The challenges of deploying smart metering in Hong Kong

A way to engage utility customers for better energy management is to provide them with more detailed electricity consumption information that is readily available at their fingertips. A means to do this is to modernize the electricity grid through Smart Metering where older meters are replaced with “smarter” ones and then connecting them all up with communications so that the data can flow back to the Data Collection Centre. With the uniqueness and density of Hong Kong, this is where it can get tricky. The performance of the communications infrastructure will determine the success of Smart Metering. If the performance and reliability are poor, it has direct impact on the system's effectiveness and how “fresh” the data is. This paper describes these deployment challenges and the application of different communication technologies in the local environment.