Smart Grid

Interested in achieving extended battery life in portable measurement applications?

2013-05-22T18:48:20Z

Blog by William Cooper

Interested in achieving extended battery life in portable measurement applications? Give our MSP430AFE2xx devices a try!

TI “On the Grid” at DESIGN West 2013

2013-04-09T22:19:15Z

Heading to DESIGN West in San Jose later this month? Make sure you stop by TI’s booth (#1607) to explore TI’s latest products from across its embedded portfolios. You will also see our smart grid products in action for metering, grid infrastructure and smart homes/buildings appliations.

Here are the highlights:

Metering:

TI’s Energy Watchdog tool can be used to accurately measure power consumption of any household electrical appliance. The power measurement is performed using the MSP430AFE253 energy metering IC and results are displayed on a LCD screen.

Grid Infrastructure:

TI’s new Smart Data Concentrator Evaluation Module EVM pushes the smart grid to the next level. Based on TI’s Sitara™ AM335x ARM® Cortex™-A8 processors, the EVM includes advanced hardware and software that reduce development time by up to nine months while still supporting connectivity to more than 1,000 smart meters. The Smart Data Concentrator EVM expands the functionality of designs and enables quick connectivity to the smart grid.

Smart Homes and Buildings:

TI is showcasing how easy home automation can be with wireless connectivity solutions. ZigBee and Wi-Fi connected LED lighting, appliances, entertainment equipment and more so consumers have more control and monitoring capabilities inside or outside the home.
TI’s ZigBee solutions allow local control via remote that communicates directly to LED bulbs or remotely through a gateway, which is based on an AM335x BeagleBone Linux computer. The kit revolutionizes ZigBee-enabled LED lighting making it easier to develop new networked lighting products for home and building automation.
The SimpleLink™ Wi-Fi CC3000 model home demonstrates how simple home automation can be. TI’s CC3000 module combined with the MSP430FR5739 microcontroller help users monitor and control home applications through a smartphone or tablet including a thermostat, window-breaking sensor, fan with light, and an RGB light.

We hope to see you at DESIGN West April 23-25!

New! Implementation of a Three-Phase Electronic Watt-Hour Meter

2013-02-28T18:26:00Z

This new application report describes the implementation of a three-phase electronic electricity meter using the Texas Instruments MSP430F677x metering processor. This application report includes the necessary information with regard to metrology software, hardware procedures for this single chip implementation. New videos of interest include:

See what else is new for the Smart Grid here>

View Video
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TI Smart Grid in the news - February 2013

2013-02-27T23:24:00Z

In case you didn’t get a chance to see the interview, Markus Staeblein, general manager for TI’s Smart Grid solutions team recently spoke with Smart Grid Insights / Zpryme Research about the state of the smart grid and TI’s plans for 2013.

Here are a few of the highlights from Markus’ interview:

“Our philosophy at Texas Instruments is that the Smart Grid is a wide range of new applications that makes energy distribution and transmission more efficient, makes energy measurement more accurate, provides real-time information about demand and incidences, and enables providers and consumers to control and manage energy. Data concentrators, smart meters (e-meter, gas, water, heat), home gateways, in-home displays, and thermostats are a few examples. The foundations of these applications are semiconductors, or more precisely embedded processors and analog components. With the urgent need for smart grid implementations across the world, it will be one of the top growth markets for semiconductor companies in upcoming years.”

“In the upcoming year, TI believes the biggest challenge for the smart grid is rooted in communication, meaning the deployment of a robust and reliable network between the meter and data concentrator. Utilities that deploy several different meters from various manufactures in the same environment will also face an interoperability challenge. Standards exist, but they are not ‘plug-and-play.’ The question remains: What is the right communication technology and protocol? These decisions are based on results of test deployments that only simulate a portion of the grid. Another non-technical but important challenge is: What’s in it for the consumer? Will smart meters provide more information to the consumer that allows them to better manage and control their energy?”

“Texas Instruments continues to invest into new technologies, and similar to previous years we will release several new solutions for the smart grid market in 2013. In the first two months of 2013, TI has announced a) fully integrated polyphase smart meter Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) b) a Home Energy Gateway Reference Design integrated with TI’s Sitara AM335x processors, TI’s CC2530 ZigBee® system-on-chip and TI’s WiLink™ 8.0 module, and c) a Smart Data Concentrator Evaluation Module based on TI’s Sitara AM335x processors and PLC and RF technology. In the next few months TI will release a new power analytics board, a new metrology solution, an ARM® Cortex™-M4 application processor, a hybrid dual core communication device, RF and analog front end (AFE) chips and a series of analog products for power, measurement, isolation and communication. These new products will help developers create the next generation of products for the smart grid.”

