- Modular meter and DIN meters – via BLE channel;
- WAN communications between Modular meter and HES :
- Through the Data Concentrator over PLC, RF, Hybrid PLC+RF
or - Directly via 3GP...
- Through the Data Concentrator over PLC, RF, Hybrid PLC+RF
During the last few years Indian smart metering landscape has been very heterogeneous and even though the standards for smart meters have unified certain requirements to which all meter vendors have to comply, there is still a lot of diversity not only to the choice of technologies and meter functionality, but also to the approach to smart metering deployments and tender procedures.
Indian government plans to install 250 million smart meters in the next three to four years across all the states. Obviously to bring such an ambitious plan into reality there should be a clear vision over business models, deployment plan, reliable communication infrastructure and fulfillment of mandatory functionality.
Tendering procedures:
EESL and Pay-As-You-Save model. A very ambitious project according to which EESL is a central meter purchaser giving meters to DSOs based on leasing model. DSOs are expected to repay from expected revenues that should be generated after smart meter installation and improved billing and payments. Time has shown that this model has serious issues related to choice of technologies and return on investment and things are not that positive as they were expected. Due to this there appeared Intellismart (subsidiary of EESL) to adopt the below business model.
DBFOOT or BOOT model. According to this model the integrator/bidder has to design, build, finance, own, operate, transfer the system and be responsible for SLA. In case SLA is not met, the integrator/bidder does not get money and pays penalties. The model becomes more and more popular due to the fact that utilities do not want to rely on certain communication infrastructure and reliability/durability of meters to reach target SLA, and leave this into hands of bidder/integrator.
Direct purchases. Under such procedure DSOs take care of smart metering and further deployment on their own.
Communication solutions:
3GPP or Cellular. This communication solution has been widely used by EESL. On the one hand it seems to be the most reliable. Practically everyone has mobile phone and it seems that communication is everywhere. However the major difference is that telephone is MOBILE and meters are not. There are still lots of locations where 3GPP is not available and Mobile operators will not install another base station just for the purpose of reaching few meters installed in the basement in a metering room. Another serious disadvantage is obviously monthly operational costs that every meter generates – payments to Mobile operator.
RF solutions. Probably the most widely spread communication solution in India in non licensed bands. It obviously has its own natural barriers (concrete walls, metal constructions, cables, other equipment working emitting noise in the same frequency etc). There is also installation issue: gateways/concentrators have to be installation and powered in locations which do not belong to DSO and with each choice of such location there should be agreements made with owners for the right to install and get power supply
PLC solutions. Probably one of the most underestimated communication technologies due to few non-successful pilot projects done long time ago based on older technologies. It does have a natural barrier – noise in non-ideal Indian grids. The technology however has been moving forward including appearance of Hybrid solution (PLC+RF) and few companies are already on the way to test it in Indian grids.
There are others as well like LORAWAN for instance, NB-Iot etc
Prepayment functionality.
Few months ago the regulator has decided that all meters delivered to Indian market have to be prepaid. However there is no unity as to the way prepayment has to be implemented. On the one hand there is a requirement to arrange prepayment on the level of central software (the so-called managed prepayment) and the meters are just supposed to be disconnected remotely as credit reaches zero and connected back as credit is topped up. However questions appear:
As we can see, landscape is really heterogeneous and though the market is very price sensitive, we understand that to address this variety of issues key stakeholders (DSOs and integrators) will be looking for hybrid solution in order to tackle all of these issues and those vendors who are able to offer such hybrid solutions.
OUR OFFER
ADD GRUP has created such solution by unifying ADDAX and ADDERRA brands and their functionality into a complete and flexible offer that can address all the needs of Indian smart and prepaid metering market.
The result of our efforts is as follows:
The modular meter developed by ADD Grup is fully compliant with IS 16444 standard and can be supplied with next communication modules:
Besides the standard functionality demanded by utilities and standardization institutions we have added the following features that create technological advantages over competitors.
Generation of digital tokens
Token transmission and payment processing
Meter data exchange for stand-alone meters.
From prepayment to payment control metering.
The variety of options provided by ADD GRUP as well as the possibility to combine them in one network can give DISCO’s and contractors working on BOOT models full confidence that they will have a solution for any use case they will meet in the field.
Created by Five Stars Digital Agency