current (rms values), frequency, active and reactive power etc.
However, such values do not comply with definitions in [3];
moreover, a complete harmonic analysis, although desirable,
is still difficult to perform with low–cost instruments.
In this paper we propose a simplified informative assessment
based on the real-time quantities already available in a digital
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017
meter, showing how these can be further used in the qual-
ity assessment of the electricity supplied by public electricity
networks and for voltage control purposes.
In order to develop the algorithm, the availability, integrity
and conformity of data within the meter has to be verified:
once the meter is metrologically tested and results show full
compliance with its declared functionality (energy measure-
ment), meters manufacturers do not provide any information
about the accuracy of the “internal” (intermediate) measure-
ments. However, the architecture of metering chips (sometime
called analog front ends or AFE), indicates that the basic volt-
age and current measurements (rms values) are inputs of the
processing engine for the energy samples. According to the
Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement [26],
one can infer that the accuracy of the internally available
measurements has to be higher than the overall measure-
ment quality of the energy meter. This statement has been
challenged by using a test bench and a class 0.2S meter in
a metrological certified environment; the instrumentation val-
ues read from meters have been compared with the values
recorded by the high accuracy three-phase Portable Reference
Standard class 0.02, type PRS 400.3.
In addition to the selected meter under test (DUT)
ZMQ202/E850 [27], of class 0.2S for active energy and of
class 1 for reactive energy, a Smart Meter eXtension (SMX)
module developed within the on-going European project Nobel
Grid [24], as part of the Unbundled Smart Meter architec-
ture (USM) [28] has been used. The SMX equipment is
a Linux machine, which reads using DLMS protocol all rel-
evant instrumentation values every second and stores them in
a text file, to be later processed. The text file records the rms
values of voltage and current on each phase, the total (three
phase) active and reactive power, the phase angles between
phase voltages and between each phase voltage and corre-
sponding current, and the network frequency (from the voltage
signal).
A complex testing program has been run, with fixed time
window of one minute, data reporting rate 1 frame/s and
ensured steady state for the energy transfer. Tables I to IV
show the deviations of “internal” instrumentation values
recorded by SMX from the values reported by the refer-
ence equipment, for various scenarios: rated supply voltage
and variable load current, various load phase angles, vari-
ous voltage levels and supply frequencies, various sampling
rates etc.
For the DUT (meter of class 0.2S), all “internal” instru-
mentation values URMS , IRMS , P, and Q deviate from the
reference value with a maximal relative error less than 0.2%
in all cases, whereas frequency had a maximal absolute error
of 0.01 Hz. The accuracy of instrumentation values within
the meter exceeds the measurement quality of Bay Control
Units (BCUs) or Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), which typi-
cally show accuracies down to 0.5% from nominal values [28].
Moreover, meters for revenue and billing are connected to the
high accuracy measurement circuit of the instrument trans-
formers, whereas BCUs or RTUs are usually connected in
the secondary circuits used for protection. One can conclude
that the energy meter-measurement chain provides a better
ALBU et al.: SYNCRETIC USE OF SMs FOR PQ MONITORING IN EMERGING NETWORKS 487

TABLE I
E RRORS OF I NSTRUMENTATION VALUES OF A ZMQ202 M ETER FOR U=UN = 57.7 V, I=IN =1 A, PF=1

TABLE II
E RRORS OF I NSTRUMENTATION VALUES OF A ZMQ202 M ETER FOR U=UN =57.7 V, I=10%IN = 0.1 A, PF=1

TABLE III
E RRORS OF I NSTRUMENTATION VALUES OF A ZMQ202 M ETER FOR U=UN = 57.7 V, I=IN = 1 A, PF=0.5 IND

TABLE IV
E RRORS OF I NSTRUMENTATION VALUES OF A ZMQ202
M ETER FOR F= 49 H Z , 50 H Z AND 51 H Z

Fig. 1. Unbundled Smart Meter architecture.

Smart Metrology Meter (SMM); b) one Smart Meter eXten-

accuracy than the monitoring and control layer based on
BCUs/RTUs.
To be noted that several meter manufacturers allow real-time
readout of their internal instrumentation values (fast report-
ing rates in the order of frames/s). These instrumentation
values can further become a valuable information source for
SCADA layers within the new Smart Grid paradigm. We will
develop this potential in the next sections.