We'd like to know what you're working on in 2013 - any cool projects or designs that will improve the grid?

For the full interview, check out the Zpryme Q&A session online.

For more information about TI’s Smart Grid solutions – visit www.ti.com/smartgrid

TI's New Home Gateway Solution Reference Design

2013-02-01T17:55:00Z

The easy-to-use HG3352 Home Gateway Reference Design is based on the Sitara™ AM3352 Cortex™-A8 ARM® processor and links home energy systems that use ZigBee to any Wi-Fi® router, so consumers can monitor or control their smart energy devices or home automation systems in the palm of a hand via smartphones or tablets. The reference design supports ZigBee, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity right out of the box to allow developers to create home gateways that can interface with multiple systems, products and applications within a smart home.

Features and benefits of the new HG3352 Home Gateway Reference Design:

TI’s Sitara’s AM3352 ARM Cortex-A8 processor running Linux OS allows developers to create designs in an open-source environment.
Flexible Sitara processor portfolio is scalable from 275MHz to 1GHz based on customers’ performance and cost needs.
Single ZigBee device (CC2530) supports ZigBee Home Automation™ and ZigBee Smart Energy™ standards.
WiLink 8.0 solution supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, and Bluetooth low energy in a single chip.
6-channel power management integrated circuit (TPS650250) with dynamic voltage scaling provides high power efficiency.
2GB of external NAND Flash memory and 2GB of DDR3 memory allow developers to create designs that support significant data storage.
Expansion headers give developers flexibility to support power line communications (PLC) and other wireless standards.
Enabling 6LoWPAN IPv6 wireless connectivity allows developers to create gateways that can connect to new Internet-enabled devices.

For more information, visit www.ti.com/gateway-pr-lp

Alejandro Erives, Sitara ARM Processors Brand Manager

New Data Concentrator Solution is flexible, scalable and easy

2012-12-12T23:48:00Z

TI’s new Data Concentrator system solution pushes intelligence to the edge of the smart grid by efficiently integrating, organizing and aggregating information from e-meter through the world’s energy grid infrastructure. This solution supports Smart Metering - instant read, load profile, billing information, and remote management; Inventory Management - give utilities better visibility into its assets; Optimize Network - real-time topology display, performance management, and benchmarking. See the system block diagram and Click for more detailed information.

Featured Devices:

	•	Sitara™ AM335x ARM® Cortex™-A8 processors, a set of high performance code-compatible devices with industry-specific peripherals and low power consumption for Smart Grid designs.

	•	TMS320F28xxx + AFE03x, 32-bit MCU with Analog Front End, which are programmable for multiple power line communication standards

	•	TPS62175, a 28-V, 500-mA DC/DC converter with the lowest quiescent current in the industry (approx. 4.5uA), and a significant efficiency/energy savings in standby power.

13.56 MHz RFID Demo for ARM® Cortex™-M4F MCUs

2012-10-25T15:27:00Z

Stellaris ARM Cortex-M4F MCUs with floating point are an ideal fit for TI’s numerous wireless connectivity solutions. With their unique combination of low-power consumption and high-performance integrated analog they are designed for the industry’s broadest portfolio of low power and high‐performance devices. Stellaris LM4F microcontrollers take advantage of two significant technologies: the latest ARM Cortex‐M4F core and the design techniques and 65nm process technologies perfected at Texas Instruments. The result is a 32‐bit microcontroller series with processing performance that is more effective per clock cycle, integrated mixed‐signal circuits that are on par with traditional standalone components, flash memory with 100,000 erase‐write cycles and best-in-class power consumption that is highly competitive with other 32‐bit MCUs in both active and standby modes. Such qualities will further increase the breadth of applications powered by Stellaris MCUs and enable applications that were not previously feasible. With a 32‐bit architecture, Cortex‐M microcontrollers enjoy a rich instruction set with far greater flexibility than 8‐ or even 16‐bit architectures and can operate on data that is up to 32‐ bits wide.

