I'm curious how POCO reads meters nowadays.

I'm asking because before I did a service change my meter was 35000 off in thier favor. When I called to get a new meter installed I also told them the meter was way off.

So I get this new meter and its been about 10 months they are already about 8k off .

I called them 2 months ago and let them know and they said they would look into it.

Oh ya another thing they did was when I removed my interuptable water heater meter, they continued to charge me for 4 more months.. so how they hell are they getting these readings?

I havent seen a meter reader in years. I know they do estimate but how often do they actually come take some kind of a reading? I figured it was digital in someway, like they just had to drive down your street.

Do they even have to come out anymore or do they just get this magic reading at the station?

Just wondering cause I call to complain and they don't really care.

[This message has been edited by Trick440 (edited 01-30-2006).]

I am curious to know how you know, that the meter is off?

Are you comparing your electric bills to the actually meter readings?

In response to how they read them, in my area, they switched to the new wireless meters. They don't have to send anyone out to physically read them, it is done via wireless networks...

Dnk...

If done properly there should be once a year a reading of the meter dial to confirm that the electronics and the dial are in step.

If an opto pick up fails to pick up some pulses from a disc a gradual error will occur in the readings.

Also if the TX RX signal has a error between the wireless meters and the error code is not picked up by the office a billing error will be made.

Who want's to get a big "corrective" billing adjustment . please pay within 14 days $ 800.== as example.

Best remedie is when the bill arrives. Check the reading yourself, if it looks too low or high

Here, they still come and read the meter every 3 months.

They read mine every month so they don't miss out on a single penny.

In the urban areas sombody comes around to read every second month. Non read months the customer has the option to call in a reading before a cutoff date to prevent an estimated billing. Estimates are usually a little higher than actual use.

In the rural areas the customers have to call in their readings each month to avoid an estimated bill.

out this way,they just converted our cyclometer meters to a remote read type.there completly digtial with a LCD readout. our's is a landis & gyr FOCUS,we also have CENTRON's of the same nature.it uses what they call a TWACS system. there's a big pad mount sitting in the substation that shorts out every so often through some big resistors that puts a pulse on the line that reads the meter.as they say so far so good. but some have radio transmitters in them. they have a little antena inside.these usual read at a remote point.

[This message has been edited by circuit man (edited 01-30-2006).]

Once a year they send me a form to fill out and drop in the mail. No meter man...

FPL sends a bouncy young girl around every month here. It is the highlight of my day
;-)

Several use PLC (power line carrier) technology. The TWACs system already mentioned is one. Others are Cannon (CTI) and Hunt (Turtles). The comunications are sent directly over the power line.
Others use radio (both fixed and "drive-by"), cellular, and even satellite.

Are they actually charging you for a load control device? It does them more good than you.

I too would like to know just how you found the readings to be off.

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).]