AMI developments in the Netherlands

The smart metering market in the Netherlands, which covers approximately 7 million households and small business users (defined as having an electricity connection of less than 3x80 Ampère and a gas usage of less than 170,000 m3 per year), is in motion. A legal proposal for a new structuring of the metering market is being vetted and will be discussed within the Dutch Parliament soon. It is expected that this law will be adopted before the summer of 2008. During 2009 – 2014 large smart metering deployment projects will be carried out for small energy users in the Netherlands. And ultimately, around 2015, almost every household in the Netherlands is expected to have a smart meter for electricity and gas.

This article will discuss the upcoming changes in the metering market in the Netherlands, as well as the new Dutch smart meter standard (NTA 8130). KEMA assisted the Dutch grid operators with the definition of the metering standard, which also includes communication standards. This definition will also be described throughout this article.


Energy market reforms in the Netherlands
Drivers for reform of the Dutch meter market include a fundamental goal of energy savings for end-use customers, a desire to correct some administrative problems with billing that followed the liberalization of the energy markets in the Netherlands, and the European Union (EU) energy efficiency directive (2006/32/EC).

The Dutch interpretation of the EU directive concerning “energy end-use efficiency and energy services” is that, in principle, it orders the EU member states to ensure that all households will receive meters that enable individual users to gain an up-to-date insight into their consumption profiles. After much research (including a cost-benefit-analysis by KEMA) and consultations, in early 2006 the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs submitted to the Lower House what is referred to in the Netherlands as a “policy intention” addressing the restructuring of the meter market for small energy users. Based on the research results and consultations in the sector, the ministry has made the following proposals in relation to the meter market:

In principle, all small users will be given a smart meter;

  • The various grid operators will be responsible for rollout. However, during the initial stage of the roll-out, the supplier will be given some influence on roll-out prioritization;

  • The meters will become part of the regulated domain of the grid operator, as part of the physical infrastructure;

  • The cost of the hardware (meter hire) will be regulated;

  • The various supply companies will be responsible for reading and processing metering data and will select a recognized metering data company for implementation of the above proposals; and

  • The smart meter products to be installed must comply with the basic functionality mentioned in the smart meter standard “NTA-8130.

  • Smart Meter Functionality According to NTA 8130

After a long period (more than a year) of discussions and debates, a meter standard was defined for the residential meter market in the Netherlands. This work was conducted under the direction of the Netherlands Standardization Institute, and was finalized in April 2007.

This meter definition, with the registration number NTA 8130, defines a minimal set of basic functions for connecting the consumer to the energy distribution infrastructure in the Netherlands. The minimum functionality required in the smart meter includes:

  • Remote reading of the energy consumption (both periodic, actual and interval values);

  • Remote reading of the electricity supply (both periodic, actual and interval values) – meant for individua(decentralized) generation;

  • Monitoring of the quality of the electricity supply (outages, voltage swells and sags);

  • Registration of violation and fraud attempts;

  • Remote activation and deactivation of the energy supply;

  • Temporarily limit the electricity supply by setting a threshold;

  • The possibility to connect external services devices;

  • Sending short messages to the display of the meter;

  • Sending long messages to the meter for on-line interaction  – these will be forwarded to the external devices;

  • Status information (errors, tariff indicators, breaker and valve positions, thresholds);

  • The possibility of firmware updates; and

  • The provision of access and security.

The Netherlands Standardization Institute also ruled that meter technology will not be dictated, but rather there must be a functional basic level on the basis of which grid operators are able to perform their public tasks and for which commercial parties can develop services. The metering installation as described by NTA 8130 is depicted in Figure 1. The metering installation has been defined as the assembly of equipment installed at the location of the customers’ premises for the process of metering and additional functions. The metering installation, which will provide an extra gateway into the home, consists of:

  • One or more metering instruments (equipment with a measurement function) at least for electricity and normally also for gas, and sometimes also for water and thermal energy; and

  • The metering system, which has been defined as the metering installation without the separately installed metering instruments.

The metering system contains all the intelligence that is used for communication, storage, and control and is usually (but not necessarily) an integrated part of the electricity meter. The metering system can remotely be read and controlled by the so-called “central access server” (CAS). This is the central application that takes care of the data collection, control, and parametrization commands, and the centralized authorization for access to the metering installation.

The electricity and gas meter, the metering system, and the CAS are owned by the grid company (dark yellow in Figure 1). The CAS is the gateway operating from and to the customer for all market parties including the energy suppliers and third-parties and so-called independent service providers (ISPs). Such ISPs, appointed by the customer, enable commercial services such as smart home appliances, so that customers can manage their own consumption.

In order to operate the meter, a number of interfaces have been defined:

  • P1 – The P1 interface has been defined for the communication between the metering installation and one or more other service modules (e.g., external displays, which might be a part of the service package of an ISP). P1 cannot be used for sending data to the metering system

  • P2 – The P2 interface has been defined for the communication between the metering system and one or more metering instruments and/or grid operator equipments (e.g. gas, water, and heat meters)

  • P3 – The P3 interface has been defined for the communication between the metering installation and the CAS.