The Stellaris LM4F232 evaluation kit showcases the versatility of Stellaris Cortex M4F microcontrollers. The wireless evaluation module connector is not populated on the board and the pads have been laid out on the board for customers who want to solder the headers. For this demo, the headers were soldered to connect a RFID reader module. By making RF design easy, performance‐rich and power‐efficient, Stellaris LM4F MCUs help advance networking applications for personal area networks, mesh and IP networks, proprietary protocols and RFID. Stellaris LM4F MCU and RF solutions are perfect for applications that include, but are not limited to, automatic meter reading (AMR) systems, active and passive RFID/NFC systems and other monitoring and control systems.

This demo showcases RFID capabilities. The question then arises, what is RFID? RFID (radio frequency identification) is a non‐contact automatic identification technology. The contactless transmission of data and automatic target recognition takes place through the RF signal, works in harsh environments and operates quickly and conveniently. According to the different frequency bands, a RFID system can be divided into low and high frequency. This demo demonstrates the RFID low frequency system, which mainly concentrates on the 13.56 MHz band.

This demo includes the 13.56 MHz TRF7970A RFID reader module from Texas Instruments, one ISO/IEC 14443A (MIFARE‐1K) contactless smart card and the Stellaris LM4F232 evaluation kit(See figure 1). This demo shows how to enable and demonstrate RFID capabilities with high levels of security in customers' end equipment via the contactless interface. In the next few months, is an example ISO/IEC 14443A application and firmware. This RFID technology has been selected for most contactless smart card projects and as a result, become the most successful technology within the automatic fare collection industry. In addition, this technology successfully addresses other applications such as loyalty, road tolling, access management and gaming. This solution is based on the ISO/IEC 14443 Type A international standard for proximity card systems consisting of card and reader components with a typical read/write distance of 10 cm (4inches).

Figure 1. Stellaris LM4F232 evaluation kit and 13.56 MHz TRF7970A RFID reader module

The “rfid_mifare” demo application demonstrates communication via ISO/IEC14443A contactless smart cards using the TRF7970ATB EM board connected to the Stellaris LM4F232 evaluation board to access the smart cards. The ISO/IEC 14443A contactless smart cards are “proximity” cards and should be relatively close to the antenna. For best results, lay the card on the antenna area to program. Programming works best if the card maintains a static position. According to ISO/IEC 14443, an intelligent anti-collision function allows more than one card in the field to operate simultaneously. The anti-collision algorithm selects each card individually and ensures that the execution of a transaction with a selected card is performed correctly without data corruption resulting from other cards in the field. The application can read and write blocks on the ISO/IEC 14443A contactless smart cards that are provided with the TRF7960TB EM module. The application continuously attempts to detect and authenticate any MIFARE Classic cards using a hardcoded key (FFFF FF FF FF FF) and then turns on the USER LED when the card is detected and authenticated by the card reader module.

Naveen Kala, System Application Engineer, Smart Grid

Great read: Enabling next gen smart utility meters

2012-10-03T22:30:57Z

Enabling next gen smart utility meters by Milen Stefanov, Texas Instruments
http://www.eetimes.com/design/smart-energy-design/4397599/Enabling-next-gen-smart-utility-meters

TI Smart Grid Experts at Metering Europe in Amsterdam

2012-10-03T21:18:00Z

Metering Europe/Smart Homes 2012 - Conference & Exhibition
October 09 – 11, 2012

Amsterdam RAI
Hall 1, 2, 3 + 4
Entrance K
Europaplein 22
1078 GZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.rai.nl

TI Stand: G30
http://www.metering-europe.com/

ENERGY STAR Connected Appliance Requirements

2012-09-28T15:46:00Z

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently shared Draft 3 of the latest ENERGY STAR specification for Refrigerators and Freezers. A new addition to this specification is an optional “connected” feature. Appliance manufacturers who implement this connected feature will receive an extra 5% allowance towards the energy use criteria of their refrigerator. Additionally, their product will be highlighted as “connected” on the ENERGY STAR qualified product list which might differentiate it from other offerings. Here are key requirements for a refrigerator to qualify as a connected appliance:

