Insights of Residential Smart Meter Data in Australia

The use of smart meters is increasing worldwide, offering valuable data for distribution companies. It can be used to run analytics or carry out simulations that can improve different planning and operational activities. However, before using real smart meter data, it is important to understand its nature and characteristics. This paper provides insights from real smart meter data that can help distribution engineers and researchers define the most suitable ways of using such data. The investigated smart meter data corresponds to three distribution companies in Victoria, Australia, and includes voltage magnitudes and currents (magnitude, sign, and power factor, or real and imaginary values) recorded every 5 minutes over periods of approximately 12 months between 2020 and 2021. The analysis shows the relationships between active and reactive power, and voltages, highlighting the net capacitive household behaviour, different PV export limits, and Volt-var responses of PV inverters.