III. U NBUNDLED S MART M ETERS AS A S OLUTION FOR
S MART G RID I NCLUDING PQ F UNCTIONALITY
Unbundled Smart Meter is a systematic framework where
SM functionalities are adequately grouped in two sepa-
rate (unbundled) components: a) one for metrological / billing
purposes, handling “hard real-time” function, and called the
sion (SMX) providing the flexibility needed for new function-
alities to be deployed during the meter lifetime, and to support
the future evolution of the Smart Grid and energy services. To
be noted that SMM has fixed (frozen) functionality including
high security of recorded data (black box-like standard).
The concept has been first introduced in [30] and has
been meanwhile further refined. The architecture is presented
in Fig. 1.
In order to provide flexibility, the SMX part of the meter
design can be a full quad-core Linux machine able to support
parallel communication with different agents, to implement
high data security, including digital signatures, to accommo-
date local agents, for example controlling the intelligent local
appliances and sub-metering devices, to control energy transfer
from generating units and other energy services.
488
Fig. 2. Processing one 10T0 window every second.
With this architecture, an existing meter which is able to
provide with a high reporting rate the “internal” instrumenta-
tion values is acting as an SMM and can communicate with
an external SMX, thus resulting an USM based on two inde-
pendent modules; alternatively, a new SM can be designed
from scratch, hosting in the same unit both SMM and SMX
functionalities. Both solutions are addressed in [24].
In the next two sections we will present in detail two aspects
related to power quality, i.e., a new method to allow volt-
age characteristics assessment at each end-user connection
point and network’ observability based on the 1s- Synchro-
SCADA approach, able to support real-time voltage control.
A. Smart Meters for Power Quality Assessment
The availability of accurate internal measurements for active
power P(tk ), reactive power Q(tk ), voltage (rms values) U(tk ),
current (rms values) I(tk ), frequency f(tk ) with reporting rates
of up to 1 frame/s creates new possibilities for using the meter
as a multi-purpose device in the Smart Grid, i.e., an analysis
of the energy transfer to be performed by Smart meters using
the “internal” voltage measurements.
An alternative harmonics analysis methodology is proposed,
which dramatically reduces the computational power, making
it suitable as a functionality of smart meters. The algorithm
is based on a full-chain linearization method. The idea is to
simplify the derivation of most of the voltage characteristics
of electricity supplied by public electricity networks [4] which
are based on 1 week statistics of 10 minutes aggregated data. It
is intended to have an estimation of P95% level of harmonics,
more computational effective, aiming to capture the nonlinear
processes in both existing and emerging power networks in
a straightforward way. The proposed methodology, as part of
a light PQ analysis is based on the following principles.
First principle: The basic element for further statistical pro-
cessing should be the one second timeframe (1s-TF), which
is a sub-interval compatible to both 3 s and 10 s, already
used in PQ analyzers following the IEC recommendations [3].
The basic timeframe of one second is also considered to be
the time interval associated to a steady-state system operation
(“quasi-stationary” situation) [3], thus mitigating the effects
of lower inertia and higher volatility of frequency in emerging
power grids [31]. In addition, 1s-TF is also well supported by
energy meters which report the system frequency at least once
in a second.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017
Second principle: the time window is actually equal to the
duration of 10 adjacent fundamental periods of the signal and
will be further called 10T0 window; during each second, only
one or two analysis windows of duration 10T0 will be used,
out of the 5 (50 Hz) or 6 (60 Hz) such windows available
within 1-TF; this approach gives enough computing time for
performing other meter tasks and also gives acceptable good
conditions for P95% harmonic content estimation: for exam-
ple, such an analysis would be performed on 1800 data frames
to perform P95%30min or 3600 data frames for P95%1h statis-
tics, which is comparable with the 1008 10 minute values used
for P95%1WEEK (the current practice).
Fig. 2 presents the concept of 10T0 window as illustrated
for a 50 Hz system: selecting once per second a signal sec-
tion consisting of 10 adjacent fundamental periods shows that
after each 200 ms there is enough time left for other com-
putations. This time interval left for “computational tasks”
is shorter or longer due to frequency variation, whereas
frequency measurement is synchronized (at least) once per
second.
With this setup, according to Fig. 3, in 30 minutes the SM
can process 1800 such 10T0 windows dispersed along the
time axis and a probability distribution (PD) can be easily
constructed allowing P95%30min calculation for all considered
harmonics (in the figure is given U3 as an example).
