Electric Power Research Institute investigations have concluded that portable electronic device (PED) technology will present significant opportunities in the handheld meter/diagnostic device arena. PEDs will subsequently become a major component of the smart grid sensor market, whereby data needs to be streamed, stored and selectively uploaded from a remote location to a centralized location.

PEDs such as smart phones and gaming systems already find significant application with audio inputs for sound spectrum measurements, and with appropriate input signal conditioning, should find uses across the utility industry as ultra-low-cost data management, acquisition and analysis devices.

These minicomputers offer unique, cost-effective means to record power signals, detect and discriminate incipient failure signals, locate, measure vibration and communicate information. Even without the input signal acquisition capability, PEDs are going to make any electric-utility-related inventorying function more effective, from asset inspections and mapping, to assisting customer in identifying the locations of electric-vehicle charging and hydrogen filling stations in a given geographical region or utility service territory.

The PED technology will present opportunities in the handheld meter/diagnostic device arena and will become a major component of the smart grid sensor market, whereby data needs to be streamed, stored and selectively uploaded from a remote location. With appropriate input signal conditioning, PEDs have the potential to be used for: power-quality monitoring; harmonics analysis; locating arcing utility hardware; magnetic and electric field measurements; handheld multimeter applications; utility hardware condition and security monitoring; vibration and thermal noise sensing; vehicle charging station mapping; asset tracking and GPS locating; data logging and storage to supplement other monitoring systems and hardware; and wireless data transmission.

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