New smart metering technology launched

New technology to convert existing utility meters into 'smart' meters to enable businesses to better manage consumption is due to be unveiled next month.

The news of the launch comes just two days after the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform began consultations on metering and billing following trials of real-time meter displays in 40,000 households.

Matthew Middleton, managing director of the energy specialists C+G Management, said the difficulty in reading traditional meters, which are often in inaccessible places, as well as the high cost of converting old meters to new, 'smart' ones with data logging capabilities prompted the company to develop the new device, called Meter-Mimic.

Meter-Mimic is a quad-band GPRS wireless data logging system for non-invasive meter monitoring that enables meters to be read without using any physical connection, controlled by advanced software algorithms. The patent-pending device uses advanced ferro-magnetic detection technology to sense fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the rotation of internal magnets in traditional mechanical meters.

"It can cost £500 to replace a traditional meter, not to mention the disruption of accessing it and switching off the supply to do the work" said Middleton. "We would ultimately like to see it used as a domestic household device, but that may take some time. We are targeting businesses, industry consultants and utilities with it in the first instance."

The device could prove very attractive to the utility industry given the high associated costs of complying with government proposals to require real-time displays fitted to any new meters installed from 2008 and to any houses requesting them between 2008 and 2010, as well as to the majority of businesses over the next five years.

The device system is able to collect readings from all types of electricity, gas and water meters, including rotating disc meters and electronic meters via its certified optical input port. Usage data is transmitted via Meter-Mimic's internal GPRS modem to a central server database, which then analyses and organises the data. Subscribers to the system can interrogate the data via a secure web-based system, which can also issue warnings via email and text when alerts or exceptions are discovered.

Middleton said Meter-Mimic can also transmit much more data than a conventional GSM/SMS text-based system, as it sends data as an email as opposed to an SMS text message, at a fraction of the cost of text messaging. As a result, much larger payloads of data can be sent for high-resolution energy and water management purposes. Alternatively, data can be held on the Meter-Mimic's internal multimedia card and sent at less frequent periods, to reduce the costs of the system even further but without loss of data resolution.

Meter-Mimic will by unveiled for the first time by C+G Management at the Energy Event 07, held at the National Motorcycle Museum, 12-13 September.

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