STMicroelectronics has surpassed important milestones with its STCOMET smart-meter System-on-Chip family, enabling utilities worldwide to deliver sustainable electricity, incorporating multiple sources including renewables, by leveraging smart-grid technologies.
STCOMET simplifies the design of smart meters by implementing key functions on a single chip, including a powerline communication (PLC) modem compliant with major smart-metering industry standards. Vital to wide-scale adoption, ST has recently achieved certification to the latest G3-PLC[1] and PRIME[2] v1.4-profile 2 specifications covering frequency bands up to 500kHz, such as FCC[3] bands. Together with existing G3-PLC and PRIME v1.4 approvals covering European CENELEC-A[4], STCOMET is now certified according to all major standards in force globally.
In addition, ST has extended the STCOMET family to four devices, allowing meter designers the flexibility to scale their applications to the needs of various markets and territories. STCOMET05 and STCOMET10 contain either 512Kbyte or 1Mbyte of program Flash, together with an application-processing subsystem, dedicated security engine with privacy and anti-hacking protection and high-accuracy metering front end, and the PLC module. The simplified STCOM05 and STCOM10 give designers flexibility to combine their own proprietary metering front end with ST's on-chip application processor, security engine, and PLC module, and to leverage ST's global approvals to accelerate project completion.
ST has also confirmed that STCOMET is the IC powering smart meters currently rolling out to 1000 households in the Toulouse area of France, as part of the SOGRID[5] smart-grid pilot. ST is a member of the consortium led by ERDF[6], which is conducting SOGRID to study automated network control under real operating conditions.
[1] G3-PLC: protocol for narrow-band low-frequency power-line communications, supported by the G3-PLC Alliance [2] PRIME: PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution, the power-line communication architecture supported by the PRIME Alliance [3] FCC: The US Federal Communications Commission [4] CENELEC: the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization [5] http://www.sogrid.info/ [6] ERDF is the distribution arm of EDF (Electricity of France), a French electric utility with global operations
