Technical and financial assessments for comparison of measurement technologies in the Smart City Buzios Project

Abstract

In the moment of the definition of smart metering (SM) technology that will be adopted to look for micro and mini distributed generation, the utilities should pay attention to technical and financial aspects of this strategic decision. In this study it is considered the information of the measuring systems of an electric utility company in Brazil along with data on the deployed SM technology used in the Smart City Buzios Project (SCBP). This article is based on the methodological approach described in the document suggested by the Regulatory Agency for Electric Energy in Brazil (ANEEL). Considering among others, the aspects: time horizon, update rate, product quality, energy cost, equipment cost, operating cost, failure rate, final disposal, replacement cost, workforce to change the equipment, and idle cost. This research will consider some benefits as: meters replacement, reduction in local measure readings, technical losses reduction, non-technical reduction, and change of user habits. These evaluations are made within the SCBP and it serves as the basis for related research in places with different measurement technologies deployed, and the system need a technologically upgrade due to generation distributed deployment systems that will be installed.