Distributed generation monitoring: a cost-effective Raspberry Pi-based device

The evolution of the distribution grids towards the smart grid paradigm requires the implementation of a telecommunication network overlayed to the distribution grid. To achieve this target a new generation of reliable, cheap, and easily deployable smart meters needs to be developed. This paper presents a smart meter that fits in a series of possible implementations from the household metering to the distributed generation monitoring. The Raspberry Pi ecosystem is chosen for this purpose due to low cost and a highly reliable technology to develop an easy-deployable smart meter, to collect the principal magnitudes of interest of the monitored side and make them accessible from Laptop or mobile phone. The designed device is realized and deployed in a secondary substation to monitor a PV power plant in the ASM Terni distribution network.