Smart metering

No matter what type of utility you want to monitor – water, electricity, gas, electric vehicle (EV) charger, power grid network – Nordic Semiconductor has the perfect low power wireless connectivity solution.

Whether short-range or long-range, and regardless of network size (small, large, or massive), Nordic offers it all, including Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Matter, cellular IoT (both LTE-M and NB-IoT), DECT NR+, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, and LoRaWAN (using a third-party transceiver).

Up to 20 years of battery life

The ultra low power operating characteristics of all Nordic's wireless connectivity solutions means battery-powered smart utility metering is completely viable.

For short-range connectivity, Nordic's latest nRF54 Series of SoCs are perfectly suited to the computational demands of edge computing and machine learning (ML) / AI. This gives a meter the ability to respond to changes in real-world operating demands, in real-time.

For long range connectivity, the uniquely high integration of Nordic's nRF91 Series of cellular IoT and DECT NR+ Systems-in-Package SiPs allows them to be used standalone in Network Interface Cards (NICs). This can significantly reduce the total required Bill-of-Materials (BoM).

When combined with state-of-the-art IoT management, communication and security protocols commonly used in smart metering (e.g. LwM2M, DTLS with Connection ID, RAI, and NIDD) smart meter battery lifetimes of up to 20 years can be achieved.

Nordic companion SDKs and software development tools (including for developing mobile apps) allow fast prototyping and shorter time to market.

Are you planning a smart metering project?

Highlighted applications

Water meters	Gas meters	Electricity meters
Aggregators/gateways	Telemetry devices	Submeters
Prepaid meters	EV Chargers	Smart grid sensors
Photovoltaic Inverters	Industrial smart switches	Remote monitoring of transmission and distribution infrastructures
In-home displays

Wireless technology platforms for smart metering

Bluetooth Low Energy

Want to add Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) connectivity to your product? We offer high-quality BLE SoCs, Bluetooth Low Energy chips, and BT modules with ultra-low power consumption and protocol stacks, ensuring excellent interoperability.

computer sitting keyboard laptop blue light mouse table holding standing man

Cellular IoT

Want to add cellular connectivity to your product? We offer the most compact and low power solutions in the market for cellular IoT.

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Wi-Fi

Nordic Semiconductor is a leading provider of low-power wireless communication solutions, utilizing decades of ultra-low-power wireless expertise to maximize Wi-Fi’s low-power potential in various applications including home automation, smart lighting, and other IoT devices.

DECT NR+

DECT NR+ (NR+) is a non-cellular radio standard recently included as part of the 5G standards by the ITU. Thus, making it the world’s first non-cellular technology included in 5G.

2.4 GHz proprietary

2.4 GHz flexibity and simplicity

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Matter

Matter provides a shared foundation on which to build an application. The goal is to have interoperability between devices and ecosystems.

Range extenders

The range and link robustness of Nordic nRF52 and nRF53 Series SoCs fulfill the requirements of most applications and use-cases, but sometimes adding a range extender/RF front end module (FEM) is the correct choice.

Recommended hardware

nRF9160 SiP

Low power SiP for cellular IoT

Multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT modem with GNSS

700-2200 MHz LTE band support

Certified for global operation

Dedicated application processor and memory

64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33

1 MB flash + 256 KB RAM

Arm TrustZone + Arm CryptoCell

nRF9161 SiP

Low power SiP for cellular IoT and DECT NR+

Multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT with GNSS and DECT NR+ modem
700-2200 MHz LTE band support
1.9 GHz NR+ band support
Certified for global operation
Dedicated application processor and memory
64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
1 MB flash + 256 KB RAM
Arm TrustZone + Arm CryptoCell

nRF9151 SiP

Low power SiP for cellular IoT and DECT NR+

Multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT with GNSS and DECT NR+ modem
700-2200 MHz LTE band support
1.9 GHz NR+ band support
Certified for global operation
Dedicated application processor and memory
64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
1 MB flash + 256 KB RAM
Arm TrustZone + Arm CryptoCell

Recommended software

nRF Connect SDK

nRF Connect SDK is a common software development kit for Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, cellular IoT, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Zigbee and Matter. It supports all our nRF52, nRF53, nRF70 and nRF91 Series wireless devices.