New research trends in energy grids and water networks push toward ICT solutions for allowing remote metering of consumption. In the paper, after an introduction to the European Standards on smart metering, two visual sensors thought to solve typical metering problems in water public networks are described. Particular detail is given hardware and software solutions and the perspective of integration with analog gas and electric energy metering devices.

This paper proposes three methods of the optimal smart meter selection for acting as a data concentrator in the automatic meter reading last mile network. The study explains the reasons why the selected smart meter should also act as a data concentrator, in addition to its basic role. To select the smart meter, either the reliability of communication or the speed of the automatic meter reading process was considered. Graph theory is employed to analyse the last mile network, described as sets of nodes and unreliable links. The frame error ratio was used to assess the unreliability whilst the number of hops was used to describe the speed of the reading process. The input data for the analysis are qualitative parameters determined based on observations in the real, operated last mile networks as well as their typical topological arrangements. The results of the research can be useful in the last mile network migration process, which uses concentrators to the networks without them, or during the process of newer last mile network implementation, where data concentrators are no longer applicable. The efficiency of the proposed methods is assessed measurably.

In an era of changes in the electricity market, where the share of renewable energy sources is increasing and moving away from conventional coal-based energy, the electricity used for heating is gaining importance, for example to power heat pumps. They currently are one of the most common ways for heating buildings as an alternative to fossil fuels and biomass. In this article, the authors present an analysis aimed at answering the question whether using the concept of microgrids in Polish realities provides a feasible solution. Within the framework of this article, analyses were carried out by assuming the electrification of the heating installation of users in a local microgrid located in a selected location of the Polish low-voltage distribution network. The increase in electricity demand needed to generate the corresponding amount of heat was then estimated, and subsequently the impact of this demand on the microgrid was determined. In addition, in the article, the authors estimate the production of a prosumer PV installation at the selected location and analyze the level of autoconsumption of the generated electricity in the PV installation by the heat pump.