Why AMR/AMI?

The primary driver for automated meter reading is not so much to reduce labor costs, but to obtain data that is otherwise unattainable. Many utility meters, especially water meters, are located in areas that require an appointment with the homeowner. Gas and electricity tend to be more valuable commodities than water, and the need to offer actual meter readings instead of estimated readings can drive a utility to consider automation.

Early systems consisted of walk-by and drive-by AMR for residential, and telephone based AMR served well for commercial or industrial accounts. What once was a need for monthly data became a need for daily and even hourly readings of the meters. Consequently, the sales of drive-by and telephone AMR has declined in the US, while sales of fixed networks has increased. The US Energy Policy Act of 2005 asks that electric utility regulators consider the support for a “…time-based rate schedule (to) enable the electric consumer to manage energy use and cost through advanced metering and communications technology.”

Advanced Automated Metering systems can provide benefits for utilities, retail providers and customers. Benefits will be recognized by the utilities with increased efficiencies, outage detection, tamper notification and reduced labor cost as a result of automated meter readings, connections and disconnects. Retail Providers will be able to offer new innovative products in addition to customizing packages for their customers. In addition, with the AMR meter data being readily available, more flexible billing cycles would be available to their customers instead of following the standard utility read cycles. With timely usage information available to the customer, benefits will be seen through opportunities to manage their energy consumption and change from one REP to another with actual meter data.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Staff Report on Assessment on Demand Response and Advanced Metering

The Automatic Meter Reading Association (AMRA) endorses the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) resolution to eliminate regulatory barriers to the broad implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The resolution, passed in February 2007, acknowledged the role of AMI in supporting the implementation of dynamic pricing and the resulting benefits to consumers. The resolution further identified the value of AMI in achieving significant utility operational cost savings in the areas of outage management, revenue protection and asset management. The resolution also called for AMI business case analysis to identify cost-effective deployment strategies, endorsed timely cost recovery for prudently incurred AMI expenditures and made additional recommendations on rate making and tax treatment of such investments.

Originally AMR meter devices just collected meter readings electronically and matched them with accounts. As technology has advanced, additional data could then be captured, stored, and transmitted to the main computer, and often the metering devices could be controlled remotely. This can include event alarms such as tamper, leak detection, low battery, or reverse flow. Many AMR devices can also capture interval data, and log meter events. The logged data can be used to collect or control time of use or rate of use data that can be used for water or energy usage profiling, time of use billing, demand forecasting, demand response, rate of flow recording, leak detection, flow monitoring, water and energy conservation enforcement, remote shutoff, etc. Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI is the new term coined to represent the networking technology of fixed network meter systems that go beyond AMR into remote utility management. The meters in an AMI system are often referred to as Smart Meters, since they often can use collected data based on programmed logic.

With touch based AMR, a meter reader carries a handheld computer or data collection device with a wand or probe. The device automatically collects the readings from a meter by touching or placing the read probe in close proximity to a reading coil enclosed in the touchpad. When a button is pressed, the probe sends a signal to the touch module to collect the meter reading. The software in the device matches the serial number to one in the route database, and saves the meter reading for later download to a billing or data collection computer. Since the meter reader still has to go to the site of the meter, this is sometimes referred to as “on-site” AMR.

Radio Frequency based AMR can take many forms. The more common ones are Handheld, Mobile, and Fixed Network.

RF based meter reading usually eliminates the need for the meter reader to enter the property or home, or to locate and open an underground meter pit. The utility saves money by increased speed of reading, has lower liability from entering private property, and has less chance of missing reads because of being locked out from meter access.

In handheld AMR, a meter reader carries a handheld computer with a built-in or attached receiver/transceiver (radio frequency or touch) to collect meter readings from an AMR capable meter. This is sometimes referred to as “Walk-By” meter reading since the meter reader walks by the locations where meters are installed as they go through their meter reading route.

Mobile or “Drive-By” meter reading is where a reading device is installed in a vehicle. The meter reader drives the vehicle while the reading device automatically collects the meter readings. Often for mobile meter reading the reading equipment includes navigational and mapping features provided by GPS and mapping software. With mobile meter reading, the reader does not normally have to read the meters in any particular route order, but just drives the service area until all meters are read.

Fixed Network AMR is a method where a network is permanently installed to capture meter readings. This method can consist of a series of antennas, towers, collectors, repeaters, or other permanently installed infrastructure to collect transmissions of meter readings from AMR capable meters and get the data to a central computer without a person in the field to collect it.

Some fixed network systems are also capable of being installed as a Hybrid AMR System where mobile and fixed network are intermixed by design. In a hybrid system, part of the system is read by fixed network, and parts may read by mobile or other technology, or both. Utilities with low density rural areas may not cost justify the fixed network infrastructure for parts of their service area, using it only for higher density zones or commercial accounts. Some hybrid networks allow reading of a meter by both methods concurrently as a source of redundancy. In the event of a failure of the network due to a natural disaster, sabotage, power failure, or other network interruption, the mobile reading system is available in their disaster recovery plan as an alternative means of data collection to the fixed network.

The city of Corpus Christi became one of the first cities in the United States to implement city wide Wi Fi, which had been free until May 31, 2007, mainly to facilitate AMR after a meter reader was attacked by a dog. Today many meters are designed to transmit using Wi Fi, even if a Wi Fi network is not available, and they are read using a drive-by local Wi Fi hand held receiver.

Power Line Communication AMR is a method where electronic data is transmitted over power lines back to the substation, then relayed to a central computer in the utility’s main office. Such systems are primarily used for electric meter reading. Some providers have interfaced gas and water meters to feed into a Power Line Communication type system.