Dynamic electricity prices and smart meter data: from price range to billing and load optimization

For many industrial and commercial users, the cost of electricity is increasingly determined not only by how much energy is consumed, but also by when the energy is taken from, fed into, or stored in the grid.

Therefore, the metering and billing architecture must accurately retain the time attributes corresponding to imported and exported electricity. According to the specific electricity pricing plan, it can be achieved through interval recording, rate registers, or other recognized time-series data methods.

A complete time-varying electricity price or dynamic electricity price project requires not only the installation of a smart smart meter, but also the coordination of the following elements:

Price range and rate period;

Smart meter recording interval or rate register;

Electricity smart meter clock and time zone;

Data collection and validation;

Rate calculation and billing calculation;

Optimization data of energy management system;

Customer facing billing and data reporting.

The core issue of the project is:

What data, time mechanism, and system architecture are required for a project before time-varying or dynamic electricity prices can be accurately charged and used for load optimization?

Accurate dynamic electricity pricing requires time alignment between smart meter data and price data through clear, traceable, and auditable methods.

The following time periods may exist simultaneously in the same project:

Price release time cycle;

Rate period;

. smart meter recording interval;

Refresh cycle of electricity smart meter register;

Data collection cycle;

. HES collection cycle;

. MDM aggregation cycle;

Billing cycle;

EMS polling cycle;

Market settlement cycle.

These cycles are not necessarily the same.

For example, when prices change every hour and the smart meter records interval energy every 15 minutes, the billing architecture can adopt any of the following recognized methods:

Aggregate four validated 15 minute intervals and apply hourly prices;

Apply the same hourly price to each of the four 15 minute intervals.

The method used should produce equivalent, traceable, and auditable results under applicable rate rules.

The required data depends on the electricity price design, billing rules, smart meter roles, system architecture, and optimization goals.

Not every project requires all fields, and not all fields are directly generated by the electricity smart meter.

Key billing data may include:

Imported electricity from the interval, which refers to the electricity taken from the power grid;

Interval export electricity refers to the electricity fed into the power grid;

Rate register value;

Time stamp;

Identification of electricity smart meters or measuring points;

Measurement interval;

Unit of measurement;

Import or export direction;

Clock status of the electricity smart meter when available;

Time zone information;

Rate period attribution;

Price source and price identification;

Rate scheme version;

Rate calendar version;

Billing rule version;

Data quality or verification status;

Identification of measured, missing, estimated, replaced, or corrected data;

The correlation between original records and corrected records;

The handling method of electricity pricing and feed compensation.

Not all fields are directly generated by the electricity smart meter.