Energy Data Management

The latest energy data management trend to hit the energy sector is network meter reading systems, which allow utilities to gather far more data on their customers' usage than that of standard AMR systems. With improved energy data management, utilities can improve customer service, review pricing strategy, and streamline operations.

Wireless technology affords improved energy data management by allowing utilities to cost-effectively expand network meter reading coverage to hundreds of thousands of customers. By integrating phone-based NMR into a wireless system, utilities can cover 100% of their metering population - including customers outside the wireless coverage area.

According to network meter reading experts Melanie Mauldin and Joseph L. Harley, Jr., who wrote in Gas Utility & Pipeline Industries Magazine (April 1999), a Network Meter Reading system connects a utility or energy service provider with its customers and their meters.

Unlike mobile AMR systems, a network system establishes a continuous link between meters and the utility. This link lets the utility access meter information at any time it chooses, collect information much more frequently than it could with more standard AMR systems, upgrade the information collected from a meter, receive real-time information (e.g., alarms) from meters, and use these features to offer enhanced customer service.

"Because an NMR system gives utilities flexible access to information, it can be used to help prepare and position the utility for changes in regulation and the business climate," say the authors.

If you're looking for more efficient energy data management a typical wireless NMR system includes communication modules on the meters, a local area network portion, a wide area network portion, and a head end.

NMR systems require some type of communications device, which is typically retrofitted to a utility's existing meters. This device sends signals through the system's local area network to a pole-top device. This device begins to process the information from the meter. For example, this device will route alarm signals back to the system's head end with a higher priority than it sends back standard meter reads resulting in more efficient and effective energy data management.

The pole-top unit typically contains communications devices for the LAN and the wide area network, or WAN. This pole-top unit sends the information back through the WAN to the system's head end. LAN communications often use radio technology. WAN communications can use a variety of RF networks, personal communications systems, telephone lines, and so on.

The head end for the system contains energy data management databases with information on system components as well as the meter reads. This system is quite complex; a typical one handles 500,000 to 600,000 devices, and delivers around 15 million billing-quality reads a month. In addition, they handle alarms and special reports.

NMR architecture is designed to be scalable - additional meters are accommodated with additional LAN and WAN devices, and the head end has additional computing capacity. NMR networks are open in that companies providing service can retrofit meters from a variety of meter manufacturers, and the energy data collected can be fed into a variety of management applications.

One reason for moving to an NMR system is to increase the accuracy of meter reads, and therefore energy data management, through the elimination of estimated bills. Once an NMR system is installed, a utility does not have to deal with reading meters that are inaccessible or hard to read - information from all meters is sent back automatically. NMR is also safer than traditional meter reading, where meter readers have to worry about high crime areas, unfriendly dogs, and so on.

In addition, an NMR system can offer significant savings in three major areas of energy data management: meter reading, customer service, and operations.

If embarking on a path towards NMR, it is essential that the information system processing the NMR information is fully integrated so that the utility has the ability to use the information collected to improve the business.

Before you consider NMR, consider the quality of your information infrastructure. Talk to DataCol about how Seven X can give you the knowledge base you need from the database of the meter reading information you receive.

Contact DataCol now. And learn more about increasing the efficiency and accuracy of your energy data management.