[olug] OT: Re: Real time utility reading / software defined radio

[Dan Anderson]

I've done some work in the AMR/AMI area - thoughts below.

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 10:27 PM, Rob Townley <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:
> Anybody managed to read the Radio Frequency signals from their water,
> gas, electric or utility meters?  If not, somebody has to have a
> software defined radio itching for a useful project to use it on.

You have a couple barriers; the protocols are either proprietary or
something like zigbee, they are usually (almost always across the
board - always for modern ones) encrypted, and unless the device is a
broadcast only device - it only talks when it receives an
authenticated query.  If it is a broadcast device then it just wakes
up and sends an encrypted packet with the reading periodically.

Also, if you do anything that they can describe as "tampering" you
will probably end up in legal trouble (or at least in the dark).  I
don't know about Nebraska utilities, but other public utilities
actively monitor for tampering and service theft using technical and
non-technical means.

> For the most part, i think Omaha utilities are inexpensive and do a
> great job and am glad utility bills are seemingly low.   However,
> multiple times over the last several years i have asked whether a home
> computer outfitted with a receiver could automatically read the
> utility usage, but no Omaha utility has a public plan for allowing
> this.

Um, yea, I can't see them giving you the keys - even for the broadcast
type.  It's one of those risk/reward things, they have no reason to
share the info and a lot of reasons not to share.

>There may be a way with OPPD to read it from a webpage, but the
> last time i looked, it was far from real time.  i am still contacting
> people about it, but time is becoming of the essence.  A local utility
> seems to be heavy handed with the FUD about needing to install an RF
> meter reader or we risk being disconnected.  i have no problem with
> it, but i want my money spent on systems that allow consumers to
> monitor energy usage in real time.  Better for me, better for Omaha,
> better for the environment.  That is why we have elections.

There are available consumer options for real-time monitoring of
electrical usage (within code you can add whatever you want on the
other side of your utility provided meter).  Automated metering can be
a huge cost saver for utilities, this is important for us since our
utilities are public.  So, yea, get the new meter and save us all some
money - if you want to be able to monitor your usage add your own
meter to your side of the supply (really, more useful/actionable would
be one of the single outlet type meters - then you would see exactly
what each tested appliance, etc was drawing - these are also available
on the internet).

I am also not sure I would consider their demand for you to upgrade to
the new meter FUD.  Normally the utility owns the meter.  I suspect
they are trying to set up a mutually agreeable time to do the upgrade
- they generally have legal rights of access to their equipment.

> Homeowners wanting to receive the meter RF broadcasts should have been
> put into the design years ago and some communities have carried that
> out.  Or if the utility usage is automatically uploaded to a website
> hourly, then a way for the consumer to retrieve it.

This is a public utility, I doubt that enough customers care to read
their meters in real-time to warrant OPPD or any other public utility
to justify spending the additional infrastructure costs to satisfy
your curiosity.

I doubt you will ever get the type of data you are looking for from
the utility (at least not for 10-20 years) - their requirements for
the devices are; low cost, easy install, extremely low power usage,
high reliability/low maintenance, sufficient level of security and
data that is timely and accurate enough for billing (meaning basically
monthly, maybe weekly or daily, on the extreme hourly, certainly not
real-time).  Real-time consumer accessible data would require much
more complicated/expensive AMR devices with no payoff for the majority
of consumers or the utility.

Don't get me wrong, the utilities have real-time info, but not
generally to the individual residence level - they get their info from
substations and maybe from certain large consumers (manufacturing,
etc).

If it is any consolation, on all of the systems I've got my hands on,
you can still go read the meter's dials whenever you want.

Dan