Efficient energy consumption is essential for the development of a smart grid in the power system. As reliable monitoring and management of energy usage is a main priority for the smart grid1. The existing energy meter system has a host of concerns, one of which is the lack of full-duplex transmission2. In this paper, we present a novel architecture of cloud-connected Smart Meter. The proposed three-phase meter is capable of real-time measurement of the energy network status and data transfer to a cloud architecture.
The main features of this solution are:
• Accurate measurement enabling up to Class 0.2-meter accuracy.
• Support for several sensors (CT/Shunt/Rogo coil).
• Ensures a smart grid easily scalable.
• Possibility of reading data from multiple platforms.
The measuring task is entrusted to the STPM3x chips, produced by ST Microelectronics. The STPM3x ASSP series is developed for high accuracy power and energy measurement in power line systems; it evaluates instantaneous voltage and current waveforms and calculates RMS voltage and current values, as well as active, reactive, and apparent power and energy. The processing of the acquired data is guaranteed by a 32-bit ARM Cortex ™micro-controller from ST Microelectronics.
The communication block is based on multiple-choice hardware to guarantee the connection to the network infrastructure, also including an NB-IoT module, equipped with an ESIM. The protocol used between the nodes in the network is MQTT.
For the experimental validation, a stress test of the network and, in this case, the Virtual Private Server was performed. Results will be detailed reported in the full paper. What is more, a tiny smart grid was established in the city of Lipari (Italy) to test the concept. The installed smart grid is made up of three distinct types of smart meters, to validate on a test field the entire solution.