Electrical Industry Canada Power Quality Issue - 17

technology answers that and brings them (the utility) into the fold in terms of the innovation that's required to
include them in that connectivity puzzle, and why not? They're the supplier of these services and therefore
can do that much more. "
" There's certain harmonics in the system that leave a signature, so the system can pick those up. This type of
data granularity simply was not available in previous versions of metering in the Americas. "
The utility will also be able to have a more proactive relationship with consumers. Ultimately, the more
information consumers have on how they consume energy, the more potential there is for efficiency.
" With data and the ability to use analytics to look at that data and say, 'this air conditioner doesn't look right,
it's consuming way too much power on this one given house,' they (the utility) want to be able to send a
notification to the cell phone or the Google display or the other devices via the meter that can say 'we think
there's something that can be optimized here'. "
These are value-added services that help to bridge the connectivity, IoT gap for utilities and consumers. But
the core functionality is for the utility as the service provider, allowing for peer-to-peer data acquisition and
analytics, field serviceability, and advanced communications support.
" The service provider needs to be aware of what is happening at the edge. They're responsible to deliver
this commodity to your home and they need to do it safely first and foremost. "
By having data available at the home level, utilities can respond to outages and issues in real time, rather
than waiting for customers to alert them. For example, if there is a potential 'hot-socket' issue at the meter -
some form of arcing or temperature increase - this device will flag that and send a notification in-real time.
In comparison, a legacy system will connect to a single endpoint and back, without knowing what's around it.
" You're not getting the whole picture. You're getting a bunch of singular inputs in a one-to-one relationship. Peer-to-peer - Trilliant has always had
these type of mesh networks that are self-healing - they're talking amongst themselves, as well as talking to the utility's network operations centre.
Now, you've got a community of feedback. "
In the example of a storm/power outage, " with peer-to-peer there is an effort of those systems to talk amongst themselves to provide much more
useful information, as opposed to just flooding the system with all kinds of notifications. "
It allows for granularity in the field and provides actionable information to utilities.
" Our technology allows meters on one transformer to provide critical information to the utility and do it in a way that gives them visibility of exactly
what's happening in the field. "
This provides additional safety-related elements to allow utilities to maintain their infrastructure more effectively.
Looking ahead, Lupo explained, " The ability to support and engage in distributed energy models will be absolutely critical to the future. That
distributed type of model is coming for utilities and they need a system that can connect all that and manage it accordingly, and our system is perfect
for that. "
When it comes the realities of increased electrification providing strain on the grid, Lupo said a lot of that speculation is based on assumption.
Enabling data acquisition and analytics provides a clear picture of what the grid can support, where its deficiencies are, and ultimately allow utilities
to prepare for the future informed by concrete information.
ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY CANADA

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

Electrical Industry Canada Power Quality Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Electrical Industry Canada Power Quality Issue