Slowing down electric meter

In my previous post, I wast posting about how to by pass meter (electricity meter). The commonly done is by tampering electric meter. Tampering does not always mean to open the meter and manipulate the internal process of the meter. The common meter tampering is just by use magnet to slow down or to stop completely the disc rotation.

I was looking at this video that I found. The author of this video seems to do a lot of stuff with magnet with the main objective is to slow down meter disc rotation. I am not quite sure why he needs to put wire, cup, water, etc. Only with magnet alone, this can already slowing down or completely stop the meter disc from rotation.

In any case, doing these kind of meter tampering is easily noticed by electricity company (through readers). And in most countries, doing such an illegal activities can end up to a penalty bill or even a jail terms. So, think twice again if you want to tamper your electric meters.



Electric Meter Tamper! How To Reduce Your Electricity Bill In Half! - video powered by Metacafe

Benefits of Electricity Digital Panel Meter

Electricity Digital Panel Meter or for short Digital Meter has been available in the market by different vendors. The question arises for Electricity or other utility companies in general if they need to invest in digital meters.

Digital meters are NOT all Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). Digital meter is just like analog meters but displaying measures in digital, while AMR is sending the meter reading data to reading center periodically using communication technology like internet, network LAN, GPRS, etc.

In this article, we will discuss only Digital Meters. If digital meters are just like analog meter, so what the benefits to migrate to digital meters? Below are some benefits that electricity companies can have by using digital meters:

# Digital Meter can measure electricity consumption more accurately and reliably. With the digital technology, the problem of meter brakes that could happen in meter analog will not going to be encountered. This way, electricity company will charge the bill to customer more fair. The company can even decides to be as accurate as decimal points in term of electricity consumption.
# Related to previous point, since the mechanical parts are less, the maintenance period becomes less as well. The age of digital meter can be longer than ordinary mechanical/analog meters.
# Most digital meters are designed to be AMR ready. Electricity company has option to read this meter using conventional meter readers or through AMR (network LAN, etc).
# Most digital meters are equipped with probe or scanning device. This is used to transfer reading in semi automatic way. Why semi automatic? because reader should go to the meter with Hand Held Unit / Pocket PC and connect to pocket PC probe to digital meter probe. The digital meter will then transfer all the reading information to Pocket PC. This will be a good way to ensure that the readers are visiting the property instead of doing cheating by inputting reading in "coffee shop".
# Reduce cases of meter tampering. Digital meter is more difficult to tamper, if bypass meter is done, the short circuit can send signal to meter that possible tampering is done.

Before deciding if it is necessary to migrate to digital meters, a feasibility study needs to be done. Simple survey to ask within the company department should be carry out:
1. Does currently the company and client concern about more accurate reading? If the tariff price is high, this could be an issue. If the tariff is very small, it will not make a big difference by having 1-2 kW consumption.
2. Does currently the company spend big budget to maintain mechanical meters?
3. Does currently the company experience a lot of meter tampering cases?
4. Etc.

The feasibility study will decide whether the investment will give more benefits in term of tangible and intangible for future.

Currently, several companies that are producing digital meters are: Centron, GE, GANZ, IKRA, EMH, etc.

How fast are your Meter Readers?

Are your meter readers going at the rate of 60 readings a day or 200 readings a day? Do they fast enough? These can only be answered considering some major parameters below:

1. Does the reader using paper of HandHeldUnit (HHU) during reading?
2. Does the area rural or city?
3. Do most of properties are a single meter (house) of multiple meters (apartments)

Below are some average reading speed from my experiences on different utility companies:
1. HHU, city, multiple meters: 400 or more readings a day
2. HHU, city, single meter: 100-200 readings a day
3. HHU, rural, single meter: 30-60 readings a day
4. Paper, city, multiple meters: 300 or readings a day
5. Paper, city, single meter: 70-150 readings a day
6. Paper, rural, single meter: 30-50 readings a day

The other combinations I don't have any statistics. So now, are your meter readers fast?

Upgrade into Automatic Meter Reading (AMR)

Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) is becoming a trend in utility company. Various vendors are offering nice features of AMR. However utility company should consider again if they need or if they are ready to implement this automatic meter reading. I have seen 2 out of 5 utility companies that I visited are implementing AMR but they are not benefiting much of the functionalities.

AMR has a functionality that transmits the meter reading automatically to billing system using ways of communications technologies. Either using a simple phone line, or using other telecommunication technologies like LAN, GPS, wireless, satellites, etc. From the 1 of the companies that I mentioned are not fully utilized the AMR because they just do not have reliable telecommunication technologies. In the end, they need to send readers to read the meter manually. The other 1 is not able to make an interface between AMR to the billing system. Thus, what the use of having AMR then?

Utility company should evaluate their conditions before spending money to upgrade meters to automatic meter reading. At least, here are the points that should be focussed on:

1. Within the budget? Conduct Cost and Benefit Analysis. We know that AMR can bring a lot of benefits like on time reading, early detections of irregular consumptions, better monitoring off peak and peak consumptions, better monitoring for complex tariff computation, etc. But make sure the company can utilize all of them.
2. Have strong communication network.
3. Will be able to integrate to other systems (billing system, scada, meter fraud)
4. Human Resources are prepared with the technology. Only users that understand the system can benefit from AMR.

Validation during Data Gathering: Meter Duplicate

Before implementing Customer Management System, Data gathering is often used to improve the quality of data that will be used by new billing system.

One of the entity to be improved is Meter information. During data gathering, the meter number should be checked if there are duplicate meters. Ideally, a manufacturer or a utility company will NOT allow meter number duplicate among same brand and type. Thus, the meter duplicate should be checked by using Meter Brand + Meter Type or Model + Meter Number.

Any duplicate meters should be rechecked because most of the time, it is a mistake of surveyors. A list containing two or more meters that are duplicated should be given to a surveyor or supervisors to be checked in the field. This task is recommended to be be done daily by supervisors while he/she is doing the audit to surveyors.

Ensuring no duplicate meters will improve the performance of Customer Management System since it will enable the billing system to search customer by using meter number. Other benefit is that it will enable the company to do good inventory of the meters.