From numerical simulations, the P95% of 1800 10T0 win-
dows gives P95%30min very near to the reference value
P95%30min_REF calculated from all 9000 windows, with an
error below 0.2% from U1. The experiment has been done
using a Monte Carlo simulation on a large amount of data sets
of 9000 time intervals (200 ms) each with a normally dis-
tributed third harmonic component between 0 and 10% from
fundamental.
Simplifying even further the 10T0 selection of data within
each second, resulting in 1800 data frames for P95%30min com-
putation (meaning not all but just one of each consecutive
five windows, see frame B in Fig. 2) the difference from the
standard [4] method keeps below 0.2%. This approach allows
implementing a costless synchronization between voltage char-
acteristics in different SMs, subject addressed in part B of this
section. Tests described in Fig. 4 have been followed consid-
ering a random “positioning” of the time window 10T0 in
each 1 s-TF and the errors of the method, compared with the
reference, after processing all 9000 intervals still remained
under 0.2%. The random positioning of the window within
ALBU et al.: SYNCRETIC USE OF SMs FOR PQ MONITORING IN EMERGING NETWORKS
Fig. 3. Principle of method error calculation for voltage waveform distortion.
Fig. 4. Stochastic positioning of the time window 10T0 in each 1second.
TABLE V
L IGHT PQ A SSESSMENT FOR VOLTAGE C HARACTERISTICS
the 1 second interval (example given in Fig. 4) is keeping the
process decoupled from any possible cyclic behaviors with
a fundamental period of approximately 1 s.
The proposed method inherently offers data compression
features: initial data (9000 time windows of 200 ms, each
with 5120 samples in our simulations) will be aggregated and
make available the P95% values for fundamental and all har-
monics, on each commercial intervals used in energy market
(P95%30min , P95%1h ), i.e., 150 values per commercial interval
(P95% values for 50 harmonic distortion indices per phase).
Taking in consideration the European normative conditions
for electricity supply networks [4], we can conclude that the
light assessment of voltage characteristics can be applied to
frequency measurement, voltage variations, harmonics in the
voltage waveform, and interruptions (see Table V).
B. Smart Meters as RTU and SCADA/DMS Support
Using the reliable measurement frame of the meter, and
the 1s-TF method, there are new possibilities to enhance the
489
Fig. 5. Delays in a public network measured over 24 hours.
remote access of meter data, which becomes a multi-purpose
device in the Smart Grid.
The high reporting rate (1 frame/s) of meter data (including
the light PQ-information) delivered at the DSO level enables
implementation of SCADA/DMS (Supervisory Control And
Data Acquisition/Distribution Management System) function-
ality in emerging active distribution networks.
There are many issues to be addressed in the attempt
to achieve both MV/LV (Medium Voltage/Low Voltage) full
observability and PQ assessment, however in this paper we
are focusing on communication.
We are promoting synchronous readout of instrumenta-
tion values in meters and the use of time-stamped data in
a SCADA/DMS system which we name Synchro-SCADA,
a method which needs to be implemented when dealing with
un-guaranteed communication bands in congested/overloaded
IP networks such as Internet or VPN over Internet. The dif-
ference between the meter-generated database and a classical
Phasor Data Concentrator used in Phase Measurement Units
490
Fig. 6. Synchro-SCADA functionality.
communication resides in lower requirements for synchroniza-
tion accuracy compatible with the proposed time granularity
of 1 second.
In ubiquitous public IP-communication networks there are
unpredictable delays during the data collection. A spread of
100 ms up to 10 s- for data communication delays may
be observed between different metering points, such that the
real-time data can arrive at the Smart Grid dispatch center
uncorrelated. Measured delays in a real public Internet con-
nection over 24 hours, with samples sent each 5 seconds using
the ping command to a network server are presented in Fig. 5.
Within seconds, in active MV/LV networks, measurements
of voltage, active and reactive powers, and current may
exhibit large variations (5–20%) and PV generation on small
scale may also result in high variability, especially due to
the clouding effect. In order to derive accurate prosumer’
load/generation curves, in the context of un-assessed commu-
nication delays, Synchro-SCADA can be framed based on the
following guidelines:
(i) Unbundled Smart Meters are synchronized to the UTC,
with a recommended deviation of less than 1 second (usually
of 50-100 ms); this is easily supported by the SMX part of
USM, as this is a Linux machine with high accuracy NTS
functionality;
(ii) Communication delay is acknowledged by a “waiting
algorithm,” i.e., a complete synchronous set of data can be
then transferred to the SCADA/DMS system.
