The smart meters are being provided by Swiss firm Landis+Gyr
Landis+Gyr, a Swiss firm which specializes in smart meters and smart grids solutions, said that the grid modernization project underway at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has surpassed 10 million advanced meters and devices installed.
“Our deployment is making smooth progress, and reaching the 10 million endpoints on the network milestone is a clear indication of the efficiency of our program…The target for completion is in 2020, and I believe it can be accelerated, as benefits provided to meeting the customer needs are strong,” said Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Executive Vice President at TEPCO.
The connected platform is enabled by Landis+Gyr’s IPv6 multi-technology network that connects utility and consumer devices using RF Mesh, G3 PLC and cellular communications, providing Wi-SUN compliant connectivity to the premise.
Currently, the network is moving data between devices at a rate of 513 million interval reads per day. When complete, the TEPCO deployment will include more than 27 million meters and millions of other devices transmitting 1.3 billion interval data packets daily. All of these messages are processed by Landis+Gyr’s head-end system and meter data management solution.
“The scale of the project, design requirements and overall goals of this deployment are unprecedented in the industry,” said Richard Mora, CEO of Landis+Gyr. “The challenges of routing and managing this magnitude of data are real, but we’ve been able to meet deployment objectives and are positioned to complete the project ahead of schedule.”
Landis+Gyr’s network and grid management technology currently supports multiple smart grid and smart city initiatives at TEPCO. The deregulation of the Japanese electric market in April 2016 required all meter reads for customers utilizing an alternative retailer to be pushed to a common portal every 30 minutes, allowing the energy retailers near real time access to customer data.
With an average of 1 million smart meters and devices being installed every three months, the Japanese utility surpassed the 10-million-meter mark in less than three full years of deployment. Within seven years, TEPCO will have 30 million utility and consumer devices operating on the network.
TEPCO is the largest electric utility in Japan. The firm provides power services to 45 million people in Japan’s Kanto region, which includes the city of Tokyo, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture.
Landis+Gyr’s portfolio includes standards-based smart grid networks and intelligent devices, analytics and data management, renewable integration and energy storage. Landis+Gyr employs 5,700 people supporting customers in 31 countries.
