A Wireless Mesh Architecture for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Residential Smart Grids Mohamed Riduan Abid, Ahmed Khallaayoun, Hamid Harroud, Rachid Lghoul School of Science and Engineering Alakhawayn University in Ifrane Ifrane, Morocco R.Abid@aui.ma, A.Khallaayoun@aui.ma, H.Harroud@aui.ma. R.Lghoul@aui.ma Mohammed Boulmalf ELIT School International University of Rabat Rabat, Morocco mohammed.boulmalf@uir.ma Driss Benhaddou Engineering Technology Department University of Houston Houston, TX, USA d.benhaddou@central.uh.edu Abstract—Future Smart Grids will consist of distributed Micro-Grids where the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) forms a central component. This consists basically of meters/sensors that are regularly communicating data towards/from a central Control Plane. Due to the ad-hoc topological nature of the meters/sensors, particularly in residential areas, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) prove to be the ideal technology for AMI deployment. In this paper, we propose a wireless mesh network based architecture for AMI deployment that uses both Zigbee and IEEE 802.11. The paper presents the challenges and opportunity related to implementing such architecture in Moroccan market. This paper proposes a framework for renewable energy integration, and an appropriate Middleware design. The paper presents preliminary simulations on the wireless coexistence between the two technologies and draw conclusions on the channel to be used and node placement problems. I. INTRODUCTION mart Grids (SGs) are emerging as a very promising technology being developed to cope with the increasing stringent worldwide demand on energy [1, 2]. They are expected to replace ordinary electrical Grid (OGs) to enable the implementation of distributed renewable energy, and thus allow for optimal use of electric energy. With the integration of Information Technology (IT) into OGs, different components that are currently automated or manually operated (e.g., meters) will be able to process and exchange data in order to make intelligent autonomous decision, thus exhibiting a smart behaviour. A central novel aspect in SGs, compared to OGs, is the two-way electricity flow in the grid towards and from the consumers. With the advances in renewable energy technologies and with the consistent decline in their cost, consumers will be able to generate electricity, through solar panel for instance, and become producers. This excess of electricity can be fed back to the grid, creating a two way flow of electricity. With the feed in tariff law adopted by many countries, the consumer can sell electricity to operators and make profit (which will motivate consumers to adopt renewable energy and bring the operating cost down). However, injecting electricity into the grid is not a straightforward task as this might cause grid instability and induce blackouts in serious cases. Information Technology will play a key role in making sure control information is collected in real-time to enable electric flow into the grid [3, 4]. Another major novel aspect in SGs is the advent of micro- grids. Typical scenarios of micro-grids deployments are university campuses, cities, and factories, where there is enough renewable and cogeneration of energy if it is cut from the grid, it can still function under certain circumstances and conditions. Thus, SG will be composed of a complex distributed system of generators that accommodate renewable power spread in diverse locations, including customers, some of which are micro-grids. To integrate renewables energy in homes and commercial buildings and to connect these buildings to smart grid, there must be a number of sensors and information sharing among consumers and service providers as dictated by SG standards such as demand response protocol through advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Given the advantage of wireless technologies, the standard has adopted Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) as the protocol for home area network. In addition, the paper extends the network to a neighbourhood (or campus) level and proposes a wireless architecture for local AMI using wireless mesh networks (WMNs). WMNs Enable the communication between the sensors/meters and the control plane constitutes the role of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) are widely recognized for their ease-of- deployment, self-healing, and ad-hoc nature; characteristics S 2013 IEEE Green Technologies Conference 978-0-7695-4966-8/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE DOI 10.1109/GreenTech.2013.58 339 2013 IEEE Green Technologies Conference 978-0-7695-4966-8/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE DOI 10.1109/GreenTech.2013.58 338