A Large-Scale Wireless Network Approach for Intelligent and Automated Meter Reading of Residential Electricity

Control of electrical energy consumption is a critical aspect when electric companies try to establish the correct balance between the supply and demand of energy. Current solutions are based on experience, historical demand behavior and global control of the electrical grid, but they lack of detailed information about users consumption behavior. In the future, electric companies will need to know, almost in real time, user needs on energy to avoid extra costs of an over provisioning infrastructure or a lack of service during peak times. In this paper we address network topology, capacity planning and security issues of an IT platform, based on wireless sensor networks, to meet the new market requirements. The resulting automated control system will be able to provide real-time control of user demands, as well as to open the market to future services in this area: differential billing schemes, remote control and others.