A system for remote meter reading and load management

The systems for remote meter reading and load management which have been, for evaluation purposes, installed in New Belgrade and Pancevo are described in this paper. Two way communication link between the center and all the meters is established via power distribution lines by means of a modulated high frequency signal subjected to an additional direct sequence spread spectrum processing. In this way an improved signal to noise ratio is achieved which stretches the propagation distance at a low level injected signal amplitude required by CENELEC standards. The whole city area is supposed to be divided into numerous zones consisting of several MV/LV substation areas capacitively bridged in adjacent points for HF signal transmission. All zones are connected via leased telephone lines to the dispatching center from which messages can be transmitted to and data received from a zonal concentration center. A peripheral unit is designed which not only collects data from up to 48 meters and affects transmission upon request, but also performs basic data processing such as current power engagement, aggregate power recording, tariffs management, etc. By regular data gathering from modems an intelligent tariff management with daily as well as seasonal adjustment can be implemented. On the bases of the energy and power flow monitoring, possible losses can be investigated, and better insight into the loading, as a planning parameter, can be obtained