Smart Metering
Greenland replaces entire energy meter fleet
Gert Skriver reports on the comprehensive multi-utility automatic meter reading system in the world.
T
he Greenland energy company, Nukissiorfiit, is replacing its entire energy meter fleet with smart meters and an automatic metering system until 2012 – in fact the most comprehensive multi-
utility automatic meter reading system in the world comprising all heat, water and electricity meters in the whole country – in total 43 000 energy meters, out of which 34 000 are electricity meters. Meters as well as the metering system are
being provided by the Danish energy metering company, Kamstrup. Te smart metering system is being implemented for the sake of a better energy management and better control with the meters in the far regions of the country. Te system is currently being rolled out and the implementation takes place sequentially. Tose who by now have received a new electricity meter can log in on the energy company’s web portal to follow their consumption hour by hour Te automatic meter reading system is an RF-mesh solution. Te RF-mesh system has the obvious advantage of being independent of the power line grid, and thus uninfluenced by power outages or any other disturbances in the grid. Te RF-mesh network has furthermore been optimised for high performance. Up to 300 meters are mutually connected in
networks that communicate with an RF concentrator. Te concentrator transmits the data via GSM/GPRS on to the energy company. A high success rate on readings is attained by the self healing network and an efficient routing of radio
Fig. 2. The meters, as well as the metering system, are being provided by the Danish company, Kamstrup.
signals. Each electricity meter is capable of routing the radio signal from up to 70 other meters which secures an always open path to the concentrator. Single meters that are placed too distant for radio transmission, are being fitted with a point-to- point GSM module and a SIM card – transmitting directly to the energy company’s central system. Te concentrators collect data from heat, water and electricity meters all together. Heat and water meters use the electricity meters as routers. Te intelligent network can maintain itself by means of information that is already available in the network and by means of special features in the various network units as for instance the master list. A master list contains groups of specific meters and enables the concentrator to recognise the signal strength quality and to identify any weak connections to these meters.
Te concentrator then automatically searches for
alternative routes to the specific meter. Via the meter reading system the RF concentrator can be configured to maintain the network more or less aggressively. Te master list also controls that the same meter is
not read multiple times by different units in the same network. ●
Enter 25 or ✔ at
www.engineerlive.com/ies Gert Skriver is with Kamstrup A/S, Skanderborg, Denmark.
www.kamstrup.com www.engineerlive.com 25
Fig. 1. The RF-mesh system has the
obvious advantage of being independent of the power line grid.
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