Advanced Metering Infraestructure Case Study in

Federal University of Santa Maria

William Dotto Vizzotto
Filipe Gabriel Carloto
Lucas Maziero
Flávio Garlet Reck
Fernando Garcia Vedoin
Carlos Henrique Barriquello
Daniel Pinheiro Bernardon
Tiago Bandeira Marchesan
Federal University of Santa Maria
Santa Maria, Brazil
vizzotto@foxiot.com.br

Abstract—The increase in electrical energy consumption is energy flows and significantly increase the complexity of the
causing the grid to be more complex in the last years. Utilities electrical systems, as shown in Figure 1 [1].
need to improve the quality of the service, as the efficiency of
delivering energy, while electric vehicles and distributed energy
resources are becoming a reality in the market. The advance of
electronic communication technology, the processing capacity of
computers, cloud computing, among others, enables many fea-
tures for Smart Grids. The Advanced Metering Infraestructure is
one of the tools enabled by Smart Grids, which is an information
system for collecting, storing and analyzing power data. The
structure, communication technologies, and benefits of this tool
are discussed in the paper. Then, the case study of the Federal
University of Santa Maria Advanced Metering Infrastructure is
shown, followed by its results.
Index Terms—AMI, Distribution system, LPWAN, LoRaWAN,
RF, Smart Meter.

Fig. 1. Present and future of the electrical grid [1].

I. I NTRODUCTION
The global climate change is causing many countries pro-
mote various policies for the Smart Grids. The recent growth,
together with the characteristic of distributed energy resources
(DER), indicates that the diffusion of these technologies
present a high disruptive potential, capable of profoundly
transforming the electric systems that today are predominantly
operated with larger generators and centrally managed. In
fact, the World Energy Council (2017) points out that in
the period between 2017 and 2025 several countries will go
through a transition from predominantly centralized power
systems to hybrid systems. In this context, the transition from
a centralized to a more distributed model should change the
The authors would like to thank the technical and financial support of
CPFL Energia Power Utility to the project Soluções Inovadoras de Eficiência
Energética e Minigeração em Instituição Pública Federal de Ensino Superior:
Uma abordagem na UFSM (PD/ANEEL). This study was also financed in
part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior
Brazil (CAPES) Finance Code 001..
The Advanced Metering Infraestructure (AMI) is an infor-
mation system for collecting, storing and analyzing power
data and consists of three parts, namely, smart meter, com-
munication system and MDMS (Meter Database Management
System). The Smart Meter is the device that senses electrical
parameters and energy, and is able to send this data through
the communication network to the MDMS, which receives,
analyzes and manages data, and further integrates with other
application systems [2].
AMI can also be applied to home energy management, help
reducing the cost and manpower for manual meter reading,
and providing power information for users or utilities to plan
energy management, achieving the purpose of energy saving,
and carbon reduction [3].
The energy management feature is very important when
considering public universities from Brazil. UFSM has around
30,000 students and 5,000 workers, that demand a huge
amount of electricity over the day to lighting, air-conditioning,
electronic devices, and laboratories. Besides that, The Federal

