Smart Metering: Smart Meters Need To Cater To The Development Direction Of Smart Grids

China Power News: Data show that in the past three years, the number of bids for smart meters of the State Grid Company has continued to decrease, what is the reason for this situation? What is the domestic and international market space in the next few years?

Tian Zhongping: The continuous decrease in the number of smart meter tenders of the State Grid Corporation is a feature of the saturation of market demand. Since the smart grid transformation began in 2009, it has been 9 years, and a round of smart meter replacement has been basically completed. The life of the smart meter is 10 years, and the quality and technical Supervision Bureau requires that it be replaced once every 5 to 8 years, so the subsequent annual replacement volume is basically stable.

The market space in the next few years is basically stable. It is expected that by 2020, nearly 2 billion smart meters will be installed worldwide, the smart grid will cover 80% of the world's population, and the smart meter penetration rate will reach 60%.

China Power News: How much is the annual output of Wasion smart meters? What is the market share at home and abroad? What are the advantages?

Tian Zhongping: At present, Wasion has an annual production capacity of more than 35 million single-phase meters and 6.2 million three-phase meters. Wasion took the lead in developing China's first multifunctional electronic watt-hour meter, China's first 0.2S high accuracy electronic multifunctional watt-hour meter, and was the first enterprise in China to pass the DLMS/COSEM conformity test certification.

In the overseas market, Wesson has obtained KEMA/DLMS/UL and other internationally certified products, and its products have been exported to nearly 70 countries and regions around the world. Up to now, the overseas online operation meter has reached nearly 10 million units.

China Power News: What is the overall manufacturing level of smart meters in China? Where is the technology going?

Tian Zhongping: The overall manufacturing process of smart meters in China has been greatly improved, and the gap with some well-known international manufacturers has been gradually narrowing.

At present, China is a major supplier of electricity meters in the world, and key components can be fully localized and no longer need to rely on imports. For example, the most critical components of smart meters -- metering chips, the current domestic manufacturers can independently produce Juquan Optoelectronics, Sharpeng Micro, the management of manufacturers have Fudan Micro.

Electric energy metering products are metering products for trade settlement, and the quality requirements of the products are very high. After the product is installed online, it is required to be stable, reliable and consistent in performance throughout the life cycle.

In order to adapt to the use of smart grid and new energy, smart meters also need to have intelligent functions such as electricity consumption information storage, two-way multi-rate metering function, client control function, two-way data communication function of multiple data transmission modes, and anti-theft function. The development of smart meter technology needs to meet the development direction of energy-saving smart grid in the future.