“The greatest risk to an electrical grid is not always what we cannot see, but what we believe we understand. Intelligence begins when the network reveals its true connections, transforming assumptions into knowledge, data into insight, and infrastructure into resilience.” – MJ Martin
Introduction
Across Canada, electricity distribution utilities face a growing challenge that often remains invisible until something goes wrong. Their digital representation of the electrical network no longer accurately reflects its physical configuration. Storm damage, emergency switching, transformer replacements, infrastructure upgrades, and undocumented field modifications gradually introduce discrepancies between engineering records and reality.
Much like navigating unfamiliar roads using an outdated GPS map, utilities risk making operational decisions based on connections that no longer exist.
The Consequences of Inaccurate Grid Topology
Grid topology describes how substations, feeders, transformers, phases, and customers are electrically interconnected. These relationships form the foundation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS), and Outage Management Systems (OMS).
When connectivity records are incorrect, consequences ripple throughout the organization. Outage predictions identify the wrong customers, restoration crews investigate incorrect locations, transformer loading calculations become unreliable, and capital investments may be misdirected.
The problem becomes increasingly serious as Canadian utilities accommodate electric vehicles, distributed solar generation, battery storage, and electrified heating.
Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), in its 2026 Annual Planning Outlook, forecasts electricity demand increasing approximately 65 percent by 2050. Accommodating this growth requires an accurate understanding of existing infrastructure.
Smart Meters Reveal the Actual Network
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) provides an opportunity to reconstruct electrical connectivity using measurements already collected throughout the distribution system.
Every electrical connection carries a distinctive voltage signature. Customers connected to the same transformer and phase frequently experience similar voltage fluctuations, much like musicians responding to the same conductor.
By comparing synchronized voltage measurements across thousands of meters, analytical algorithms can identify probable transformer relationships, phase assignments, and connectivity discrepancies.
Research published in The Journal of Engineering in 2016 demonstrated that voltage correlation techniques could successfully identify transformer and phase relationships using smart meter measurements.
Rather than physically inspecting every connection, utilities can concentrate verification efforts on locations where analytical evidence contradicts existing records.
The Landis+Gyr Reference Model
Landis+Gyr illustrates how AMI 2.0 transforms electricity meters into intelligent distribution network sensors.
Its Grid Location Awareness application supports meter-to-transformer mapping, phase identification, and validation of distribution connectivity through meter-level data and analytics.
The Landis+Gyr Revelo platform extends these capabilities through high-resolution voltage and current waveform sensing, edge computing, and advanced analytical applications.
This combination provides a foundation for detecting electrical anomalies, improving network visibility, and supporting increasingly sophisticated grid operations.
Importantly, conventional AMI voltage interval data may support topology estimation without replacing existing meters, provided sufficient measurements are available. Higher-resolution waveform sensing can provide additional diagnostic capabilities.
Business Value and Operational Outcomes
Accurate connectivity information improves outage localization, accelerates restoration, strengthens transformer loading assessments, and supports phase balancing.
It also improves distribution planning by identifying genuine capacity constraints rather than apparent limitations created by inaccurate records.
Integrating validated connectivity information into GIS, OMS, DMS, and asset management platforms allows multiple departments to operate from a common representation of the electrical network.
However, correlation does not constitute absolute proof. Missing data, shared upstream voltage disturbances, and changing network configurations can introduce uncertainty. Field verification remains essential before authoritative records are modified.
Conclusion
For Canadian electricity utilities, grid topology accuracy should become a continuous operational discipline rather than an occasional mapping exercise.
The AMI network represents more than a billing platform. It is a distributed sensing system capable of helping utilities understand how their infrastructure actually operates.
The strategic opportunity is straightforward: use electrical measurements to reconcile digital assumptions with physical reality.
A utility cannot intelligently manage a network it does not accurately understand.
Questions for Consideration
– Should Canadian utilities establish formal connectivity accuracy standards and recurring topology audits?
– Should topology analytics become a mandatory requirement in AMI 2.0 procurement specifications?
– And who should ultimately own the authoritative connectivity model: engineering, operations, or a shared enterprise data governance function?
Supporting evidence:
– Landis+Gyr’s Grid Location Awareness application and Revelo technical specifications.
– Peer-reviewed research on voltage-based topology identification.
– IESO’s 2026 Annual Planning Outlook.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a pilot, a philosophizer, and always, a romantic optimist.