The process is sketched in Fig. 6, where delays introduced
by each message transmission are compensated by a waiting
time of up to one second from the distributed sync-readout at
the level of each meter (in Fig. 6 data is sent to SCADA/DMS
with 800 ms delay, every second, when practically all meter
data arrived in the central platform). It can be noticed that the
complete set of data - meaning, e.g., u, i, p, q with second “0”
time-stamp - are then sent to the SCADA for observability task
completion and to the DMS for power flow, state estimation
or other applications requiring data reporting rates compatible
with waiting intervals of 1 s.
In the proposed meter design, local synchronization in
SMX part of the meter requires less than 20 ms and remains
below 100 ms even after 8 hours without Internet access.
This provides confidence that the assumed 100 ms of max-
imum time deviation can be sustained on a large number of
distributed USMs. Fig. 6 shows that the arrival time at the
front-end level of SCADA varies from meter to meter (show-
ing in this example delays in transmission up to 500 ms) but
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017
data always become available before the moment of receiving
sync data. Dispersion of local sync-read moments and dis-
persion of communication delays are below 800 ms, which
ensures selection of 1 second as the overall sampling time
in the synchronized SCADA layer. Analog data with time
stamps are also supported by the IEC 61850 family of stan-
dards, recommended to be used for the MV/LV network
control.
The mechanism of collecting synchronous data serv-
ing Synchro-SCADA implementation allows more accurate
data handling, and better prospects to meet Smart Grid expec-
tations, such as more accurate power flow and state estimator
computation [32], energy services and grid acceptance tests
in active distribution networks [33] as well as more accurate
algorithms for secondary voltage control, as active measure to
increase the quality of the delivered power.
C. Data Communication
One important aspect of PQ assessment is the trade-off
between the huge volume of data to be analyzed and the
information to be delivered (synthesized in PQ indices). For
the real-time synchro-SCADA functionality, as part of many
Smart Grid functionalities, including secondary voltage con-
trol, a simple calculus shows that meter provides 3 values
for voltage, current, active and reactive powers, phase angles
between voltages, and between voltages and currents, one
value for the frequency. and also the time stamp. This means
they are 3 x 6 + 1 +1 = 20 measurement values to be reported
each second, which we may round up to 24 (for example,
when the rate of change of frequency [34] is also needed).
With 8 byte/value, even when reporting supplementary infor-
mation like steady-state signal indicator [3], requirements can
be fulfilled with rates below 256 byte/s.
Communication protocols for meters readout, either
IEC 61850 for SCADA or IEC 56056 family (currently known
as DLMS/COSEM) are another enabler of real-time control:
one can count on an increase of data streaming by a factor of
2 to 4, which means 1 kB/s. Even when other data exchange
is considered, such as control signals, time synchronization
and features like encryption modules, digital signatures etc.,
data streaming volume is maximally doubled, i.e., with rates
kept below 2 kB/s. With present communication technolo-
gies, this rate is within acceptable cost-effective boundaries.
Table VI below shows the daily and monthly traffic for
different rates of data transmission for remote readout.
ALBU et al.: SYNCRETIC USE OF SMs FOR PQ MONITORING IN EMERGING NETWORKS
TABLE VI
C OMMUNICATION T RAFFIC FOR S MART M ETERS R EADOUT
Fig. 7. Voltage level measured with USM each 1 second, over 24 hours.
In an IP based network with LTE technology the 2 kB/s
data can be considered as a very low traffic. The table shows
that for an economic approach, getting data at intervals of
1 minute, leads to monthly traffic below 50 MB or 100 MB,
which allows cheap, entry-level communication fees, if the
communication path is dedicated to this task only.
Moreover, by having continuously recorded the voltage
(rms values) in an energy customer USM, specific PQ ser-
vices can be offered. For example, using a reporting rate
of 0,1. . . 1 frame/s, voltage is recorded locally by USM
(Fig. 7 shows a complete 24 hours voltage evolution) and
resulting rms values are sent to the Dispatch center every 5 sec-
onds to 1 minute, either as measurements or average values
following a standard aggregation algorithm. This way one can
relax the spatial aggregation due to limited communication
bandwidth by allowing PQ assessment to be performed from
synthetic results like P95%30min or P95%1h .
