Smart Meters, Smarter Grids: Forging AMI Partnerships

As smart cities and IoT technologies continue to advance, there is an increasing demand for more sophisticated metering solutions with multi-utility integration. Meanwhile, the push for energy conservation in multi-tenant buildings has also spurred innovations in submetering technologies. 

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) enables utility companies to gather real-time energy consumption and distribution data. Trilliant, a smart grid and smart city developer, has forged several partnerships for AMI and submetering solutions.

Smart grid concept. Image used courtesy of Adobe Stock

The Megahertz Meter

AMI is a fixed-network system that supports two-way communication between utilities and customers. It collects, stores, analyzes, and presents real-time data on electricity, gas, and water usage. Central to AMI systems are smart meters that track energy consumption, usually at hourly intervals or less. Depending on the system design, these meters can be wireless or wired. 

Trilliant partnered with Sense to introduce an edge intelligence solution for AMI that embeds Sense's grid edge technologies into Trilliant's AMI metering solutions. The integration aims to enhance edge analytics for utilities and consumers, enabling up to 1 MHz sampling and processing nearly one billion times more data than what is currently provided by first-generation smart meters, with 15-minute intervals.

Grid-edge networks. Image used courtesy of Sense

According to the companies, their solution’s increased sampling rate allows unprecedented granularity in energy consumption monitoring. It is achieved by an architecture that leverages edge computing to analyze this vast amount of data directly at the meter level, reducing the need for extensive data transmission and central processing. With a distributed intelligence approach, the system can detect and localize anomalies in real time. The system can also identify household devices’ unique electrical signatures and allow for disaggregation of energy consumption data, offering utilities and consumers detailed insights into energy usage patterns.  

The Unified Energy Interface

Submetering is an energy management solution for multi-tenant buildings. The system individually meters each unit, allowing occupants to pay for their own energy usage and benefit from personal conservation efforts. Trilliant's Smart Building platform has joined Milton Hydro Services to introduce an advanced submetering program leveraging wired and wireless solutions to optimize assets and maximize performance in residential and commercial multi-unit buildings.

Features of Trilliant’s UnitySuite software. Image courtesy of Trilliant

The system utilizes Trilliant's UnitySuite software for comprehensive data management and analytics. This scalable and secure platform supports many IoT applications and sensors, including leak detection, air quality monitoring, and lighting controls, unified under a single user interface. Additionally, the company claims that the system’s architecture allows for cohesive expansion to accommodate future IoT applications. 

So far, implementations of this submetering solution have demonstrated average reductions in electricity usage of up to 40 percent. 

Future-Proof Metering

Cellular network interface cards are integral to AMI systems, enabling wireless communication between smart meters and utility networks. A network interface card is a computer expansion card that enables a PC, laptop, or server to connect to a network through an Ethernet cable. Trilliant has collaborated with Econis Labs Manufacturing to develop a new generation of these cards, specifically tailored for water and gas sector AMI solutions.

The strategic partnership will create a cellular interface card with superior performance, reliability, and flexibility for water and gas utilities. The card's design will likely focus on improved energy efficiency, enhanced data throughput, and compatibility with evolving cellular standards to ensure future-proofing. 

Reshaping the Energy Landscape

With new partnerships, Trilliant is significantly pushing to reshape the AMI and submetering sectors. By expanding the boundaries of data granularity, edge computing, and cellular connectivity, these collaborations will hopefully lay the groundwork for more responsive and efficient utility networks. Such advancements may become necessary as sustainable urban development continues to demand more intelligent resource allocation in the future.