3.6 Distribution Resource Planning With DER Systems

3.6.4 Smart Meters Data for Distribution System Planning

Smart meters can collect data that can be used for both long term and shorter term planning. This data consists primarily of revenue energy readings taken periodically, such as every 5 to 15 minutes or every hour. However, other data can also be retrieved, such as outage indicators, voltage levels, and peak demand within a time period. In the future, some smart meters may be required to track actions by DER systems, such as whether they responded to utility commands for energy and ancillary services.

Although some investigations have been undertaken to see if the smart meter Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems can also support near-real-time interactions with DER systems, it appears that only limited data exchanges may be possible due to the configurations and limited bandwidths of many of the AMI communication systems, but this situation may change over time.