978-1-5386-8218-0/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

University of Santa Maria (UFSM) supports many projects
related to sustainability and energy efficiency. So in order to
evaluate the results of its actions, an energy monitoring system
is needed.
In order to monitor energy consumption over the buildings,
an AMI was implemented. The AMI consists of 60 smart
meters installed in the main buildings, a LoRaWAN network
to cover the university area, and a local MDMS (time-series
database, broker and dashboard).
The paper is divided as follows: Section II shows the main
concepts of AMI (structure, communication technologies and
applications), Section III explains the case study of UFSM and
in Section IV the results are presented.
II. A DVANCED M ETERING I NFRASTRUCTURE
AMI is not a single technology implementation, but rather
a fully configured infrastructure that must be integrated into
existing and new utility processes and applications.
A. AMI Structure
The AMI includes home network systems, smart meters,
communication networks from the meters to local data concen-
trators, back-haul communications networks to corporate data
centers, meter data management systems (MDMS) and, finally,
data integration into existing and new software application
platforms. Additionally, AMI provides a very intelligent step
toward modernizing the entire power system. Figure 2 graph-
ically describes the AMI technologies and how they interface:
Fig. 2. AMI structure overview [4].
At the consumer level, smart meters communicate consump-
tion data to both the user and the service provider. Smart me-
ters communicate with in-home displays to make consumers
more aware of their energy usage. Going further, electric
pricing information supplied by the service provider enables
load control devices like smart thermostats to modulate electric
demand, based on pre-established consumer price preferences.
The consumer portals process the AMI data in ways that
enable more intelligent energy consumption decisions, even
providing interactive services like prepayment.
The service provider (utility) employs existing, enhanced
or new back-office systems that collect and analyze AMI data
to help optimize operations, economics and consumer service.
For example, AMI provides immediate feedback on consumer
outages and power quality, enabling the service provider to
rapidly address grid deficiencies. The AMIs bidirectional com-
munications infrastructure also supports grid automation at the
station and circuit level. The vast amount of new data flowing
from AMI allows improved management of utility assets as
well as better planning of asset maintenance, additions, and
replacements. The resulting more efficient and reliable grid is
one of AMIs many benefits [4].
B. Communication Technologies
An important feature of the Smart Grid is the interaction
among its entities using bidirectional communication. In the
Smart Grid, AMI is the distribution level building block
comprising a network of smart meters. Smart meters collect
and report the consumption data to a Service Provider (SP)
periodically (less than 1 hour) rather than monthly total con-
sumption recorded in conventional meter, as well as allows the
consumers to get involved in electricity trade by selling home-
generated, unused electricity to the grid [5]. AMI also caters to
the SP, the control and monitoring with outage management,
demand response, disaster prevention, and disaster recovery.
Consequently, the communication in AMI is necessarily bidi-
rectional. The domain of communication of a smart meter is
segregated into two groups - Home Area Network (HAN) and
Neighborhood Area Network (NAN). Smart home appliances
communicate with the smart meters in HAN whereas meter-
to-meter communication is termed as NAN. The networking
of the smart meters is proposed by a wireless network [6],
[7], [8]. Although, interference is a major issue in wireless
communication [9].
Power Line Communication (PLC) or Radio Frequency
(RF) are the most common techniques in AMI field. PLC
is a communication method that uses power line to carry
data, but the communication quality may be affected by
power line noise or the impedance which does not match at
load change, and the long transmission distance may cause
signal attenuation. PLC viability also depends on the quantity
of consumers by distribution transformer. RF technology is
another LAN communication option, each country has its
own RF channel to choose RF specification. The general RF
technology is used in open areas and need meter concentration,
and the data transmission have a high success rate. The big
challenge of LAN communication technology is complexity
environment and communication interference at present, it
may be the reason that communication technology cant be
applied in all environments. The gateway to MDMS or meter
to AMI MDMS WAN communication usually is wired or wire-
less. A wireless solution often apply Cellular communication
technology , and a wired solution is the optical fiber. It can be
seen that the AMI can be composed of different heterogeneous
transmission technologies, to use in different communication
environments such as cities, suburbs, mountains, islands and
other environments [2]. Figure 3 shows a brief comparison of
bandwidth and range of most common wireless technologies.
It is important to address the communication requirements
in order to choose the one that best fits. [11] and [12] present
 participation, the utility companies will more likely provide
electricity at a lower rate for their customers [13].
2) Distributed Network Management: The distributed net-
work helps the utilities in providing useful information to more
accurately size new transformers and circuits to match the
peak load conditions. Additionally, it also provides information
about factors stimulating peak consumption [13].
3) Variable Pricing Structure: AMI enables the price struc-
ture to better align as per customer usage, so those consuming
energies at peak time will be charged more. Also, monitoring
the energy usage on a daily or hourly basics creates an
opportunity for services like variable pricing to encourage off-
peak usage without the reduced rate [14].
Fig. 3. Comparison of bandwith and range of most common wireless 4) Improved Data Quality: Automatic remote data col-
technologies [10].
lection sleeks the processing for billing, asset management,
and outage management. Machine to machine data transfers
the relation of communication requirements and different reduces the number of misreads. Overall this meter reading
smart grid applications, that are summarized in Table I. reduces billing error issues and customer disputes [15].
5) Shorter Billing Cycle: Changing the traditional meter
TABLE I reading with AMI cuts down the billing process by reducing
C OMMUNICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR S MART G RID APPLICATIONS . the time and the number of steps between consumer usage
bills and bill distributions [16], [17].
Data Max. Traffic
Application QoS
rate latency type
AMI
III. C ASE STUDY OF UFSM’ S AMI
500kbps 50ms-1min periodic moderate
Metering This section presents the AMI implemented in UFSM. First,
Demand 14- periodic/
Response 100kbps
2s-5min
random
strict the network infrastructure is described, as well the reasons for
Customer choosing the specific communication technology. The Smart
13 kbps 2s periodic moderate
feedback Meters functionality are presented, and finally, the aimed
Customer benefits of the AMI for the university.
32 kbps N/A random moderate
bill savings
Data 32 kbps N/A random moderate
A. Network Infraestructure
Voice 8 kbps 200ms random moderate
File transfer 8 kbps 200ms random moderate The choice of the network infrastructure is based in the
Substation communication requirements. Latency, data rate and QoS were
800 kbps 40ms periodic strict
automation
considered in order to attend as many as possible applications
Interference due to home appliances (like microwave oven, of Smart Grids, and not just AMI, as the network is also going
cordless phone, and garage door), proprietary use, etc., along to be used for other researches. Furthermore, the network
with Rayleigh fading, co-channel interference, and attenuation should be able to cover a large area and points that are distant
due to obstacles (like buildings, trees, etc.) are the common from each other, operates on public unlicensed frequency.
issues on public unlicensed frequency band. However, reliable The Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and Cellular
wireless communication is obligatory from a commercial point technologies fit the needs, however, cellular needs recurrent
of view as well as for robustness of Smart Grid. To nullify payment (generally, monthly), as well as SigFox, for example,
the effect of attenuation and some interference (like co- while LoRaWAN has just the initial cost of infrastructure.
channel interference, harmonics from home appliances, etc.), So, the university engineering team decided by LoRaWAN
a frequency band with more channels and channel spacing is technology. Another advantage of LoRaWAN is that it is
advantageous. If a specific channel is attenuated or interfered an open protocol. Table II summarizes the characteristics of
by the same frequency, other channels can carry the data. LoRaWAN [18].

