How To Quickly Choose A Hydropower Remote Meter Reading Solution？（1）

The emergence of the hydropower remote meter reading scheme is to solve various problems existing in manual meter reading. Because with the implementation of one meter per household in China, the traditional meter reading method can no longer meet the requirements of power supply and water supply enterprises for meter reading quality, meter reading time, Personnel management and other requirements, and remote meter reading can solve such problems very well. Faced with various hydropower remote meter reading solutions on the market, how should users choose a suitable meter reading solution based on their own needs and economic benefits?

First, let's talk about the remote meter reading scheme of electric meters

1. RS-485 wired meter reading solution

The RS-485 solution is a wired transmission solution. Because the meter and data acquisition equipment are connected through a power line, it is suitable for small-scale centralized installation of the meter, such as hotels, office buildings, schools, and residential quarters. The advantages of this solution are mainly reflected in four aspects: First, the cost of hardware is saved. The smart meter has its own RS-485 interface, so there is no need for another built-in expensive communication module, and the meter is affordable. The second is centralized installation and centralized installation of electricity meters, which can save the cost of RS-485 communication lines and reduce the difficulty of construction. The third is the modularization of the concentrator. 32 meters share one concentrator module, which greatly saves the cost of supporting the meter. Fourth, the performance is stable, the RS-485 wired meter reading speed is fast, the communication is stable and reliable, and the real-time communication can be guaranteed 24 hours a day. In general, the RS-485 wired meter reading solution is a cost-effective meter reading solution. This solution can be selected if the meter is centrally installed.

2. NB-IoT/4G wireless meter reading solution

These two-meter reading solutions use built-in NB-IoT/4G communication modules, respectively, without third-party equipment such as collectors or concentrators. The electricity meter can be directly connected to the meter reading system through the communication network base station and transmit the electricity consumption data to the system service center, so as to collect, transmit and analyze the terminal equipment data. Both are not limited by the installation distance of the meter, as long as there is a signal at the installation location, no matter whether the meter is installed in a different area or a different city, remote meter reading can be achieved. In addition, it has the advantages of fast data transmission speed, low communication cost and no wiring. It has been widely used in factories, industrial parks, shopping malls, schools, and other occasions. Because the meter has an additional built-in NB-IoT/4G communication module, the price of the meter is more expensive than that of the RS-485 solution, but it saves the cost of acquisition equipment and communication lines.

3. Carrier wireless meter reading scheme

This solution is suitable for occasions where there are not many transformer stations and the meters are installed scattered. Such as shopping malls / villa areas / parks, etc. Its characteristics are: 1. No need to arrange communication lines, and use power lines to directly transmit data, so there is no need to re-build communication lines, which saves the cost and workload of re-erecting lines. Second, it is applied to occasions without high-power load. If the load is too large, it will interfere with the signal of the scheme, thus affecting the stability of the scheme. Therefore, it is not recommended to apply the carrier communication scheme in occasions with high-power load. Three distance restrictions, theoretically, the distance between the meter and the carrier concentrator can reach 1km, but in order to ensure the stability of meter reading, generally only 200-300m spacing is set.