LoRa Mesh Network for Smart Metering in Rural Electrification

Digital smart meters hold many advantages over traditional analogue meters as the smart meters can be easily associated with the concept of smart grid. However, smart meters still face many challenges due to problems linked with communication mechanism such as low range, low data rate, high deployment and operating cost, and less reliability. To address such issues, smart metering can also be implemented with the deployment of a dedicated network formed with Low Power Wide Area Platform devices also known as LoRa devices. This paper discusses, how the LoRa technology can be implemented to solve the problems associated with smart metering especially considering rural energy system which uses microgrids. A simulation-based study has been done to analyse the applicability of LoRa technology in different architecture for smart metering purposes and also to identify a cost-effective and reliable way to implement smart metering, especially in rural microgrids.