smart grid and data mining

Smart grid recently becomes one of the hottest topics in the industry. By using advanced computer-based remote and automation, people have been bringing utility electricity to a new era. These systems are made possible by two-way communication technology and computer processing that has been used for decades in other industries. They are beginning to be used on electricity networks, from the power plants and wind farms all the way to the consumers of electricity in homes and businesses.

The smart meter is essential component in smart grid system. Compared to the traditional meter, A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters can read real-time energy consumption information including the values of voltage, phase angle and the frequency and securely communicates that data. They can also measure electricity consumption from the grid, support decentralized generation sources and energy storage devices, and bill the customer accordingly.

Smart meters gain higher resolution measurements available to more equipment at wider areas compared to the past. For example, a smart meter collects data by the minute while the old mechanical meter collects data hourly or monthly; a phasor measurement unit (PMU) collects 30-60 data points per second, much faster than the 1 data point per 1-2 second sampling rate of the traditional supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.

 With millions of smart meters and sensors inside buildings and the grid installed, data management and analytics is rapidly becoming a serious challenge for utilities. Thus, today’s grid operators have an unprecedented amount of data, which, in theory, should provide the status of the massive number of devices connected to the power grid. Therefore, for the industry to truly benefit from the smart grid investment, it is critical that the massive amount of data made available by smart grid technologies be transformed into useful information in an organized, coordinated, and prioritized manner that helps grid operators make timely decisions to operate the grid safely, economically, and reliably.