Optimization Strategy for Smart Meter Rotation Plan Considering Time and Workload Constraints

Smart meter rotation is one of the technical measures to ensure the accuracy of electricity meters. However, the formulation of smart meter rotation plan only focuses on the rotation cycle of smart meters, which is easy to cause great pressure on the rotation workers at the end of the year, and it is difficult to arrange the rotation work for the power company. Therefore, an optimization strategy for the smart meter rotation plan considering time and workload constraints is proposed. The minimum total number of on-site operations in the distribution systems is taken as the optimization goal, and constraints such as monthly workload, holidays, inventory, and rotation cycle are considered. Then, the Cplex solver is used to solve the multivariate linear integer optimization model for smart meter rotation schedule. Finally, case studies on the smart meter rotation plan of Zhejiang electric power corporation in China are performed for verifying the effectiveness of the proposed smart meter rotation strategy. The simulation results show that the workload at the end of the year and the total number of on-site operations in the distribution systems can be greatly reduced by the proposed strategy.