Noticias

August, a month of vacations for many, for thousands of citizens in Latvia will be associated with a start-up of country wide smart metering implementation. This follows an agreement signed between AS «Sadales tīkls» (Latvian Distribution System Operator), ELKO (a company with more than 40 years of experience in installation works) and ADD GRUP (a well known manufacturer of smart metering/AMI) for supply of smart metering solution based on PRIME technology, covering from 50 000 to 100 000 consumers.

Following a successful deployment of 420 000 meters at Energa Operator in Poland, with data collection rate over 99%, ADD GRUP will deliver an end-to-end solution covering smart meters, data concentrators and head-end-software to AS «Sadales tīkls».

The concept used in design of meters for AS «Sadales tīkls» goes in line with the concept of meters delivered to Energa Operator. Here we can outline two features: PRIME and USB.

PRIME

PRIME is a modern and future proof technology that does not only satisfy current needs for volume of transferred data and data transmission speed close to real-time, but has basis for development and implementation of new possibilities for future improvement of PLC network.

It is important to mention that ADDAX Meters and Data Concentrators are based on a universal hardware and communication platform, which allows switching between different PLC technologies, like PRIME and G3.  Therefore choice of ADDAX by AS «Sadales tīkls» and Energa Operator demonstrates a well-thought strategy oriented to future-proof technologies based on OFDM modulation.

USB Host Interface

A number of interfaces are available on the market. However none of the usually used (RS232, RS485, M-Bus etc) provides universal connectivity to assure extension for both HAN and WAN. In 2011 Energa Operator decided to choose USB as one of essential requirements for smart meters which further became a standard issued by Energy Regulator in Poland. This interface perfectly fits the design concept of meters offered to AS «Sadales tīkls». It provides connectivity to 2G/3G/4G modems for WAN to ensure communication in areas problematic for PLC, as well as to wireless M-Bus modules that will potentially be used to integrate meters of other resources into head-end software.

In conclusion it should be noted that ADD GRUP will not only put its experience, R&D and manufacturing capacity to a good use, but also intends to bring the ground breaking results, the same ones that were achieved in Poland, where overall system performance exceeded all expectations and the collection rate for the 15 minute interval data was bigger than 99%, shaping this project into a story of success.