Enlit Europe 2023: Hydrogen-ready smart meters, networks and digitalising substations

In this special Enlit Europe 2023 edition of Technology Trending, Jonathan Spencer Jones highlights Nimbus and Globy – the new hydrogen and electricity smart meters, a new fast network deployment partnership and digitalising smart secondary substations are on the week’s technology radar.

Nimbus: Italgas' new hydrogen-ready smart meter

Italgas has unveiled its new hydrogen-ready smart gas meter under the name ‘Nimbus’, with the first 20,000 units going into the field by around year-end for testing during 2024 and wide-scale rollout across Italy to start in 2025.

Nimbus, which was conceived and designed within Italgas and is being manufactured by the Italian companies Bitron and MeteRSit, uses thermo-mass-based technology for measurement of natural gas and methane-hydrogen blends up to 23%.

Features include NB-Iot and LoRaWAN for primary communication and mesh for back up, a battery lifetime up to 15 years, and a large display with information in three languages available – Italian, English and a third of choice.

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In addition, a range of advanced safety features with automatic switch off are included, among them pressure and temperature detection, seismic sensing for earthquake detection and anti-tampering sensors.

“Nimbus is the most advanced smart gas meter in the world,” asserted Italgas Reti CEO Pier Lorenzo Dell’Orco at its launch, pointing to its emergence from Italgas’s digital transformation plan.

In the first phase of the large-scale rollout Italgas plans to deliver Nimbus to over 5 million customers in Italy as a replacement for older GPRS meters by 2029 and also to start installations in its operations in Greece.

In addition, and alongside a new end-to-end meter-to-cash offering, Nimbus should be made available to the international market by Italgas’s digital unit Bludigit.

The new platform, Deva, is designed for data acquisition and analytics and management of smart metering for water and gas.

Globy – the new electricity smart meter

Gridspertise has revealed the name of its new smart meter and smart meter platform as ‘Globy’.

As previously reported Globy is aimed to maximize coverage and connectivity for DSOs, even in rural areas, with the facility to switch or adapt the communication technology directly in the field, from options including G3 Hybrid PLC and RF Mesh, Cellular LTE-M and NB-IoT.

A new fast network deployment partnership launches

IoT solution providers Kerlink and OrbiWise have launched a partnership that is aimed to package “integrated, ready-to-use network solutions that are quick and easy for users to master, without further evaluation and testing” for smart metering and other smart building and city applications.

The partnership will see Kerlink’s Wirnet indoor and outdoor gateways fully integrated with OrbiWise’s OrbiWAN carrier-grade LoRaWAN® network servers, which can be hosted in the cloud or deployed in customer’s premises.

The two companies are no strangers, having worked jointly on projects since the launch of the LoRa Alliance in 2015.

With the new partnership, they can offer a high-performing combined end-to-end solution to meet the needs expressed by customers.

Digitalising smart secondary substations

Intel has revealed that its technology is powering the Edge for Smart Secondary Substations (E4S) Alliance’s new solution to digitalise these substations, of which there are around 17 million in Europe.

The virtualised software solution is based on Intel Core processors and includes AI and Internet of Things capabilities and networking technology to enable providers to adapt rapidly to changing demand patterns and integrate more intermittent renewables at the edge.

Other features include both real-time execution at the edge and real-time radio and cable communications between utilities and their substations in order to enable easier integration of future applications such as weather predictions and maintenance schedules.

A similar version of grid modernisation technology for primary substations – the Virtual Protection, Automation and Control (vPAC) solution – is also being developed and deployed in the US in collaboration with the vPAC Alliance.

The E4S solution is to be trialled in the field during 2024. Following adoption in Europe, the next target is to have the solution adopted globally.

Members of the E4S Alliance include ABB, Ariadna Grid, Barbara, Capgemini, Circutor, Dell Technologies, Enedis, E-REDES, Gridspertise, Iberdrola, Intel, Kalkitech, Labelec, Landis+Gyr, Merytronic, Minsait, Ormazabal, Sagemcom, Schneider Electric, TTTech Industrial, UFD (Grupo Naturgy), VMware and ZIV Automation.

Originally published on smart-energy.com