Effective and Practical AMI Mesh Radio Deployment – Lessons Learnt

Michael MacfarlaneManager Strategy & Technology

Metering Asia 9th May 2012

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JEN Distribution Area

Jemena Electricity Distribution Network

• Covers 950km2 in the central west to northwest area of greater Melbourne including Tullamarine International Airport

• 10,285km of electricity distribution lines

• 320,000 end users• One of two Victorian electricity

distribution networks managed by Jemena

• Assets include:•23 Zone Substations•5,150 Distribution Substations•103,000 Poles•1,684 km's of HV-OH Lines•495 km's HV-UG Cable•64,000 Public Lights

JEN – Key Statistics

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United Energy Distribution

• Covers 1450km2 Services south east Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula

• 12,530km of electricity distribution lines

• 680,000 end users• One of two Victorian electricity

distribution networks managed by Jemena

• Assets include:•45 Zone Substations•11,000 Distribution Substations•204,000 Poles•4,400 km's of HV-OH Lines•850 km's HV-UG Cable•117,715 Public Lights

UED – Key Statistics

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AMI Functionality (Victorian Mandate)

Existing Meter:� Register Reads

� Basic Load Control

AMI Meter:� Interval Data

� Integrated Home Area Network (HAN)

� Remote Reads

� Remote Energise/Re-energise

� Remote Load Control

� Supply Capacity Control

� Service Levels

� Outage detection

� Quality of Supply

� Direct Load Control

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AMI Technology

AMI System Complies with DPI Functional Spec

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AMI LAN Design• Access Point 900Mhz ISM • 3500 meters per Access Point• ~5 Relays per Access Point to

increase coverage area• Battery Backed• Telstra 3G Mobile data backhaul

AMI Relay

AMI Access Point

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Initial Rollout Approach

• Begin in high density areas first, then move to rural -communications ahead of meters

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A Traditional AMI Deployment

• Takes 4 Years to reach all areas

• Incremental rollout of LAN infrastructure ahead of Meters

• Focuses on high density (quick) regions first

• Only allows AMI meters to be deployed in AMI areas(as AMI remotely read)

• Highly efficient for AMI installers

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An Alternative Rollout Approach

• In January 2011, UED & JEN accelerated their AMI communications rollout

– to cover 95% of the meter population by June 2011

– to allow meter installed within that area has a better than 95% chance of communicating

– so metering adds, alts and faults can use AMI meters.(as remote AMI)

– and business as usual can transition from legacy processes earlier

– Halt purchasing traditional Meters (thousands per month)

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Accelerated Communications Pilot

• Thin mesh concept verified but below success criteria (<95%)

• Density of external antennas installed was too low

• Grid scale reduced to 130 linear meters for actual rollout

• Accelerated LAN thin mesh concept

• 1 Access Point, 5 Relays& 620 AMI meters

• Installed in a thin Mesh grid 180 linear meters in a grid pattern to emulate the

Packet Success Threshold: 1%Packet Success Threshold: 80%Packet Success Threshold: 90%Packet Success Threshold: 95%

Strategic LAN Infrastructure

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Thin Mesh Meter Deployment

5% of Population

Route Planning,3 Candidates per Grid Cell

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Thin Mesh Forming

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UE Total Meters InstalledMonth

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AMI Coverage

or

Population Density

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• Quality of installation information is important when analysing network performance. e.g. location, meter enclosure type and antenna installed

• All strategic Access Points and Relays are in service

• Deploying 5% of the meters in this way is providing coverage to 90% of customers with better than 95% success rate

Thin Mesh Progress

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Westfield Doncaster Shopping Town Embedded Network

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Indoor RF Propagation

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Concrete and Steel ~ Faraday Cage

• 14 Meter Rooms

• 159 Tier 2 AMI meters

• 100% Reliable AMI Comm’s Required

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Indoor AMI RF Penetration

RF PROPAGATION at 915MHz

200m to 1000s of m in free space

130m in urban areas

30-80mindoors

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The Challenge• The shopping centre environment of distributed meter

rooms, concrete, glass, concrete, multiple levels and more concrete is not conducive to the transmission of RF

• The vendor did not have a predefined communications design for this type of environment

• The shopping centre did not want any of the LAN communications equipment to be visible in the public areas

• The Embedded Network Tier 2 meter count was likely to diminish as more customers switch to the embedded service provider

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Field Survey – Desktop Analysis

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159 Meters Installed in the Doncaster Labyrinth

External AMI Antenna

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Practical Relay Test Locations

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Relay onRoof

Relay onRoof

Relay in Loading Dock

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Post install of 3 relays• 159 Meters became 97 Meters, 3 Meters needed a remote antenna

installation

• Finding power and suitable areas way from the pubic was difficult but achievable.

• Shopping centre management provided unrestricted access to the entire complex in order to get the most suitable locations for our communications equipment

• Technical success, the embedded network is now working, designed and installed with in house ability and knowledge.

• We all got some good exercise as walking around the shopping centre we did about 7kms each time we visited, there was also decent coffee!

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Questions

Michael Macfarlanemichael.macfarlane@jemena.com.au