AMR Solution for Electric Utility Companies using iQVista
Electric Utility companies have installed Digital Meters for monitoring and recording Energy 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 energy consumed by each consumer. But the process of accurately collecting the meter data is difficult, laborious and time consuming. In addition the labour cost for manually collecting the meter data is very high. To automate the meter reading process, Electric Utility Companies have started replacing the digital energy meters with Smart Energy Meters. We have customized its iQVista application framework, specifically for the Automated Meter Reading of Electric Energy Meters for the Utility Companies. iQVista system will help to cut operation costs and accurately read the meter data automatically. This system can also be used by Multi storied apartments wherein they have DG Sets to provide standby power. Typical system configuration of the Energy Meter AMR system has been shown below.
Energy Meters
There are many types of Energy Meters available in the market to cater to the needs of Single Phase and 3 Phase connections. International players like ABB, SIEMENS, Schneider, L&T, Landis & Gyr and many domestic power meter companies offer their Smart Meters for the AMR application. These meters come with RS232 serial port. They support multiple protocols like MODBUS, MQTT, DLMS etc.
AMR Box
We offer an AMR Box for automatically reading the Energy data from the Energy meters and reporting to the server. The AMR box belongs to the eQBrick Family of IIoT devices. This product will communicate with the Energy meter using the serial port using its native communication protocol and retrieves the Energy Consumption data and few other important parameters. This AMR 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 eQBrick 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 eQBrick 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 Energy 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 Energy 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 Energy 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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Energy Meter & AMR Device Management
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Customer Management
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Energy 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.