ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area How do meters get read?

they must read mine once a year. I know mine is off because they list what the number is suppose to be on the bill. Sometimes it says actual sometimes it says estimate.

TWACS system was tried here in NZ with an American injection system used via a 11 kV / 277 / 480 Volts special transformer in a semie rural substation.( 33kV / 11 kV ). The results were dissapointing as what I heard of it and the overall costs to high to warrant the investment in putting all the extra plant in and upgrade all the kWh meters at the same time.

It was also planned to use TWACS for auto dis - re connect brakers on awkward customers to remotely switch them off or on for non payment.

I'm not sure if the design was specified for 50 Hz which we use here because a lot was done a little bit in a secret way with locked control boxes.
I was involved in getting the 11 kV supply to the TWACS transformer.

In our area, they just drive by. Remotly read meters were installed about a year ago.

Once a year the reader comes by and once a year we get a bill. Many old apartments still have inside metering (which is even perfectly legal for new work) so the occupants have to be home for the reading. Each house has a black board near the front door and a few weeks prior to the reading date they write the reading date with chalk, telling the customers to be home between 8 and 11 AM.

People who don't trust banks even have the anachronistic possibility of paying cash. Roughly 6 months after the reading the gas/electricity man goes through and collects the money for the previous billing period.

Rodalco,

Quote:
"TWACS system was tried here in NZ with an American injection system used via a 11 kV / 277 / 480 Volts special transformer in a semie rural substation.( 33kV / 11 kV ). The results were dissapointing as what I heard of it and the overall costs to high to warrant the investment in putting all the extra plant in and upgrade all the kWh meters at the same time.

It was also planned to use TWACS for auto dis - re connect brakers on awkward customers to remotely switch them off or on for non payment."

If they (meaning your utility)weren't happy with the TWACS, look at CTI (Cannon Technologies). Same basic theory using a higher freqency and capacitors in the substation for injecting the signal. Ours works great and they have great support. Drawbacks (if you have very long circuitss) is signal attenuation (corrected by repeaters) and you have to put blocking reactors on the capacitor banks.

Trick440,
How did you resolve a 35,000 kwh difference? Did you get screwed to the wall, or was there an error found?

[This message has been edited by WFO (edited 02-01-2006).]

Here in England most PoCos send out a bill every 3 months, with a variety of payment options. You can set up a direct debit with your bank so that the money is taken automatically, mail a check, or take the bill with its counterfoil into a bank or post office and pay cash. Most also offer a monthly direct debit plan for those who have trouble budgeting for the quarterly payments.

In my area, meter readers visit at 6-monthly intervals, with estimated bills for the intermediate quarters. For those still with internal meters (many, if not most), if nobody is home the reader leaves a "Sorry we missed you" card. You can then either: (a) wait until the reader returns a couple of days later, (b) read the meter yourself and either phone in the readings or leave the card in a window for when the reader returns if you won't be in, or (c) just let them estimate the bill.

On the interim estimated bills you also have the option of phoning in the actual readings if you wish, in which case you will get a revised bill soon after.

For homes with outside meters, obviously there is no problem for the meter readers on their 6-monthly visits. Some places now use telemetry so that the meters can be read by just driving along the street and logging the data.

We also have pre-paid card meters, commonly used in student accommodations and similar sorts of rented properties, or where somebody is not considered creditworthy enough by the PoCo.

Cards with values of £5 (about $9) upwards) can be bought in post offices and many local convenience stores. Inserting a card into the meter slot just adds that amount of credit to the meter, and when the balance hits zero, a contactor opens cutting off power.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 02-02-2006).]