How the IoT Helps Smart Meters Save Electricity

The IoT takes metering to the next level, from mechanical to digital where smart meters make electricity consumption more transparent and energy saving easier.

How much electricity, gas and water do I actually use? How much does heating cost me right now and how can I reduce my heating costs? Or how can I as a network operator respond more flexibly to supply and demand for electricity in view of the irregular feed-in of renewables and increasing numbers of consumers such as electric vehicles? Questions like these currently preoccupy many of us, both private consumers and energy providers. Smart meters might help to come up with precise answers to them. Their rollout is making slow headway in Germany, however. According to a PwC study only half of the country’s meter operators have even started to install smart meters in private homes. 

Yet these smart devices could help to achieve energy turnaround targets faster. Digitization and using the Internet of Things (IoT) transform meters into smart meters (see Info box). Smart metering can help to integrate solar, wind or CHP power efficiently into the electricity portfolio and to optimize network utilization, thereby easing the burden on power stations and opening up new lines of business such as dynamic electricity tariffs. Operators can then offer electricity for sale at especially favorable rates when large amounts of wind and solar power are fed into the grid. Smart systems will then transform he network into a smart grid.

Increasing emissions, declining national energy resources and rapidly rising energy prices have led of late to growing consumer interest in digital metering systems. They require flexible electricity tariffs and both smart meters and smart homes, however—a combination that will not be in place in the short term.

Remote reading also means that cost-, time- and CO2-intensive journeys to read meters on-site are no longer needed. Tenants no longer need to wait hours for the meter reader to arrive. Smart meters enable companies to improve their energy consumption, optimize their energy management and reduce their energy costs by means of IoT technology.

Electricity meters are often to be found in basements and cellars without nearby Internet access. That frequently rules out an uninterrupted connection with a smartphone, tablet or computer IoT solutions help customers to receive and evaluate meter data. The NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) standard’s extremely high level of building penetration makes remote meter reading possible even in these circumstances. A standardized technology based on LTE, it is also very safe and secure.