Archive for the ‘AMR/AMM/AMI’ Category

Martin Vesper, Executive Director at Yello Strom GmbH talks about the changing electricity world. He explains how smart meters can help their customers to control the electricity by using an Internet tool that connects directly to the meter and shows the usage in real-time.

The next video shows an installation at a Yello Strom customer.

The last video is showing one way of using a smart meter and Yello Sparzähler online.

Enerway has created a list of AMR suppliers.
You can reach it by using the link below or take a look at Enerway pages on the right side.

List of AMR suppliers

Let us know if there are any another companies that should be added to the list!

ItronInc is a provider of intelligent metering, data collection and utility software solutions.

Take a look at this video to learn more.

Links:
www.itron.com

Itron in Europe and Russia

Laurence Carpanini, associate Partner at IBM Global Business Services answers some questions about smart metering.

• What are Smart Meters and why are they so important to Great Britain?
• How will this change the way utilities work?
• What are the challenges in delivering the Smart Metering Programme?
• Of course, this will present a number of opportunities.
  What are the most significant of these?
• Why is IBM so well placed to support this revolution in the utilities industry?

For more information go to:
www.ibm.com/easyaccess/ukcomms/smarterutilities

Here’s a well produced presentation from Telenor Cinclus and their smart metering solution.

They have installed over 1 million meters and provide IP based smart metering solutions. Other utility meters can be monitored and controlled over wireless M-Bus. Their meters can communicate with an energy panel which enables a toolbox for future services. With a mobile energy channel it’s possible to get collected information like consumption, price information and alerts sent to mobile devices like cell phones.

Information can be sent in real-time to a computer equipped with software for further analysing in an understandable way.

The metering system communicates wireless and is designed for a smart grid system.

Watch the embedded video from YouTube

Visit www.telenorcinclus.com for more information

Date: 6-8 October 2009, Barcelona Spain

It’s time for the 11th annual Metering, Billing/CRM Europe conference and exhibition this time with more than 150 leader industry speakers presenting case studies. Approximately 125 of the world’s leading suppliers will present their latest products and services.

There will be a pre-conference seminar about Smart Metering and here is a list of some of the topics listed on their website:

· The Energy Situation
· Ecosystem / Core Concept
· Billing vs. Operational Metering
· Meter History
· Major Solution Components
· Future Grid Principals / Characteristics
· Capability Analysis
· What Does it Means (Meter, Systems)
· Conceptual Architecture
· Sample Solution Architecture
· Impacted Processes
· Capital Investment
· Business Case Framework
· Business Case Methodology
· Cost (Reference and Investment Case)
· Benefit Analysis
· Maturity Framework
· Transformation Success
· How to Start a Programme

Follow this link for more information and to register.
www.metering-europe.com

Today, I almost accidentally found information about one of Google’s projects. They are planning to use the information from “smart meters” to help you keep track of your energy use at home. I haven’t yet found out what Google mean by smart meters but I guess that they need the metering device or something connected to it to send information to a Google based server by the Internet. The user should be able to login to its Google account and analyze their energy use. In Sweden all meters should be able to send accurate meter standing the 1st every month but a lot of the installed meters reads, saves and sends meter values to a management system and stores all data at a server. The meter readings can also be forwarded through communication lines like PLC (PowerLine Carrier), GPRS, Internet et cetera. I think that it qualifies for Google’s Powermeter.

I have been thinking about this and I think that it’s a pretty good idea to use a Google account to publish this information instead of having all grid owners and electricity suppliers to rebuild there own website with this information. I guess some of you will disagree. Perhaps Google can open their API so that some information from Google will be embedded on “your” website? Future will tell.
An interactive website costs a lot of money so therefore I believe that it would be nice to spend that money on other things. The problem might be that Google gets even more information about you. How will the information be used?

From the information that I have found so far it seems like the electricity use is displayed in a rate the meter can read and save. In the demo it’s hour values. You can’t see exactly what device connected that is used at the time. You can only try to analyze this information from the diagram displayed as far as I know from search in the web. I would like to see smart meters that know where the consumption comes from. In a nearby future I think that all new devices like TV, computers, radiators and perhaps even your energy saving lamp will be able to send consumption information by a wireless connection.

I will try to find more information about this and come back!

Here comes some links and videos! Thank you for you time!

www.google.org/powermeter

By the 1^st of July 2009 all electric meters in Sweden should be read once per month.

The implementation projects should therefore be completed. Most network owners have done a terrific job but there are still some meters that haven’t been exchanged just yet. There are several reasons for that. Mistakes in planning of the projects, lack of communication between the new meter and the administration system is example of those reasons.

Overall the AMR projects in Sweden seem to have been a success.

The task now is to make sure that all electricity meters are read every month and that the information is sent to the electricity supplier at time. For a couple of months there will be problems to perform this because of a new format called UTILTS that holds information about the meter standings.

The new project for Enerway is to gather information from projects or involved people in Sweden in order to solve some of the problems that still needs to be fixed and also to help network owners in other nations that are planning for new AMR projects.

Hopefully Enerway will find people with the knowledge in their hands that are positive to share it with you!

We’re very excited to announce our first Google PowerMeter partners – 8
utilities representing over 10 million customers from 3 countries and 6
different US states. These partners are offering Google PowerMeter to their
customers to enable them to access detailed information on their home energy
use. To assist our utility partners with the integration to Google