Technical and financial requirements for implementation of remote metering

Abstract

The thesis presents the findings of the study to d e v e l o p a Data Acquisition System (DAS) of bulk supply consumers using a feasible remote metering (RM) option that can be used in distribution sector.

The most of the utilities in developed countries have gained the access to their meters remotely. Not only in electricity sector, but also it is used in gas and water metering as well. This has many advantages over conventional point to point meter reading. The accuracy and low cost are straight forward benefits that the utility c a n obtain with these systems.

Without confining merely to a remote metering (RM) system, this c a n be further d e v e l o p e d to a d a t a acquisition system, which is immensely useful not only to the utility but also to the other stake holders of the electricity industry such as to academic institutions, regulatory bodies, investors, consumers, etc. The basic requirement here is to select appropriate communication medium and to parameterize the metering and other equipment such as modems, etc accordingly to log the required system parameters.

The Colombo City distribution province of Ceylon Electricity Board was selected for this research. The data logging capability and communication facilities of different types of energy meters were studied. The potential communication options for remote metering were also studied under this research. The analysis was carried out for financial and technical feasibility of RM a n d DAS system. The discussion was focused on the above analysis and the benefits of the RM and DAS system.

The GSM d a t a communication option was identified as the most suitable communication method for remote metering. From the point of view of the power utility, GSM based communication link has the simplest architecture for accessing the meter data. GSM communication in Sri Lanka is a well developed infrastructure a n d this can be directly utilized without any concerns of developing a n d maintaining by the power utility itself. The reliability of the communication