Correlating energy supply with PQ indices mediated on
longer time, e.g., one week, has been also addressed in [35].
The method presented in this paper we cope with the condi-
tions of liberalized markets dealing with commercial intervals
of 1 hour or 30 minutes, periods also addressed above. In
addition, information on the P95%15min can be obtained with
acceptable accuracy: one can use 900 voltage levels to cal-
culate it, a number comparable with the 1008 values used
by EN50160 to calculate P95% over a week. This possibil-
ity to allocate P95% values of voltage levels for each 1 hour,
30 minutes or even 15 minutes gives a high compatibility of
formats with the energy load profiles used by AMR/AMI sys-
tems, which are collecting energy data over 60 min, 30 min or
15 min, for billing purposes. Reporting tools and their inter-
faces can then easily manage energies on commercial intervals,
based on interval metering (60 min, 30 min or 15 min) and
associated, on each of these commercial intervals, with the
P95% voltage quality indicator. The importance of the volt-
age level can be noticed also from the Italian regulation [36],
where the supply interruptions and the voltage statistics are
the only PQ indices required for SM. Such simultaneous
491
measurement of energy and supply voltage characteristics
made available on each commercial interval enables new busi-
ness models. They will trade information based on a binomial
representation of the supply service: energy delivered and
voltage quality.
This information can be added to the standard billing values
and load profiles of energies at 15 min, 30 min or 60 min.
Average values of U and I on the same intervals, functionality
already supported by some meters commercially available can
be added as well. Communication with the data concentrator
and/or Meter Data Management Unit is ensured with today’s
ICT standards whereas local data storage is also affordable.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper proposes an alternative PQ-framed aggrega-
tion algorithm to be implemented in modern Smart Meters.
It is able to achieve good compression rates whereas pre-
serving the ability to reflect the relevant phenomena in the
network, also offering observability features in MV and
LV DMS/SCADA. In this way smart metering becomes an
enabler of real-time voltage control required by modern active
distribution grids.
The paper highlights that available instrumentation values in
the meter are comparable with the metered energy in terms of
accuracy. Thus, these values can be used in assessing volt-
age quality in a ubiquitous way: the light PQ assessment
method can be implemented in SM, when the meter has
a modular (flexible) design. With the possibility to get P95%
values related to commercial intervals used in energy mar-
ket (P95%30min , P95%1h ), the new approach paves the way
to relate the delivered energy to its “quality” in that time
interval, still keeping the option for computing a mean value
for a week, P95%1WEEK . Moreover, the measurement relative
standard uncertainty of P95%1h is below 0.2% of fundamen-
tal, when compared with reference values obtained for typical
harmonic states with controlled normal probability distribu-
tion in numerically simulated conditions. The flexibility of this
approach allows addressing evolving markets, may help iden-
tifying harmonic patterns, voltage variations correlated with
prosumer profiles in weak networks etc. thus supporting new
regulation initiatives.
In addition, the synchro-SCADA functionality of the
Unbundled Smart Meter allows synchronous data acquisition
by taking advantage of new chip sets for the meters, using syn-
chronous re-grouping of measured data at SCADA-DMS level.
This helps deploying active network control, e.g., preserving
voltage quality at the end–user level.
Other related PQ aspects to be quantified from SM data are
under study.
R EFERENCES
[1] W. F. Durand, “Why the engineer?” Trans. Amer. Inst. Elect. Eng.,
vol. 55, no. 12, pp. 1301–1303, Dec. 1936.
[2] R. Hierzinger et al., European Smart Metering Landscape Report
2012—Update May 2013. [Online]. Available: http://ec.europa.eu/
energy/intelligent/projects/en/projects/smartregions
[3] IEC Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)—Part 4-30: Testing and
Measurement Techniques—Power Quality Measurement Methods,
IEC Standard 61000-4-30, 2015.
492
[4] EN Voltage Characteristics of Electricity Supplied by Public Electricity
Networks, EN Standard 50160, 2010.
[5] IEEE Standard Definitions for the Measurement of Electric Power
Quantities Under Sinusoidal, Nonsinusoidal, Balanced, or Unbalanced
Conditions, IEEE Standard 1459, 2010.
[6] P. Caramia, G. Carpinelli, and P. Verde, Power Quality Indices in
Liberalized Markets. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley, 2009.