The refrigerator should measure and report its energy consumption in real time. This will give consumers useful and actionable feedback such as “It cost $25 to operate your refrigerator this month. Try increasing your temperature setting to save $5 per month”
The refrigerator should be able to receive and respond to remote requests such as adjusting the fridge temperature or turn off ice-making.
The refrigerator should be capable of automatically deferring defrost cycles outside a four hour peak load period. In summer, the peak load period is 3pm to 7pm local time and in winter it is 6am to 10am.
The refrigerator should be capable of receiving and acting upon Demand Response signals. A moderate (13%) load reduction signal is called “Delay Appliance Load” which can last for 4 hours or more. An aggressive (50%) load reduction signal is called “Temporary Appliance Load Reduction” which can last for 10 minutes or more.
The refrigerator should be able to provide its Demand Response status to the user. It should also be able to provide at least two types of alerts such as refrigerator door left open or maintenance reminders.

This new ENERGY STAR specification goes into effect in March 2014. Texas Instruments offers solutions for Energy Measurement, ZigBee and Wi-Fi that will be crucial in enabling appliances to have this connected functionality. In subsequent posts, we will explore each of these requirements in further depth.

So, are you ready to start receiving texts, emails and tweets from your fridge? Post your comments below.

Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid HAN

A smarter grid could have averted last week's India blackout

2012-08-09T20:51:00Z

News of 600 million people in India left without electricity last week after a major grid collapse caught the attention of the entire world. Several reasons and theories regarding what went wrong have been widely discussed. The factors blamed for the major outage include politics, corruption, power hungry states, SCADA power control systems and inadequate rainfall amongst many others. However, fundamentally the power outage was a result of mismatched supply and demand. So here are some thoughts on how the smart grid can help prevent such blackouts in the future:

1) Increased generation using micro-grids

Last week’s power outage in India reminded me of a popular Bollywood movie called “Swades” in which the hero – a NASA engineer on vacation in India - enlists his village folk to build a small hydro power plant to overcome its crippling electricity shortage problem. Mega power projects such as nuclear, coal and hydro are typically the focus for increasing India’s generation capacity. However, they have limitations as each major power plant can take years to build out, can have a huge environmental impact and might face a lot of opposition. Distributed generation or micro grids are a good alternative. Solar or wind farms combined with smaller conventional power plants servicing a limited area can be the answer to more self-sufficient local communities. Such micro grids have another advantage in that they do not need as much infrastructure to distribute the generated electricity.

2) Tracking theft and meter tampering

Electricity theft and meter tampering are a major problem in India and you might have seen telling pictures of a tangled mess of electric wires in urban Delhi or Mumbai. Smart electricity meters can help detect electricity theft and meter tampering. Many electricity meters in India already use ICs such as the MSP430 from Texas Instruments to measure electricity consumption and detect meter tampering. More of such smart e-meter deployments would be helpful in addressing the issue of accurate billing and electricity theft. Obviously, implementing these mechanisms at a low-enough cost point is critical in the Indian market and feature creep must be avoided. Smart meters in the US have capability to send electricity consumption data back to the utility company remotely so a meter reader does not have to come by your house. However, this feature has been absent on many e-meters in India since man-power is available in plenty. Communication between meters and the utility is an important cornerstone of the smartgrid and such features will make their way into the Indian smart meters, albeit in more locally optimized forms.

3) Managing peak loads

It is estimated that one-third of the households in India have never had any electricity to begin with. However, a burgeoning middle class in urban India is using lots and lots of it, for example by running multiple air conditioners in their home. Especially in the brutal Indian summer, this consumption has gone up and has been cited as one of the factors for the blackout. Smart Grid technology can help with peak load management and demand response. Adding load control mechanisms on some of the non-critical appliances or advance notification of a scheduled power cut through SMS on a mobile phone or an In Home Display can help shave peak loads in a more efficient manner. Peak loads are also caused by India’s growing commercial sector which could be incentivized to shift some of their loads to “off-peak” hours through mechanisms such as Time Of Use pricing.

The landscape and situation factors of the electricity problem in India are varied and complex to say the least. What are other solutions you can think of to solve this problem? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid HAN

Smart Energy Profile 2.0 featuring ZigBee®, Ethernet, Wi-Fi

2012-07-13T21:06:00Z

Smart Energy Profile (SEP) 2.0 is an application profile in development that will be used by energy management devices supporting internet protocol (IP). SEP 2.0 is MAC and PHY agnostic so that device manufacturers can implement any MAC/PHY under an IP layer. One of the key advantages of SEP 2.0 is interoperability with existing IP-based networks such as Wi-Fi and Ethernet. A consortium of alliances (ZigBee Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance, Home Plug Alliance, Home Grid Alliance) has been formed to develop consistent test and certification programs across multiple communications media to run the Smart Energy Profile 2.0.

