Both the industry and the households have had access to electrical energy. In Norway it is common to use electrical energy for space heating, and the electricity consumption per inhabitants is among the highest in the world.
From an environmental and energy efficiency point of view it is very important to do research on how to increase the awareness related to the use of electricity. Our research on smart meters will contribute to a change in how we are dealing with the use of electricity. The Regulator has decided that smart meters should be installed at all customers within 1 January 2019. Smart meters will send information of the consumption automatically to the Distribution System Operator (DSO), and the customers do not have to read their meter manually. The meter values will be available for both the customer and their supplier within 09:00 the next morning.
Smart meters gives the possibility for automatic metering of the electricity consumption, principally on an hourly basis, but according to the regulations it should be possible to change the metering frequency to 15 minutes. Some meter types even have the possibility to meter the consumption with a higher metering frequency. These meterings will contribute to a more efficient and correct settlement, improve information for the customer about their own consumption, but they are also an important information basis for a well-functioning power market and to be used for improved control and operation of the grid. Additionally, smart meters can have the possibility for registration of events in the grid (i.e. outages, earth faults.) or other parameters (voltage, current).
Through several project focusing on flexible distribution grid, smart meters give important data to be used further in research on topics such as demand response, grid tariffs, prosumers, voltage quality/security of supply, efficient grid operation.
Projects: