Experimental measurements of the new gas smart meters' current discharges to suggest improvement solutions for power supply battery life extension

Several reasons justified introducing the smart metering concept in the gas distribution sector and supporting its digitalization. Specifically, among their functionalities, the new smart meters would improve the ability to identify abnormal consumption or malfunctions in the gas grid or at customers’ appliances as soon as possible, improving the gas distribution system’s safety performance. The installation and operation of gas smart meters result in a significant amount of data to be managed. Specifically, gas consumption, the supply pressure, and information about the status of the device, such as the events that occurred, are some of the data communicated daily to the gas Distribution System Operators (DSOs). However, despite the advantages, some drawbacks were first experienced by the DSOs, requiring unplanned intervention and increasing the operative costs. Among these, the discharge of the batteries sooner than expected increases the operative costs. In fact, due to ATEX safety aspects, the smart meters are not directly connected to the electric grid but they are powered by batteries that have to be replaced only by authorized personnel. The present paper reports the preliminary results obtained during an experimental campaign to investigate the impact of data communication on the battery lifetime. Specifically, four communication protocols that differ in the number of data strings and the communication frequency were compared, and preliminary conclusions were given.