Texas Instruments is one of the few semiconductor vendors capable of providing SEP 2.0 running on multiple physical interfaces such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi, 802.15.4g, and PLC. A video we recently recorded shows a demonstration of how a smart meter and Energy Service Interface (ESI) running SEP 2.0 can be interfaced with an Android tablet via Wi-Fi.

Are you thinking of implementing a product with SEP 2.0? We would love to hear from you.

Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid HAN

Check out these new Smart Grid white papers, authored by TI energy experts!

2012-06-06T23:35:32Z

Developing robust power line communications (PLC) with G3

Channel modeling of medium to low voltage links for AMI applications of PLC

Evaluating the low-frequency power line communications channel in Rural North America

Sub-metering made easy using Texas Instruments energy measurement ICs

Meet TI Smart Grid Experts at SG Paris 2012

2012-06-01T23:05:32Z

Smart Grids PARIS 2012 Exhibition & Conference
Exhibition on Smart Grid Technologies
(de l’exposition Smart Grids Paris 2012)
June 20-22 - Paris, France

http://www.sgparis2012.com/115-exhibition-conference-on-smart-grids-technologies

What has your smart meter done for you lately?

2012-05-31T23:13:00Z

Smart meters are being deployed throughout the US. In Dallas, our Transmission & Distribution company – Oncor is pressing more than 3 million meters into service by the end of 2012. I already have a smart meter at my home and noticed a surcharge of $2.19 every month on my electricity bill. This led me to ask the question – “What are these smart meters doing for us?”. Here are a few things that I came up with.

Smart meters use metering ICs such as the MSP430F67xx to measure the energy consumed. This allows for extremely accurate measurements and bills.
Smart meters in Texas have a <1-GHz radio such as TI’s CC1101 to communicate with the utility. Energy consumption data is sent to a data concentrator in the field that aggregates data from multiple meters before sending it back to the utility. With a smart meter, the utility company no longer has to send out meter readers to your house. The smart meters also enable the utility to instantly know when there is a power outage. Gone are the days when you had to call the utility to report an outage.
The utility can also send signals to your meter. These might include Time of Use (TOU) or Demand Response (DR) signals that can help utilities shed peak loads. However, another signal the utility can send to your meter is the remote disconnect signal. So make sure you pay your bill on time.
SmartMeterTexas.com is a portal that is sponsored by a consortium of utilities in Texas. This site processes information received from your smart meter and provides you energy consumption data in 15-minute increments. You can also review your daily and monthly usage to gain an understanding of usage patterns and come up with energy conservation ideas. SmartMeterTexas.com can also be used to commission and decommission Home Area Network (HAN) devices such as In Home Displays (IHDs) and Smart Thermostats. Although energy consumption data from the smart meter is sent to the utility several times a day, it takes around 2 days for this data to show up on the Smart Meter Texas portal. This is apparently because the portal has to validate and format the data per certain guidelines before presenting it to consumers. A similar nationwide initiative called Green Button will make energy consumption data accessible to smart meter users in many more parts of the country.
The Smart Meters have another IC such as the CC2530 running the ZigBee Smart Energy Profile. This is for communication with HAN devices such as IHDs. The IHD can connect directly to the Smart Meter and display energy consumption information in near real-time. Devices such as smart thermostats, smart appliances, and load controllers can receive TOU or DR signals to reduce peak loads. Some Retail Electricity Providers (REPs) provide incentives if you enrol in a demand response program. Time of use pricing can help consumers directly shave many dollars off their monthly electricity bill. An indirect benefit of smart meters is that we can avoid the cost of building extra generation capacity just to supply these peak demands.

Some benefits of Smart Meters are obvious while others are indirect. As we head into the summer season, these smart meters can be pivotal in keeping our cooling costs under control by increasing our energy consumption awareness. Smart meters can also eliminate the need for mechanisms such as rolling blackouts currently used to reduce peak energy demand. I feel that my smart meter is definitely worth every penny of the $2.19 I am charged every month.

What do you think? What has your smart meter done for you lately?

Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid Solutions, Texas Instruments Inc.