AMR in Hilversum

Project Specification

Nuon is one of the largest energy and water companies in the Netherlands, supplying almost 5 million consumers. Nuon's prime objective with this pilot project was to gain experience with automatic meter reading (AMR). A vital point was data reliability and with the rapid approach of the free energy market, of course, reading frequency played an important role.

PTDSN in Hilversum was selected because the development included heat, electricity and water - although the water board withdrew from the project shortly after it started. PTDSN is a new district with 261 dwellings and approx. 20 small shops, built on a site were a factory once stood. The customer wanted to be able to read consumer information for heat and electricity from a central location.

Solution

Although this was new for the organisation, Kamstrup supplied a turnkey
solution, comprising MULTICAL® III ultrasonic heat meter and Kamstrup 382
electricity meter, all equipped with plug-in M-Bus modules. By using M-Bus
Masters and cascade modules, three M-Bus lines were created. All M-Bus lines end in a central room.

Another part of the turnkey solution was project management. Nuon asked
Kamstrup to be responsible for mounting a complete, tested and well-functioning automatic meter reading system.

A project handbook was drawn up by Kamstrup, describing all details of the
project, including installation drawings and a cross-reference list of house and meter numbers. The project handbook ensured that all parties were aware of deadlines and responsibilities.

At an early stage of the project a third party was responsible for laying the
necessary communication cable. This cable links the meter cupboards of the
different dwellings and shops.

Nuon undertook to install the flow and electricity meters, while, under the
supervision of Kamstrup, a local contractor was responsible for connection. To have a reliable solution, the MULTICAL® III and M-Bus Masters were mounted in a special casing. This solution also offered the possibility of supplying the meters with 230 VAC. These casings have also been used to connect each consumer to the M-Bus network.

Every completed installation was activated immediately by Kamstrup and tested, following the checklist, to ensure that both meter and data communi-cation functioned correctly.

In the central room a computer, equipped with three COM-ports, was con-nected to the three M-Bus lines. Kamstrup's standard software PcM-Bus and
PcBase were installed on the computer to retrieve and store data in a single
database.

By reading the M-Bus lines frequently, the communication system was ex-tensively tested. During these tests, M-Bus proved to be a very reliable way of communication.

During realisation of the project Nuon also used the AMR to check where the
hydraulic system went out of balance, if this was applicable. Additionally, they checked the electricity meters for inexplicable consumption. Excessive electricity consumption in relation to the consumers' contract could also be checked.