AMR Solution for Water Utility Companies using iQVista
Water Utility companies have installed Meters for monitoring the Water Consumption by Individual Houses, Multi storied Apartments, Industries, Hospitals and other types of consumers in Small towns as well as Big Cities. The customers are billed according to the quantity of water consumed by each consumer. But the process of accurately collecting the meter data is extremely difficult, laborious and time consuming. In addition the labour cost for manually collecting the meter data is very high. We have customized its iQVista application framework, specifically for the Automated Meter Reading of Water Meters for the Water Utility Companies. iQVista system will help to cut operation costs and accurately read the meter data automatically. iQVista system can be optionally offered with the Billing module as well. This system can also be used by Multi storied apartments wherein water supply is managed by the Apartment association. The typical system configuration of the Water Meter AMR system has been shown below.
Water Meters
There are many types of Water Meters available in the market. Depending on the Pipeline diameter we can get Ultrasonic, Single Jet, Multi Jet type Water Meters. However most of these meters come with a Pulse Output interface. Using this Pulse signal, the water consumption can be measured and then the data can be used for reporting to the central monitoring system.
AMR Box
We offer an AMR Box for automatically reading the Meter data and reporting to the server. The AMR box belongs to the eQ Brick Family of IIoT devices. This product takes the Pulse Input from the Water Meters and calculates the total flow for that connection. This device can be offered with various interface options like SIM Card, BLE or LoRaWAN . With the SIM option, the meter data can be sent via SMS messages to the server or using the 2G/4G wireless data plan. With the BLE option, a bunch of AMR devices can transfer the data through a BLE gateway and an eQ Brick device. When this device has LoRaWAN interface, possibly 100 to 200 or possibly more than 1000 AMR devices can transfer the meter data through a Local / Central LoRaWAN gateway and eQ Brick to the central server. These multiple options provide lot of flexibility in implementing the system as well as cut the capital costs for the System Hardware. The AMR device has Non Volatile memory and the device will be capable of storing the Water Consumption data for the past 90 days.
AMR boxes can be offered with a Battery (Life time of more than 5 years with the data transfer frequency of 2 times per day). Optionally external power supply is also possible with a rechargeable battery. Local Display can also be optionally provided. Battery Voltage level is also reported to the server. When voltage level reaches a critical point, Alert is generated for replacing the battery.
eQBrick
The eQ Brick device is the EDGE computing device which will be used along with the BLE gateway and LoRaWAN gateway. Meter Data collected from the Water Meters will be encrypted and sent to the server.
iQVista
iQVista system will be a web based application. System will support multiple types of User Categories. Depending on the User Category, the operator will be able to access and perform various operations. System Admin will be able to create Local Admin Users. In turn the Local Admins will be able to create other users who will login in the system and perform different functions. Each Consumer will be having a Customer ID and a specific Water Meter and AMR box will be related to that Customer ID. This application can be accessed by the Maintenance Department people as well.
Following features will be available :
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Water Meter & AMR Device Management
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Customer Management
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Water Consumption Data Monitoring
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Historical Data Monitoring
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System Alerts
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AMR Devices Status
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Maintenance
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System Admin and User Management
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Data Import & Export
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Reports Generation
Depending on the preference of the Customer, we could offer the comprehensive iQVista Software or only the basic modules and the necessary middleware.
Business Model
iQVista system can be hosted in the Public / Private Cloud or at Customers’ Servers. System is offered using a Quarterly, Half Yearly or Yearly subscription model. We will provide the complete system comprising Hardware and Software as well as necessary services for System Installation, Commissioning, Training and Tech Support. The system can be further customized depending on client’s exact requirements.