C. Applications TABLE II
L O R AWAN LIMITATIONS .
The main benefits are explained briefly. Some of them have
already been implemented in many countries, and others still Technology
Data Max. Traffic
QoS Distance
need development or economic viability. rate latency type
40ms to
1) Managing Supply and Demand: The demand manage- 0.3- periodic/ 2.5km urban
LoRaWAN several moderate
27kbps random 15km suburban
ment saves result from proper load selection and optimized seconds
use of electricity. It also allows people the opportunity to shift
their own demand for electricity during peak hours and reduce The installed gateways are RHF2S008, from Rising HF, it
their energy consumption overall. Hence through customer is an IOT gateway based on LoRaWAN and target to LPWAN
network. It is an IEEE 802.3 af/at compatibility PD, which
could be powered by PoE. Both Ethernet and LTE-4G are
supported to connect to the cloud server. With an integrated
GPS module, the GW could support LoRaWAN Class B
protocol with the synchronous clock from GPS PPS signal.
This device integrate an high performance CPU ARM
Cortex-A53 core, one baseband processor SX1301, that it
could support 8 multi-SF channel (SF12 to SF7), 1 single-SF
channel and 1 GFSK channel. Output power could achieve to
27dBm max. Sensitivity is as low as -141dBm@300bps. With
specified payload length and transmit period, one gateway
could support 10k nodes. It is a smart device but with
high reliability, that it could work outdoor or in a complex
environment [19].
The gateways were installed in order to cover all the
LoRaWAN smart meters, as can be seen in Figure 4. They
are positioned in the top of two of the highest buildings in the
university. They are supplied by no-breaks and connected to
the institutional internet network through Ethernet cables.
Fig. 4. Gateways installed in UFSM.
B. Smart Meters
The smart meters are model SME, from Fox IoT company,
similar to the Figure 5.
Fig. 5. Fox IoT SME Smart Meter [20].
Their main characteristics are [20]:
• Meter: Three-phase - 4 wires;
• Wireless communication: LoRaWAN stack v1.0.2;
• Wireless frequency: 915MHz - Australian Standard
• Model: SME;
• Nominal Voltage (Vn): 90V to 240V;
• Nominal Current (In): 50 to 1500A (depends on CT);
• Frequency: 50 or 60Hz;
• Active Energy: Ke = Kh = 1,00 Wh/pulse;
Furthermore, the SME has a digital output, that can be
configured in the MDMS software. It allows the user to control
loads and trigger alarms using this digital output. There have
been installed 60 smart meters in the main buildings of UFSM.
Figure 6 shows where the smart meters have been installed.
Fig. 6. Buildings where there are smart meters installed.
They are configured to send the data periodically, every 15
seconds. The data packet is composed of individual phases and
total voltages, currents, active, reactive and apparent powers,
energy and power factors.
C. Meter Data Management System
In order to receive, manage, store, analyze, and provide
access to the data sent by the smart meters, it is necessary
to have the MDMS. In this case, the MDMS is composed
by the LoRaWAN network server, MQQT broker, database,
application server, and user interface. The LoRaWAN network
server is responsible for management of the connections and
gateways, and package receiving. The MQQT broker does
the bridge between the data received by the network server
and application server. The application server is the core of
MDMS, it is responsible by getting the data and storing in the
database, as well as executing the commands of the user. The
user interface is the dashboard of the system, composed by
graphs, gauges, buttons, and others.
D. Benefits
There are many benefits that could be achieved by AMI
implementation. The UFSM’s engineering team designed the
system in order to have better knowledge about the energy
consumption, power quality, and enough information in order TABLE III
to guide energy efficiency activities in the university. D ELIVERY RATE OF THE 30 ANALYZED SMART METERS .
The energy consumption is about how much each building Delivery
Meter id Building
spend in electricity. Power quality considers information about rate (%)
voltage levels, power factor, load balancing and the load sm01 Dança 85,1
sm02 Casa Estudante Indı́gena 98,4
level of each distribution transformer. The information for sm06 Sistema Irriga 92,9
energy efficiency includes the data from electricity usage sm07 Prédio 74B 72,7
and consumer habits, relation between energy consumed and sm11 Centro de Educação 80,5
sm17 CTISM I 97,9
how many students have classes in each building. The data sm18 Música 100
extracted from the smart meters allows the possibility of a sm19 Geração Distribuı́da 98,8
wide range of new researches, like demand response in public sm20 Destilaria 95,3
buildings, real-time distribution loss evaluation, automatic load sm23 Matemática 96,3
sm24 Prédio 40 78,9
control, among others. sm26 Terapia Ocupacional 96,1
sm29 Casa do Estudante - 34 95,7
IV. R ESULTS sm31 Agittec 97,8
sm34 Restaurante Universitário 98,4
The UFSM’s AMI consists of 2 LoRaWAN gateways, 60
sm37 Prédio 74C 81,4
smart meters, and the MDMS. However, for this case study, sm36 Almoxarifado 54,4
30 smart meters will be evaluated and tested, because not all sm38 Casa do Estudante - 35 56,5
of them are installed and completely working already. The sm40 Casa do Estudante - 33 97,7
sm43 CFED Piscinas 98,8
results will show the functionality of the network (Availability sm45 Centro de Tecnologia 80,3
and latency) and some benefits that already are possible in sm46 CFED 100
concerning with electrical parameters (Energy quality, load sm47 Laboratório Virologia 97,9
balancing, and energy efficiency). The analysis was performed sm48 Prédio 26 86,9
sm50 Anfiteatro I 100
between March 15, 2019, and March 23, 2019. sm53 Centro de Educação 2 92,8
sm54 Anfiteatro II 72
A. Availability sm55 Reitoria II 89,4
sm57 Biblioteca Central 77,1
The availability of the system is measured considering
sm58 Odontologia 88,1
the relation between the number of packets received by the
network server and number of packets that should be sent by
the smart meter. The results are presented in Table III.
Through the 30 smart meter analyzed, the average delivery
rate is 88.6%. 3 smart meters had 100% delivery rate, 36.67%
between 95% and 99.99%. On the other hand, 13.33% deliv-
ered less than 75% of the packets.

