Techno-Economic Analysis and Business Model Evaluation of Smart Grid Communication Technologies Among nation-wide IoT projects, AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) might have the largest economic and social impacts. But it appears that the AMI penetration rates differ significantly from country to country. This paper compares the PLC and LTE technology for AMI among others, postulating that difference in AMI penetration across different countries mainly comes from difference in their techno-economic performances and underlying business models. For techno-economic analysis, a contingent TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) model was developed and used to test the business model requirements in hypothetical real-world situations. The result indicates that the superiority of LTE to PLC is mainly affected by the robustness of PLC to signal attenuation/interference and the relative price competitiveness of LTE modem. As such, it is prospected that techno-economic superiority of LTE will continue to dominate as long as the weak conditions of power lines to operate PLC are not resolved in major residential areas. Finally, some policy implications to foster the AMI market, which is one of the most promising IoT markets, are discussed. Keywords: Smart grid, Smart meter, Power line communication, LTE, Total cost of ownership
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θ θ θ θ θ θ n : θ : P PLC : O PLC : P LTE : P DCU : C switch : r LTE : T : TCO PLC n TCO PLC n(p PLC O PLC ) P DCU (1) θ TCO LTE TCO LTE C switch n(p LTE r LTE T) (2) θ n n200 θ15
θ θ θ10 θ n θ θ10 n θ θ * 21.25 n 1θ21.25 n n θ θ n
P DCU TCO PLC TCO LTE n ( P PLC O PLC P LTE r LTE T θ ) C switch 0 (3) θ P PLC P LTE P PLC P LTE τ P LTE τp PLC P PLC
θ 85n θ * (4) 500(2τ1)n θ P LTE P PLC θ P LTE τ n θ P LTE τ VI
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