Sutton and East Surrey Water in UK's first trial of new AMR system

May 7, 2007
Sutton and East Surrey Water is implementing Sensus Metering Systems' first trial of one of Europe's most advanced Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems at one of the country's largest keyworker housing projects. The water company has installed Sensus((S))cout technology alongside residential water meters, also supplied by Sensus, at the Well Farm Heights apartment development in South Whyteleafe, Surrey...

SURREY, UK, May 4, 2007 -- Sutton and East Surrey Water is implementing Sensus Metering Systems' first trial of one of Europe's most advanced Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems at one of the country's largest keyworker housing projects.

The water company has installed Sensus((S))cout technology alongside residential water meters, also supplied by Sensus, at the Well Farm Heights apartment development in South Whyteleafe, Surrey.

The new radio read technology, developed by Sensus Metering Systems, enables the 60 meters installed at Well Farm Heights to be read remotely and simultaneously from a single location within 1km of the site using a handheld reading system. The meters for each of the apartments are located either in pits or in central meter cupboards.

Jeremy Heath, Development Engineer at Sutton and East Surrey Water, says that the trial is in line with the company's stated policy of evaluating technology that can add value both to customers and to the company.

Comments Jeremy: "As a company, we have been using encoded meters for 20 years. We have about 70,000 meters installed at present, with a program in place for a further 30,000 over the next five years. We envisage that a number of these meters will be radio read -- particularly in multi-occupancy developments such as Well Farm Heights and also in difficult-to-read locations.

"For Sutton and East Surrey, the main drivers behind adopting radio AMR technology are efficiency, accuracy of read and cost effectiveness. We want to reduce the time to read as much as possible and we also want to ensure that any system we adopt has in-built flexibility, so that should we decide to change the read method in the future we do not need to throw away the meters.

Sensus Metering Systems' modular approach to their AMR solutions allows this flexibility required by Sutton and East Surrey.

Sensus((S))cout is an 868MHz bidirectional flexible radio system developed specifically by Sensus for 'horizontal' and 'vertical' meter reading -- in other words for the mobile and remote reading of meters (residential water meters, bulk water meters and heat meters) in areas of high building density (urban streets and high rise buildings).

It provides an 'end-to-end' solution for utilities and water companies because every element of the AMR system -- meters, HRI transponders and Sensus((S))cout data transmitters, collectors and interrogation software -- is designed and supported by Sensus. As a result, it offers an unbroken and seamless data chain from the meter point via the IT system through to the billing process.

Each meter at the Well Farm Heights development is equipped with either an integrated or 'plug and play' HRI and Sensus((S))cout module, depending on whether the system was initially installed or retro-fitted. The Sensus((S))cout systems then transmit consumption data as well as leakage information, broken pipe detection, volume and reverse flow data, tamper detection and minimum and maximum flow rates over a given time period. A handheld unit is then used to read the meters simultaneously from a single point as part of a mobile 'walk-by' system.

In larger urban schemes, the meter information is forwarded from the Sensus((S))cout modules to GSM gateways via a repeater network. In this configuration, each Sensus((S))cout module can be read remotely and automatically. A fixed network such as this allows the frequency of reads to be as often as required, for example once every fifteen minutes up to monthly or annual reads...and the solution is completely scaleable depending upon topology.

The system is also ideally suited to commercial and industrial areas where meter access can be difficult (in flooded pits for example) or can be obstructed by traffic.

Existing meter schemes can be connected to Sensus((S))cout through backwards migration using Sensus' HRI data sensors or the MiniBus protocol.

Sensus((S))cout enables consumption meters to be read by radio using a variety of methods -- using hand-held PSION WA Pro units (with integrated radio modem) running DOKOM Mobile software,(as with the Well Farm Heights site), through to fully automated fixed network solutions, with read frequencies set to suit each individual application. When using the PSION WA Pro to collect the data the information is then transferred via a docking station through to a PC, running the corresponding DOKOM software,. This data can then be incorporated into the billing system.

The use of repeaters increases the distance at which the meters can up read up to 4km. The repeaters transmit data at a power of 500mW, allowing transmission distances of up to 2 - 3 km between repeaters. This distance is dictated by the building density and the intervening terrain. The distance between the Sensus((S))cout module and either the repeater or the PSION is limited to approximately 200m due to the transmission power being 25mW from the PSION and Scout module.

For more information: www.sensus.com/esaap

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