Article in Metering International no. 3, 2006
In Sweden it is legislated that in 2009 all meters shall be read monthly. A consequence of this is that most utilities are about to realize or plan a roll out of AMR for all their customers. To be able to operate AMR efficiently, cooperation between utilities for meter data collection and management has become a result and more than 30 medium sized utilities have formed cooperation in the SAMS organization for purchasing both hardware and software - including open data collecting software.
The SAMS group of utilities (Swedish Metering Cooperation) has awarded Powel as vendor of the open data collecting system, delivering the open meter reading communication system Powel Elin. It is installed at three locations (north, middle and south) serving data collection for more than 30 utilities all over Sweden.
Powel Elin is an open system reading protocols from different vendors of meters and multi points. The system manages the metering devices, configures meters and multi points, schedules and monitors communication and data collection. The system gives alarms and reports regarding status of communication and data collection. When data is collected it is presented in reports as well as data is exported to third party systems for billing or other purposes.
Powel Elin keeps a flexible, modular design that can be configured for a variety of applications. Customers and system operators log in using the same Web interface. Information in the Web browser is adapted to the user type. Meter protocols are represented as adapters, which are implemented for all the protocols necessary to serve data collection from AMR equipment. It also features separate adapter modules for heating, gas and water. These adapters accommodate the wide variety of protocols available in the market, and contributes to a more flexible situation regarding selecting vendors for the meter devices.
The system uses an adapter-oriented architecture, in which one adapter represents one protocol. This architecture allows the system to communicate with a wide range of metering equipment when the right adapter is installed. It also keeps different data formats and protocols separated, and enables the system to integrate easily with new types of meters. The complexity and number of adapters depends on the specifications of the meters, terminals, and/or concentrators users need to implement.
Currently Powel Elin includes integrations to more than 20 billing systems and more than 40 different types of meters/multi points. The system schedules and monitors the communication using GPRS, Radio, TCP/IP, GSM, PLC and PSTN.
As a subcontractor to Telenor Cinclus, Powel Elin is also awarded of Eon Sweden and Fortum Sweden for collecting data from more than 1.5 million meters.
About the author:
Klaus Livik has for many years been working together with utilities in research and consultant projects regarding deregualation, load research, demand respons and AMR. In Powel he holds a position in business development focusing on metering and AMR solutions.
About the company:
Powel is a market leader in Nordic countries for software solutions for the energy companies in areas like meter data management, trade, generation planning and NIS/GIS. The group is active in both Europe and USA.