[7] PSL. PQube3 Technical Brochure. [Online]. Available:
http://www.powersensorsltd.com/PQube3.php#brochure
[8] C. Muscas, “Power quality monitoring in modern electric distribu-
tion systems,” IEEE Instrum. Meas. Mag., vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 19–27,
Oct. 2010.
[9] S. Ali, K. Wu, K. Weston, and D. Marinakis, “A machine learn-
ing approach to meter placement for power quality estimation in
smart grid,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 1552–1561,
May 2016.
[10] CIGRE/CIRED/JWG C4.112, Guidelines for Power Quality
Monitoring—Measurement Locations, Processing and Presentation
of Data, 2014.
[11] European Commission, Benchmarking Smart Metering Deployment in
the EU-27 With a Focus on Electricity, COM/2014/0356 final, 2014.
[12] European Commission. (Jun. 2009). Final Report 2014
Standardisation Mandate M/441 on the Development of an Open
Communication Architecture for Utility Meters. [Online]. Available:
http://www.cired.net/working-groups/joint-working-groups
[13] European Commission. (Oct. 2011). A Joint Contribution of DG ENER
and DG INFSO Towards the Digital Agenda, Action 73: Set of Common
Functional Requirements of the Smart Meter. [Online]. Available:
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/2011_10_smart_
meter_funtionalities_report_full.pdf
[14] S. Lu et al., “Real-time low voltage network monitoring—ICT architec-
ture and field test experience,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 6, no. 4,
pp. 2002–2012, Jul. 2015.
[15] W. A. de Souza, F. P. Marafao, E. V. Liberado, I. S. Diniz, and
P. J. A. Serni, “Power quality, smart meters and additional informa-
tion from different power terms,” IEEE Latin America Trans., vol. 13,
no. 1, pp. 158–165, Jan. 2015.
[16] C. Chimirel and M. Sanduleac, “Extension of EMS and DMS-
SCADA facilities by extended meter reading (on line meter reading),”
in Proc. IEEE PES Conf. MedPower, Athens, Greece, 2014.
[17] D. C. Jayasuriya et al., “Modeling and validation of an unbal-
anced LV network using Smart Meter and SCADA inputs,” in Proc.
IEEE TENCON Spring Conf., Sydney, NSW, Australia, Apr. 2013,
pp. 386–390.
[18] M. Music, A. Bosovic, N. Hasanspahic, S. Avdakovic, and E. Becirovic,
“Integrated power quality monitoring systems in smart distribution
grids” in Proc. IEEE Int. Energy Conf. Exhibit. (ENERGYCON),
Florence, Italy, 2012, pp. 501–506.
[19] Y. Arafat, L. B. Tjernberg, and P.-A. Gustafsson, “Remote switching of
multiple smart meters and steps to check the effect on the grid’s power
quality, in Proc. IEEE PES T&D Conf. Expo., Chicago, IL, USA, 2014,
pp. 1–5.
[20] A. von Meier, D. Culler, A. McEachern, and R. Arghandeh, “Micro-
synchrophasors for distribution systems,” in Proc. IEEE Innov. Smart
Grid Technol. Conf. (ISGT), Washington, DC, USA, 2014, pp. 1–5.
[21] K. Koziy, B. Gou, and J. Aslakson, “A low-cost power-quality meter
with series arc-fault detection capability for smart grid,” IEEE Trans.
Power Del., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1584–1591, Jul. 2013.
[22] IEC Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)—Part 4-7: Testing
and Measurement Techniques—General Guide on Harmonics and
Interharmonics Measurements and Instrumentation, for Power Supply
Systems and Equipment Connected Thereto, IEC Standard 61000-4-7.
[23] L’AUTORITÀ PER L’ENERGIA ELETTRICA E IL GAS,
“Direttive per l’installazione di misuratori elettronici di energia
elettrica predisposti per la telegestione per i punti di prelievo
in bassa tensione,” Italian Regulatory Order 18, no. 292/06
Obligations for the installation of electronic meters for low volt-
age withdrawal points (in Italian), Dec. 2006. [Online]. Available:
http://www.autorita.energia.it/it/docs/06/292-06.htm
[24] New Cost-Efficient Business Models for Flexible Smart Grids.
