By smartgrider In Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Case study Posted 2015-03-01

SPAIN

SPAIN

Smart Meter Deployment at domestic customer

Spain has not conducted an economic assessment of long-term costs and benefits for an electricity smart metering roll-out. However, the country has decided to proceed with a full roll-out in the case of electricity in compliance with a Royal Decree 1634/2006 stating that by July 1st 2007 the Spanish regulator had to elaborate a replacement plan for all Spanish domestic meters with contracted power lower than 15 kW. The roll-out covers 100% of 27.8 million meters and is intended to run from 2011 till 2018.

Each of these deployments includes smart meters and the associated communications networks, remote reading and control, data management systems, web portal customer interaction, and some form of dynamic pricing. They differ in size or scale, pricing scheme and in behind-the-meter capabilities such as in-home displays. A summary of the project descriptions are shown in Table 4 under Current Status & Results.
A number of factors, such as late approval of the replacement plan, technological uncertainties in terms of system communication, alleged supply problems of certified meters and negotiations with the regulators about the level of cost acceptance, hampered the achievement of the initial target of 30 % by 2010. The latest developments are related to the introduction of the first set of smart meters in large scale pilot projects deployed by the five major distributors Endesa, Iberdrola, Gas Natural Fenosa, E.ON and Hidrocantabrico (EDP group) Consequently, Spain Smart Meter deployment is advanced, being installed a number of devices very representative of about 9 million smart meters by the end of 2014.

This shows that the smart meter technology deployment in Spain is being developed according to regulation plans. The decision was not conducted an economic assessment of long-term costs and benefits for the electricity smart metering roll-out.

The present Use Case addresses the main smart meter deployment experiences in Spain. The metering activity in Spain is regulated and the distribution system operator (DSO) is the responsible party for implementation and also for granting third-party access to metering data. The choice for the customer to either accept a rented meter by the DSO at a regulated monthly fee or install his own meter is a legal right in Spain.

 

Objectives & Benefits

The national objectives to be achieved by the employment of smart meters are:

• Compliance with EU directives of electricity and Energy Efficiency (2006/32/EC, 2009/72/EC and 2010/31/EC).
• Decreasing energy price for customers by increasing competition in energy market and decreasing the cost of the electrical system
• Transparency in electricity billing for customers.
• Remote control, hourly energy metering and option for hourly tariff selection.
• Increase energy efficiency, making possible user’s actions to achieve energy savings from the profile consumption information provided. Regarding to benefits provided by Smart Meter technology deployment, two main interest groups are differenced: customers and the electrical system.

Benefits for customers:

• Hourly consumption information close to real-time helps customers managing their consumption and identifying energy efficiency actions for reducing their consumption and saving money.
• Customer can manage its consumption thanks to the information and services provided, as well as responding to incentives
• Accuracy and transparency of measurements and electricity bills.
• The infrastructure implemented make possible customer’s participation in the power system, being available active participation in consumption and generation.
• A set of services becomes available for the customer, in combination with other smart grid technologies, such as new tariffs, pricing incentives, management consumption systems, etc.

Benefits for the electrical system:

• The availability of hourly customer consumption makes possible to quantify the potential of demand side management and know the behaviour of the grid.
• Metering processes and distribution grids can be automatized and smart devices can be controlled in a remote way. As a result, the cost related to these activities decrease. However, the optimal automation level has to be analysed according to technical and economic terms.

 

Use Case description & key Points

The national objectives to be achieved by the employment of smart meters are:
The Smart Meter Replacement Plan of December 2007 approved by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, established that all electricity meters with a contracted power up to 15 kW (domestic customers) have to be replaced by new meters able to remote management time discrimination before December 31st 2018. All the DSOs in the country had to submit their substitution plan to the government.

Smart Meter deployment Details

• Smart Meters and AMI
  • 9 million smart meters deployed currently
  • Meters to DCs via PLC; DCs to AMMS via GRPS/3G/Optical Fibber
• Tariffs:  New tariff basic on hourly energy prices in the daily market (PVPC)
• Funding: 100% rate recovered by DSOs
• Project Cost: N/A
• Project Cost: N/A

Initially, a binding target of 30% of all smart meters had to be replaced by end 2010. However, this initial target was not possible to be achieved by any DSO due to diverse reasons: the delete on approving the replacement plan (May 2009), some deletes in the certification of the meters and problems in negotiations with the regulators about the level of cost acceptance.

As a result, the Replacement Smart Meter’s plan was modified, being established new targets for different periods. For each distributor company, at least 35% of smart meters have to be replaced by 31st December 2014, other 35% between 1st January 2015 and 31st December 2016, and finally between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2018 the remaining 30%.
The planned steps to carry out this national smart meter legal framework were:

Stage I:

• Researching and developing of new technologies and services
• Field tests to validate the developments
• Solutions’ standardization

Stage II:

• Large scale deployment of probed solutions into the system
• Applying real business models for the deployment

The regulation also established the minimum functional requirements for the new smart meter to be installed, mainly characterized by:

• Remote bidirectional control for reading, energy management, power demand control, connect/disconnect
• Hourly metering and option of selecting hourly tariffs

According to this regulation, manufacturers developed smart meter devices for Spanish DSOs using two kind of communications technologies: PRIME and Meters & More. Each one is based on different protocols and structures, although both of them uses PLC (Power Line Communications) using broadband and narrowband respectively.

PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) is a public, open and standard. Today is a mature, consolidated and worldwide PLC standard for Advanced Metering, Grid Control and Asset Monitoring applications and the objective to establish a set of open international PLC standards has been met.

Meters & More is a new generation protocol which leverages from the experience of Enel’s Telegestore. Currently, both PRIME and Meters & More are working towards standardizing its technologies with the aim of allowing interoperability between all manufactures’ devices and services to favour the competitiveness between them.

 

Current Status & Results

In November 2014 there are more than 5 million meters with PRIME technology deployed by Iberdrola, Gas Natural Fenosa and Hidrocantabrico. Moreover Endesa and E.ON are deployed 4 million meters, with Enel technology. In any case, at the end of 2014, all distributors have replaced 35% of its domestic electricity meters.

Finally, a relevant fact related to smart metering services is that a new energy tariff for domestic consumers, based on hourly price of the daily market, was approved in 1st February 2014. The aim is provide customers the option of saving money by means of hourly pricing criteria. This service is able thanks to smart meter technology deployment, and it is expected that other new services will be developed at future.

 

Lessons Learned & Best Practices

In November 2014 there are more than 5 million meters with PRIME technology deployed by Iberdrola, Gas Natural Fenosa and Hidrocantabrico. Moreover Endesa and E.ON are deployed 4 million meters, with Enel technology. In any case, at the end of 2014, all distributors have replaced 35% of its domestic electricity meters.

Finally, a relevant fact related to smart metering services is that a new energy tariff for domestic consumers, based on hourly price of the daily market, was approved in 1st February 2014. The aim is provide customers the option of saving money by means of hourly pricing criteria. This service is able thanks to smart meter technology deployment, and it is expected that other new services will be developed at future.

Smart meters interoperability – Standardization and interoperability of smart meter communication technology is crucial to have a wide portfolio of products compatible between them, as well as promoting the market competitiveness.

Energy cost – Smart meter deployment makes able the reduction of the power system costs thanks to remote and automation of processes.

Real-time monitoring – The interval update of consumption data and providing them to customers and third parties is probably the most difficult functionality to be implemented in smart meter’s technology.

Energy savings – Smart meters are a necessary tool to provide cheaper energy for the customers, in addition to services which to achieve potential savings and make able its participation in the electrical market.

Customer engagement – Informing and making aware the customers about the benefits of consumption management is crucial for the success of many of the potential services which can provide the smart meters.

Privacy and security of information – Guaranteeing the security and privacy of the information of the customer is a relevant aspect to be considered.

 

Next Steps

In the next years, the steps to be carried out in Spain are focused on achieve the full deployment of smart meter up to 15 kW by December 2018. The smart meter’s standardization technology is expected to be achieved; being available a competitive set of devices from different manufactures compatible among them.

Functionalities and services implemented at several R&D and demo Projects developed recently or currently in progress, will be widespread according to scalability and reliability concepts in the following years. Among these functionalities and services, distributed generation, voltage control, load shifting, dynamic tariffs, outage and theft detection. The final aim is to consolidate these solutions as mature to be used in achieving a more efficient and reliable power system.

In addition, the customer’s engagement is other of the steps to be achieved in the future to implement the Demand Side Management by providing valuable and useful services, mainly characterized by the energy cost reduction improving reliability and security of supply. Special mention to R&D projects: Malaga Project led by Endesa and the PRICE project jointly led by Iberdrola and Gas Natural Fenosa for their relevance and coverage to all functionalities of smart grids, including Demand Side Management.

 

Key Regulations, Legislations & Guidelines

In the next years, the steps to be carried out in Spain are focused on achieve the full deployment of smart meter up to 15 kW by December 2018. The smart meter’s standardization technology is expected to be achieved; being available a competitive set of devices from different manufactures compatible among them.

The regulation existing in Spain regarding smart meters implementation is represented by the following main regulations:

• Criteria for the replacement and number of meters to be replaced every year: RD1634/2006, Order to the regulator about the Replacement Plan for all Spanish residential meters.
  https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2006/12/30/pdfs/A46656-46679.pdf
• Smart meter’s Replacement plan: ORDEN ITC/3860/2007, publication of the criteria for the Replacement Plan, including every distributor having to present its own plan and AMM system de-sign.
  http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2007/12/29/pdfs/A53781-53805.pdf
• Modification of the Smart meter’s Replacement Plan: ORDEN IET/290/2012, publication which modifies the previous order to adjust the Replacement Plan to the current deployment status.
  http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2012/02/21/pdfs/BOE-A-2012-2538.pdf
• Electricity tariff based on hourly price in the daily market for domestic consumers: Royal Decree 216/2014
  http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2014/03/29/pdfs/BOE-A-2014-3376.pdf ?
• Benchmarking smart metering deployment in the EU-27 with a focus on electricity [COM(2014)356], 17.6.2014