Recently news has come in that in Denmark they have used Fiber Optic communication for AMR. In 2003 a Group in India led by me proposed a project on smard metering which had very innovative use of fiber optic communication.The communication from the meter was thru transreciever at 433 MHZ and this was to a data logger which had two parts one for wireless and other for the single strand fiberoptic cable which was to be clipped to the distribution line.Eight of such data loggers were to be inked to a Fiber optic modem which will get the data from data logger and send it in burst mode to the modenm installed at utility end.The data download at the utility end was very fast.Thefeasibility of this solution was verified and cost calulated as 32 Dollar per consumer.The data logger was to have storage capacity for one week of data and also capability to do maths. The system had diastributed cmputing and one could down load data from the data logger using certain mobile devices as well.

This system was not accepted by the Consultant to the project - Power grid corp of India as it required liecensing for 433 MHZ. Instead GSM was to be used for the Meter reading which incidently was simple remote meter reading.However subsequent developments have verified the bsics of this project wwhich from all accounts was first smart metering project of Asia.However the fiber optic part was accepted for linking and monitoring 33/11stations but when tender appeared not one co in India had experience of this sort so we could not collaborate.The system is highly sophisticated as far as technology was concerned but it was not built as there were no approval from govt consultants.

Now with the usage by Denmark I believe the circle is complete.Single strand of Fiber optic over earth wire is an excellent solution to communication problem and it could easily inegrate all the communication needs of the utility related to DA/ DSM/ Demand response etc.In fact this will be the only solution for seamless integration of utility without the danger of hackingAll those interested to know more can send me an e-mail at alokmisr23@rediffmail.com

Danish utility is testing one of the most advanced Smart grid project using cell technology and Fiber optic Communication in final stages