Automated Meter Reading

Household meter reading is the job that no one wants to do. Historically performed by the utility company staff, meter reading requires significant overhead; the workforce must manually perform readings on a monthly basis, and expensive equipment must be purchased to capture the measurements. Customers, meanwhile, must wait at home for a technician to arrive and take readings or perform the readings themselves. All told, household meter reading is a frustrating, inconvenient process that, despite all the investment and coordination, is not as accurate as it should be or could be.

While metering technology has advanced in recent years, the ZigBee wireless standard gave impetus to a quantum leap forward by offering the first wireless standard to overcome the metering arena’s biggest challenges. One system integrator in Spain known for its implementation of best-of-breed solutions chose MeshNetics as a technological partner in developing metering solutions. The MeshNetics ZigBit module met all their initial requirements toward developing a truly efficient metering solution, including high sensitivity, first class design tools and customer service, and best-in-class range. With an easy-to-integrate ZigBit module that already contains the MCU, RF transceiver and circuitry, a user-friendly development kit and comprehensive documentation, MeshNetics also represented a very fast time-to-market solution.

The system integrator leveraged ZigBee technology and MeshNetics products to create an affordable metering system ideal for small and medium sized cities. The product they developed featured 10+ years of battery life, solar panel powering capability, data encryption, capability to take readings every minute, and more – all in a self-organizing, self-healing ZigBee network. With these devices connected to gas or water meters, the unwieldy task of meter-reading is now automated. Customers are no longer inconvenienced by meter-reading hassles, while the utility provider saves money, time and resources – all while enhancing overall usage reporting accuracy.

Energy Efficiency

At the cutting edge of today’s abundant energy efficiency initiatives is Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), a system of analyzing energy usage by collecting data from devices like electricity meters and gas meters. Through this data collection and analysis, AMI enables energy consumption optimization within the existing infrastructure, along with creation of “Smart Grid” and “Demand Response” systems. ZigBee standards-based technology is perfectly suited to advance AMI development.

A special AMI profile for ZigBee stack software was created to address AMI specifics and allow the creation of efficient and interoperable energy consumption optimization networks. Because ZigBee modules package chipsets, RF design and software in one easy-to-integrate package, implementation of AMI-customized ZigBee solutions achieve fastest time to market. MeshNetics, offering the ZigBee modules with the industry-leading operating range, further empowers AMI to leverage expansive wireless networks to a state of well-orchestrated peak performance. Enabled by the ZigBee functionality, AMI can track usage on the fly, reduce consumption when circumstances dictate change, and otherwise share key energy information among customers, utility companies, and everyone in between. The end result is a streamlined new technology that spearheads energy efficiency to powerful new eco-friendly and cost-saving solutions.