  • P4 – The P4 interface has been defined as the port on the CAS with which independent service providers, suppliers, and grid operators gain access to the CAS.

Dutch smart meter specification and tender dossier
A key aspect of the meter definition and of the proposed roll-out in the Netherlands is that interoperability and compatibility between the systems of the various grid companies should be enforced. One of the key issues that has dominated the debate surrounding the NTA 8130 standard is the preferred communication protocol for the various interfaces of the meter. The attention of market parties has been focused on how open access (”open platform approach”) to the meter could be guaranteed. KEMA Consulting assisted the different Dutch grid operators with the more elaborate definition of the standard NTA 8130.

The purposes of this project, commissioned by the Dutch grid companies, were:

  • To find additional meter functionality that was not defined in NTA 8130;

  • To define additional requirements with respect to installation and maintenance;

  • To define quality and performance criteria; and

  • To define so-called companion standards for P1, P2 and P3.

The protocol for communication through P1 and P2 had already been established in NTA 8130. For P1 the physical connection must be realized through an RJ11 connector. The P1 interface is based on IEC 62056-21. Data objects are defined in IEC 62056-61. Functional and technical requirements were provided in NTA 8130.

In the KEMA project, a companion standard for P1 was delivered that holds physical characteristics and protocol definitions for the interface. This standard entails a simple, safe, and clearly defined, low-cost interface, through which the metering system or the data cannot be compromised. Important boundary conditions that needed to be enforced were also realized with this companion standard. The companion standard for P2 focuses on the interfaces for gas, gas valve, heat, cold, and water meters, and is based on the M-bus (EN 13757) standard.

No separate interface has been defined for electricity meters since these meters are technically a part of the metering system. For the physical implementation of P2, there are two possibilities: 1) the wired (in accordance with EN 13757-2) and 2) the wireless (in accordance with EN 13757-4) versions. The M-bus protocol shows some degrees of freedom. By defining a companion standard, the M-bus protocol is implemented in such a way that interoperability is guaranteed for this port. The companion standard for P2 only includes deviations, clarifications, or additions to the standard as defined in the relevant standard documents.

 

The protocol for communication between the metering installation and the CAS (interface P3) has not been established in NTA 8130, although it must still guarantee interoperability. For the physical implementation of the P3 port, Power Line Carrier (PLC), GPRS or Ethernet can be used. The companion standard for P3 is still under development. The goal of this companion standard is to reach an open, standardized protocol implementation based on DLMS/COSEM (IEC 62056), both for the communication interfaces P3 (from the metering installation to the CAS using GPRS or Ethernet) and P3.1 (from the metering installation to the CAS using PLC through a data collector (DC). See Figure 2.

The base set of functionality for the equipment is described in NTA 8130. The project carried out by KEMA has established several additional functional requirements for the smart meter that will be used in the Netherlands. These requirements have been derived from business use cases that have been defined and that the smart meter products will support. The use case technique is used in software and systems engineering to capture the functional requirements of a system. Examples of functionality that were not mentioned in NTA 8130, but that have been found to be necessary, include the provision of the average voltage at the customer’s premise, the limitation of the power consumption of the metering installation, and requirements regarding technical life expectancy. A number of quality and performance criteria have been defined as well. These additional criteria concern the (maximum allowed) data retrieval time and handling times of the metering system.

Finally, as the functionality with respect to installation and maintenance in NTA 8130 was incomplete, the KEMA project also provided a complete set of requirements for installation and maintenance. The purpose of this was to specify the requirements to facilitate a fast, safe, and flawless installation and deployment of equipment, and to enable remote maintenance. These requirements have been specified in such a way that personnel for installation and maintenance need not be highly qualified. The requirements include physical characteristics and functionality to configure equipment. The requirements will be adjusted to the installation strategy of the grid operator. As a part of the installation and maintenance requirements, also a fifth interface has been defined during this project, P0. The P0 interface is not a part of the original NTA 8130 definition, and has been defined to be used for communication with external devices (e.g., hand-held terminals) during installation and on-site maintenance of the metering installation.

Requirements for maintenance are focused on enabling remote maintenance. The equipment shall facilitate remote maintenance through functionality for:

  • Automatic error detection (hardware, software, metrology, etcetera); 

  • Gathering diagnostics; 

  • Configuration of the metering installation (as a whole and individual components); and 

  • Gathering the state of the metering installation (parameters).

Although on-site maintenance shall be kept to a minimum, it is important that the requirements address on-site maintenance, especially planned maintenance including replacement of components.

To summarize, the meter market in the Netherlands will be reformed as a consequence of administrative billing problems, European regulation, and energy-saving objectives. In connection with this, a new Dutch smart meter standard (NTA 8130) has been defined by the Netherlands Standardization Institute. KEMA assisted the Dutch grid operators with the definition of the metering standard (which also includes communication standards). An amount of additional functional requirements has been defined. This project has resulted in a meter definition that enforces both interoperability and compatibility between the systems of the various grid companies.

As an extension to this project, KEMA started an initiative to reach harmonization of the AMI communication standards also on European level. This project will be funded by the European Commission. 
  

 

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