(Aug. 2016). NOBEL GRID Project, 2015–2018. [Online]. Available:
http://nobelgrid.eu/
[25] M. Sanduleac, M. Albu, J. Martins, M. D. Alacreu, and C. Stanescu,
“Power quality assessment in LV networks using new smart meters
design,” in Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Compat. Power Electron. (CPE),
Costa da Caparica, Portugal, Jun. 2015, pp. 106–112.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017
[26] BIPM JCGM 100:2008. (2008). Evaluation of Measurement
Data-Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement
(GUM), GUM 1995 With Minor Corrections. [Online]. Available:
http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/
[27] (Aug. 2016). ZMQ202/E850 F6 Brochure. [Online]. Available:
http://www.landisgyr.eu/webfoo/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/D000038
499_E850_f6_c_en_SS.pdf
[28] New Smart Meter Design in Nobel Grid, IEEE Smart Grid
Newsletter. (Apr. 2015). Available: http://smartgrid.ieee.org/newsletter/
april-2015/new-smart-meter-design-in-nobel-grid
[29] P.-C. Chen, Y. Dong, V. Malbasa, and M. Kezunovic, “Uncertainty of
measurement error in intelligent electronic devices,” in Proc. IEEE PES
Gen. Meeting, National Harbor, MD, USA, 2014, pp. 1–5.
[30] M. Sanduleac, M. Eremia, L. Toma, and P. Borza, “Integrating the elec-
trical vehicles in the smart grid through unbundled smart metering and
multi-objective virtual power plants,” in Proc. IEEE PES ISGT Europe,
Manchester, U.K., Dec. 2011, pp. 1–8.
[31] M. Albu, “Dual data aggregation for power quality assessment,” in Proc.
IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf. (I2MTC), May 2014, pp. 620–624.
[32] M. Albu, A.-M. Dumitrescu, and R. Popovici, “Rate of change of
frequency—A power quality descriptor,” in Proc. IEEE 16th Int. Conf.
Harmon. Qual. Power (ICHQP), Bucharest, Romania, May 2014,
pp. 312–316.
[33] M. Sanduleac, L. Pons, G. Fiorentino, R. Pop, and M. Albu, “The unbun-
dled smart meter concept in a synchro-SCADA framework,” in Proc.
IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf. (I2MTC), May 2016, pp. 1–5.
[34] M. Sanduleac, J. F. Martins, and V. F. Pires, “Automating remote
grid acceptance and energy services tests suited for large deployments
of PV systems in active distribution networks,” in Proc. 41st Annu.
Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron. Soc. (IECON), Yokohama, Japan, Nov. 2015,
pp. 004814–004818.
[35] G. Carpinelli, P. Caramia, P. Varilone, and P. Verde, “On the eco-
nomic regulation of voltage quality,” in Proc. 43rd Int. Univ. Power
Eng. Conf. (UPEC), Padova, Italy, Sep. 2008, pp. 1–5.
[36] Functionalities to be Provided by the Second Generation of Smart
Metering (Funzionalità Che Devono Essere Assicurate Dai Sistemi
di Smart Metering di Seconda Generazione). Mar. 2016. [Online].
Available: http://www.autorita.energia.it/allegati/docs/16/087-16alla.pdf
Mihaela M. Albu (M’98–SM’06) received the grad-
uation degree in 1987 and the Ph.D. degree from the
Politehnica University of Bucharest (UPB), Power
Engineering School. She is currently a Professor
with the Department of Measurements, Electrical
Engineering Faculty, UPB. She has authored about
100 technical papers published in international
journals and conference proceedings. Her cur-
rent research interests include WAMS, synchro-
nized measurements, smart metering technologies,
dc microgrids, power quality, and control strategies
in active distribution networks. She has been serving in various positions for
the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, since 2008.
Mihai Sănduleac (M’11) received the B.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Politehnica University of Bucharest in 1985 and
1998, respectively. He was with Energy Research
Institute ICEMENERG Bucharest, including the
Head of the Research in Power Systems Laboratory.
He is currently the Research and Development
Director of ECRO, a Romanian company per-
forming Research and Development and consul-
tancy for power industry. He was a recipient of
the 2011 IEEE-PES Chapter Outstanding Engineer
Award from the IEEE PES Romania Chapter.
Carmen Stănescu (M’16) received the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania. She
is currently the Head of the Sibiu OMEPA Metering
Branch, Romanian TSO Transelectrica, and an
Associate Professor with University Lucian Blaga,
Sibiu, Romania. Her main research interests include
energy metering and power quality. She is a mem-
ber of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement
Society, CIGRE, WG CIGRE&CIRED&IEEE, and
ASRO, the Romanian Standards Association.