Our guests Mr. Roberto Zagrandi (RZ), secretary-general of EDSO, Mr. Tomas Llobet (TL), managing director of ESMIG, and Mr. Sergio Lazzarotto (SL), president and executive director of DLMS association talked about the next step for smart metering but also data access and home management systems and its place in smart cities.

Is it necessary to involve telecommunication companies and home energy management system manufacturers to develop smart cities further?

TL: Everyone who plays a role in developing smart solutions, energy solutions, and everything that you need in a smart city needs to be involved.

In our membership, we have innovative communication solution providers that are focusing on communication aspects within the energy, smart metering ecosystem.

A home energy management system is very important. It can get the consumers on board and deliver the benefits smart metering. In the UK, smart meters came with home displays, which allowed consumers to directly see what was happening with smart meters.

SL: DLMS has the advantage of being a telecommunication technology or protocol agnostic. With each telecommunication technology or protocol, we are developing specific profiles to certify devices not only at the level of the data that is standardized by DLMS but also in their natural declared telecommunication technology.

We also need to have this flexibility of adaptation of our standards. The winning Telco technologies of today, might not be the one winning tomorrow.

RZ: We need to involve them. We are still reasoning on the “current” scenario. The time has come to open ourselves to the possibility to take long shots and try to imagine what is going to be in a few years.

What are the standards of the future? Can we imagine a sandbox of technology rather than regulatory aspects that allow us to experiment and depict ourselves in the flesh of the system? We need the smart grid, smart communication, smarter devices, and probably smarter standardization somewhere down the line.

I am fascinated by the multiplicity of the protocols that set the rules. I think, the protocol should be economical and it should be easy to implement at the system level and at the private level.

When we mention home energy management systems, do you believe that it is necessary to introduce a special home device that will make it easier for the consumer to use the new technologies in the further development of the smart city?

RZ: Yes, I believe the consumer will want a simple life.

The point is to see how much the average consumer might be interested in taking big dives into their own energy management. Probably they’ll be looking for applications depending on the profile and their place. And probably that will be one of the simplest and preliminary solutions.

I do not see that any house or any family will become an expert in energy, but certainly, people are more sensible now. When you have prices of energy rising, you start switching off.

Consumer needs more flexibility and the possibility to navigate between different forms of flexibility to navigate their need for energy.

TL: Technology acceptance is also very important. Consumers need to see the benefits that technology can have for them, regardless of whether it is a device that is installed at home, or an app on the phone, etc.

I don’t think most consumers will sit down and study the energy consumption in their free time; they want to switch the washing machine on when the electricity is cheaper. This needs to be automated. Same with the car in the garage.

The consumer needs to see the benefits. This has not yet happened in Europe and this is something we need to work on.

The consumer or prosumer is at the center of the energy system. This is the way we see it in Europe now: a consumer-centric system, same with smart cities, that serve the consumers.

The technology is there, we just need to use it to its full potential.

Do you agree that having access to meter data would contribute to the development of smart cities? What benefits would the users get from it? In that case, do you think the data hub should be a separate entity and should it charge for it?

SL: Smart meter contains a lot of data and DSO has access to that data. Is it going to be useful, to make these available, in which way, in which form, and to do what in the consumer world? I think yes it makes sense and has potentially a great value.

However putting the privacy of the data and the security at the risk is not an option. The more data you make available, the more applications or devices are going to use the data, the higher the security risk is going to be. Exposing data means knowing how, to who, and what.

At DLMS we started working on it. We want to guarantee that the devices that could use this data won’t potentially breach the security of the strategic infrastructure. This is why we are standardizing the way data will be accessed and the way devices or apps needing them will be authorized to do so without compromising the security and the data privacy with the authorization of the data owner who is the consumer and within the existing legislative framework.

Another aspect is that some of that data has value –  but without constraining their access with the latency caused by the network. The value of them  is if you can process them immediately, not after a delay caused by the telco/IT network. This is why edge computing with standardized API to be used by edge application is a key pillar for the last mile grid digitalization. This is what DLMS is working on and soon bring solutions..

Of course all of this should be in the hand of the consumer – they are the one infine deciding whether to give access to the data or not.

RZ: I think that the clearer any provision about the use of the consumption data will be taken, the better will be for the market, customer, and the user of the data.

There is something that is terrifying me as a citizen. The use of that data might trigger providing financial products around my consumption data. The more your consumption data is analyzed the more you’ll receive extremely personalized offers.

TL: What the consumer needs to get is access to real-time data. This is in the European legislation; it’s just not properly implemented nationally.

When we talk about consumption data, the consumer cannot be charged for it. They should get it for free. However, nothing comes for free. Data should be anonymized and processed. We need a way to compensate for those costs.

CONCLUSION:

In order to develop smart cities further, it is necessary to involve everyone who plays a role in developing smart solutions including telecommunication and home energy management companies etc.

We need a home device and a smart phone application that would simplify and help bring the benefits of energy management to the consumer.

Smart meters contain a lot of data that could be useful, and opening them, without compromising consumer privacy, could lead to development of a new third party products and services useful for customers.