Ameren Smart Meter, OpenADR and Polisy

[DaveStLou]

Ameren Missouri last week installed a Landis+Gyr smart electric meter at our house. While Ameren has given us nothing more than press releases touting the "exciting" new features and access that we'll have in the future, I did some cursory research and discovered some references to OpenADR protocol with these types of meters.

I also found reference to OpenADR support by default beginning with version 5.0.1.  References in the UD Wiki reference only ISY at this point and it is ALL new to me, so excuse the nube questions I have:

• How does (or will) this work?
• What do I need to make it work?
• Anything else I need to know (or what should I be asking)?

Thanks!

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi @DaveStLou,

OpenADR and Smart Meters are two different things. Smart Meter allows you to have real time access to the whole house energy usage/production (in case of solar). Smart Meters use Zigbee for communications. OpenADR, on the other hand, is an Internet based communication protocol that allow utilities to communicate with behind-the-meter devices and give them signals such as real time prices, load on the grid, etc. usually used for Demand Response.

So, what exactly are they offering?

With kind regards,
Michel

[DaveStLou]

 

19 minutes ago, Michel Kohanim said:

So, what exactly are they offering?

Hi @Michel Kohanim,

I really know very little. According to this page which is similar to the handout they gave me, "Customers with an upgraded smart meter can choose from a suite of rate options including our new Off-Peak/On-Peak (TOU) rates. These rates offer the opportunity to save on your bill if you can shift your energy usage to off-peak hours."

The meter is pictured below. I assume that since it's sitting in plain view on the outside of my house, the information in the picture is does not provide access to my usage. It does say it's a ZigBee certified product.

[Michel Kohanim]

@DaveStLou,

Thank you. Please ask them whether or not you can have 3rd party HAN devices connect to the meter.

With kind regards,
Michel