Smart Metering: China Has Basically Completed The Replacement Of Smart Meters. The Coverage Of The National Grid Service Area Has Reached 99.57%

From drip timing, rope metering to pulse metering, from unified weights and measures to the signing of the metric convention, human society has no moment to leave measurement. Because metrology is so important, May 20 is internationally established as World Metrology Day.

On the 19th World Metering Day just passed, the editorial department of Electric Weekly talked to smart meter industry experts and business representatives. In this festival of measuring people, let us explore the new development and new opportunities of the industry together.

Once upon a time, with a rucksack slung across the body and a yellowed old ledger packed with Arabic symbols, the meter readers who went from street to street began to fade from one corner of the city.

This is a change in the way of electricity information collection, but also a change in the development of science and technology and power grid. "So far, the State Grid Corporation has installed more than 457 million smart meters, covering 99.57 percent of users in the service area," Chen Mei, deputy general manager of the China Electric Power Research Institute, told China Power News.

The picture shows the intelligent instrument intelligent manufacturing system of Xuji Group. Photo by Zhu Xuanjie

From electricity information collector to intelligent terminal

From mechanical meters to electronic energy meters, and then to smart meters, it is not only the inevitable requirement of smart grid construction, but also the vivid embodiment of insisting on serving the people as the center.

Chen Mei introduced that for the majority of users, smart meters replace mechanical meters and electronic energy meters, which can allow users to complete the electricity payment without leaving the house, view the electricity consumption situation in real time, and understand the remaining power situation, which greatly facilitates the production and life of the masses.

"In addition, smart meters can realize communication control with smart home appliances. According to the real-time electricity price setting parameters to achieve the start and stop control of home appliances, reduce the peak load of electricity consumption, increase the off-peak load of electricity consumption, without increasing the user's investment, by changing the use time of high-power electrical equipment, to achieve the purpose of saving electricity." Shao Fangjing, a performance test specialist at the measurement Center of the Electric Power Science Research Institute of State Grid Shaanxi Electric Power Company, said in an interview with China Power News.

For power grid companies, the role of smart meters is gradually upgrading from a single electricity consumption information collector to an intelligent terminal device with multiple functions.

Shao Fangjing said: "Smart meters can detect the opening of the meter box, wiring changes, meter software updates and other events, and can find the phenomenon of stealing electricity in time." In areas with high incidence of electricity theft, potential electricity theft can also be detected in time by comparing the master meter data with all the meter data under it." Chen Mei pointed out that smart meters can not only provide data support for line loss calculation, but also provide diagnostic analysis means for fault alarm. Smart meters also have great potential in guiding the orderly charging and discharging of electric vehicles. With the rapid growth of electric vehicle ownership in China, centralized charging of electric vehicles has become a hidden danger of the power grid. If we can use the communication function of smart meters to carry out real-time information interaction with charging piles, perceive the differentiated charging needs of different users, guide users to charge in an orderly manner, and even guide users to discharge in an orderly manner when the grid load peaks, it is of great significance to the grid.

The incremental market for smart meters is shrinking

According to the data, the bidding volume of the State Grid Corporation for smart meters from 2013 to 2017 was 76.37 million units, 105.1 million units, 99.16 million units, 76.55 million units and 45.59 million units. It can be seen from the data that in recent years, the bidding volume of the State Grid Corporation for smart meters has basically continued to decline.

The reason for this situation, Chen Mei believes that this is mainly because the State Grid company has basically completed the replacement of smart meters, and the increment of smart meters is gradually shrinking. She said that the State grid Corporation began to install the first batch of smart meters in some areas in 2009, and officially promoted in the service area of the State Grid Corporation in 2010. Up to now, the State Grid Corporation has completed the installation and replacement of smart meters for 457 million users, covering 99.57% of the service area of the State Grid Corporation.

In fact, not only the installation and replacement of smart meters in the service area of the State Grid Company has been basically completed, but also the Southern Power Grid Company has basically completed the above work. It is understood that it is expected that by the end of this year, the replacement volume of smart meters installed by the Southern Power Grid Company will reach more than 80 million units, and the coverage rate will reach more than 90%.

Chen Mei said that with the basic completion of the installation and replacement of smart meters in China, the replacement volume of smart meters of the State Grid Company will return to the normal level of more than 20 million units per year in the later period. The domestic smart meter market has become saturated, and the phenomenon of overcapacity has gradually emerged.

Compared with the domestic market, the foreign market shows a rapid growth trend. Tian Zhongping, president of Wasion Group Co., LTD., told China Power News that the installation speed of smart meters in foreign countries is slower than that in China. Russia is expected to reach 18.9% smart meter coverage in 2020, and some developed countries in Europe and the United States began to use smart meters in the mid-21st century.

In this regard, Chen Mei pointed out that foreign market demand is still in the growth period, in addition, the profit margin of foreign markets is also higher than that of domestic. Therefore, smart meter enterprises on the one hand should actively seek to go to sea, especially to speed up the entry of the "Belt and Road" along the country market, by building a factory in the local way, both the output of smart meter products, but also the output of smart meter standards. On the other hand, it is also necessary to continuously expand the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and actively layout the market of related industries such as smart water meters and gas meters.