AMI RF Mesh Propagation Michael Macfarlane Manager Strategy

AMI RF Mesh Propagation Michael Macfarlane Manager Strategy & Technology CIGRÉ APD 2 4 th May 2011

Jemena Electricity Distribution Network JEN Distribution Area JEN – Key Statistics • Covers 950 km 2 in the central west to northwest area of greater Melbourne including Tullamarine International Airport • 10, 285 km of electricity distribution lines • 320, 000 end users • One of two Victorian electricity distribution networks managed by Jemena • Assets include: • 23 Zone Substations • 5, 150 Distribution Substations • 103, 000 Poles • 1, 684 km's of HV-OH Lines • 495 km's HV-UG Cable • 64, 000 Public Lights 2

United Energy Distribution UED – Key Statistics • Covers 1450 km 2 Services south east Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula • 12, 530 km of electricity distribution lines • 680, 000 end users • One of two Victorian electricity distribution networks managed by Jemena • Assets include: • 45 Zone Substations • 11, 000 Distribution Substations • 204, 000 Poles • 4, 400 km's of HV-OH Lines • 850 km's HV-UG Cable • 117, 715 Public Lights 3

AMI Functionality (Victorian Mandate) Existing Meter: § Register Reads § Basic Load Control AMI Meter: § Interval Data § Integrated Home Area Network (HAN) § Remote Reads § Remote Energise/Reenergise § Remote Load Control § Supply Capacity Control § Service Levels § Outage detection § Quality of Supply § Direct Load Control 4

AMI Program – Deployment Targets Victorian customers will all receive an AMI meter between September 2009 and December 2013. AMI meters are being deployed to households in the Jemena and UED networks from September 2009 based upon the following Deployment Targets AMI Program Deployment Targets AMI Deployment Targets Year Target Meters Installed June 30, 2010 5% December 15, 2009 2% 10, 000 Jen / 10, 000 UED December 31, 2010 10% June 30, 2010 5% 15, 198 JEN / 32, 000 UED June 30, 2011 25% December 15, 2010 15% 45, 594 JEN / 96, 011 UED June 30, 2012 60% December 31, 2011 50% 151, 979 JEN / 320, 037 UED June 30, 2013 95% December 31, 2012 85% 258, 364 JEN / 544, 063 UED December 31, 2013 100% May 31, 2013 100% 303, 958 JEN / 640, 074 UED 5

AMI Technology AMI System Complies with DPI Functional Spec 6

AMI LAN Design • Access Point 900 Mhz ISM • 3500 meters per Access Point • ~5 Relays per Access Point to increase coverage area • Battery Backed • Telstra 3 G Mobile data backhaul AMI Access Point AMI Relay 7

Initial Rollout Approach • Begin in high density areas first, then move to rural communications ahead of meters 8

A Traditional AMI Deployment • Takes 4 Years to reach all areas • Incremental rollout of LAN infrastructure ahead of Meters • Focuses on high density (quick) regions first • Only allows AMI meters to be deployed in AMI areas (as AMI remotely read) • Highly efficient for AMI installers 9

An Alternative Rollout Approach • In January 2011, UED & JEN accelerated their AMI communications rollout – to cover 95% of the meter population by June 2011 – to allow meter installed within that area has a better than 95% chance of communicating – so new connections, solar installs, etc. can be installed as AMI meters – and business as usual can transition from legacy processes earlier – Halt purchasing traditional Meters (thousands per month) 10

Accelerated Communications Pilot • Accelerated LAN thin mesh concept • 1 Access Point, 5 Relays & 620 AMI meters • Installed in a thin Mesh grid 180 linear meters in a grid pattern to emulate the • Thin mesh concept verified but under target objectives (<95% success) • Density of external antennas installed was too low • Grid scale reduced to 130 linear meters for actual rollout 11

Strategic LAN Infrastructure Packet Success Threshold: 1% 95% 90% 80% 12

Thin Mesh Meter Deployment Route Planning, 3 Candidates per Grid Cell 5% of Population 13

Thin Mesh Forming 14

Thin Mesh Installation Continues • Quality of installation information is important when analysing network performance. e. g. location, meter enclosure type and antenna installed • Most (96%) of Access Points and Relays have now been installed • Deploying 5% of the meters in this way is providing coverage to 95% of meters with better than 95% success rate 15

Westfield Doncaster Shopping Town Embedded Network 16

Indoor RF Propagation 17

Concrete and Steel ~ Faraday Cage • 14 Meter Rooms • 159 Tier 2 AMI meters • 100% Reliable AMI Comm’s Required 18

Indoor AMI RF Penetration RF PROPAGATION [915 MHz] 200 m to 1000 s of m in free space 130 m in urban areas 30 -80 m indoors 19

The Challenge • The shopping centre environment of distributed meter rooms, concrete, glass, concrete, multiple levels and more concrete is not conducive to the transmission of RF • The vendor did not have a predefined communications design for this type of environment • The shopping centre did not want any of the LAN communications equipment to be visible in the public areas • The Embedded Network Tier 2 meter count was likely to diminish as more customers switch to the embedded service provider 20

Field Survey – Desktop Analysis 21

159 Meters Installed in the Doncaster Labyrinth External AMI Antenna 22

Practical Relay Test Locations 23

Relay on Roof Relay in Loading Dock Relay on Roof 24

Post install of 3 relays • 159 Meters became 97 Meters, all but 3 are communicating reliably • Finding power and suitable areas way from the pubic was difficult but achieved. • Shopping centre management provided unrestricted access to the entire complex in order to get the most suitable locations for our communications equipment • Technical success, the embedded network is now working, designed and installed with in house ability and knowledge. • We all got some good exercise as walking around the shopping centre we did about 7 kms each time we visited, there was also decent coffee! 25

Questions Michael Macfarlane michael. macfarlane@jemena. com. au 26