Determining Operational Constraints for IoT-Based Advanced Metering Infrastructure

In the present paper, different devices and configurations for the implementation and deployment of an advanced metering infrastructure based on Internet of Things in electrical distribution systems are proposed. They are evaluated as an alternative for the conventional PLC-based smart-metering infrastructure. The IoT solutions are described from the point of view of their architecture, software and operational procedure for obtaining the data. After running a battery of tests, the proposed alternatives are compared in terms of performance. The conclusions that can be extracted from this study will allow the researchers to determine whether or not a given configuration is applicable for a specific application since conventional smart metering infrastructure does not provide the necessary bandwidth to be used in some cases like for instance real time flexibility management in low-voltage networks.