Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 57

Merging the physical and digital world also
has implications for privacy and security. As
with data connection, the connections that allow
remote machines to act without human operators
are subject to hacking by unauthorised people,
criminals or terrorists. The data collected via
health monitoring could be abused. For example,
the in-home controllers for smart grid applications
(such as controllers that can selectively turn air-
conditioning or appliances on and off to save
energy or take advantage of lower tariff rates at
times of day) have implications on home privacy
and autonomy. These issues will need to be
addressed before society and businesses will
be able to reap the full benefits of the Internet of
Things.
Electricity Infrastructure
Electricity utilities have been among the
early adopter enterprises. By bringing plants,
equipment, other assets of electricity utility grid
infrastructure (generation, transmission and
distribution network) and electricity consumers
into the connected world, the IoT enables new
ways of monitoring and managing all the “moving
parts” that make up the electricity utility business.
At any moment, management can see the status
and flow of goods and materials through the utility
grid infrastructure to its connected consumers.
By monitoring these critical assets in real time,
the utility company can better gauge and control
usage, optimise network performance and avoid
disruptions by engaging in condition-based
preventive maintenance of these assets. This
means that rather than waiting to receive calls
from customers whose lights have gone out,
the electricity company can locate a failure as it
happens and, under some circumstances, even
restore power by rerouting service around the
failed transmission, distribution or generating
equipment.
Smart electrical grid systems are an important
IoT application, with a potential annual value of
about US$200 to US$500 billion by 2025 [Ref.1].
The bulk of this impact would come from demand-
side management applications that could reduce
costly peak generation, which often requires
utilities to buy electricity at the highest rates from
the electricity market or invest in extra peaking
capacity plants such as fast-response gas-turbine
generators. Many commercial customers already
avoid scheduling energy-intensive processes
and production during periods of peak power/
energy demand, when costs are at their highest,
and some have formal agreements with utilities
to reduce usage whenever demand reaches a
certain level.
With IoT-embedded smart grids, consumers
can let the utility company automatically power
down high-use systems and appliances during
periods of peak demand or they can make
their own choices based on real-time tariff
rate information (time-of-use pricing) that the
company provides. DSM could reduce peak power
(Megawatt) capacity demand by 2% to 4% and
cut overall energy demand (Megawatt-hours) by
1% to 2%. This would allow utilities (such as TNB)
to avoid building potentially billions of Ringgit
worth of additional peak generating capacity and
transmission & distribution infrastructure.
IoT sensors embedded in smart grids can
monitor and diagnose network problems in real-
time to prevent unplanned outages and reduce
corrective maintenance costs through condition-
based preventive maintenance strategy. At the
user end, smart meters equipped with two-way
communication capabilities could reduce outage
time and enable faster outage restoration. They
can also enable remote automatic meter reading,
eliminating the need for personnel to gather that
information.
Implications
The Internet of Things is such a sweeping
technology development that it is a challenge to
even prognose all the possible ways in which it will
affect businesses, economies, and society. For the
first time, computers are now able to receive data
from almost any kind of physical object, enabling
managers and operators to monitor the well-being
and performance of plants, machines, equipment
and even people.
Hardware manufacturers that supply sensors,
actuators and communications devices will
continue to refine their products and reduce costs.
For example, the electricity power systems for
smart grid application could include hundreds of
thousands of devices, sensors and other hardware
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