B. Latency
The latency is achieved by the network server, that manages
the communication network. It considers the air time of the
package, which depends on LoRaWAN network parameters,
like spreading factor, bandwidth, packet size, and others. The
currently set of parameters results in 369ms. This results shows
Fig. 7. SM46 CFED voltages.
that LoRa AMI allows many Smart Grid features, but is not
suitable for distribution automation, for example.
It is verified that the deviation between the phases and the
C. Energy Quality
average can be as high as 60.14%. This implies in the need of
In order to evaluate the energy quality supplied to the balancing the load over the phases, in order to have a better
buildings, it was verified the voltage levels. Figure 7 shows energy quality and less losses.
an example of CFED building voltages.
It is possible to see that maximum voltages measured are D. Energy efficiency
231.61V, 234.01V, and 232.64V of phases A, B, and C, The energy effiency is a tool used to do the same activities
respectively. The nominal voltage is 220V, while the limits using less energy, as well as paying less. The AMI of UFSM
imposed by the Brazilian Regulatory Agency are 231V and allows to rank the top 10 energy consumption buildings and
202V, for the maximum and the mininum, respectively. In power. Figures 8 and 9 shows these two ranks.
order to evaluate the load balance, the maximum difference These 10 buildings are the ones where energy efficiency
between the average powers. Table IV presents the top 5 activities should be implemented first, as they have the greatest
unbalanced loads. consumers among the analyzed smart meters.
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