ACTOM supplies AMI solution to Tzaneen
25 January 2012
News
Greater Tzaneen Municipality in Limpopo Province has become the first local authority in South Africa to adopt the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system offered by ACTOM Protection & Control (P&C), one of the country’s leading metering systems suppliers.
(Left to right) Flip Schutte, technical assistant, Projects, Greater Tzaneen Municipality; Mikee Zhang, Hexing’s regional manager for South Africa; P&C electricity metering engineer Azwitamisi Mavhungu; Jianming Fang, Hexing system engineer
After the successful completion of a three-month pilot project, which ran from May to July last year, the municipality has followed up with an order for a large-scale project involving 250 prepaid meters, plus the accompanying control and monitoring systems.
“This is the first time that we are providing a complete metering solution to a South African municipality, as the most we have provided to municipalities prior to this were prepaid meters and customer interface units. The Tzaneen contract consists of the complete solution available from Hexing Electrical of China, our smart metering systems principals,” said Azwitamisi Mavhungu, P&C’s electricity metering engineer.
The complete solution comprises customer interface units (CIUs), prepaid meters, data concentrators, a master server and the AMI software. The pilot system run earlier will be integrated into the larger-scale system, bringing the total number of prepaid meters installed to 319 and the total number of data concentrators to eight.
Mavhungu said the system will greatly enhance and simplify the municipality’s ability to monitor and control the electricity usage of consumers. “Whereas with the standard prepayment meter where there is no system of communication, with the complete solution the municipality will be able from the master station to do monthly profiling of consumption per area and per consumer and can remotely switch on and off supply to consumers individually. It can also detect whenever any illegal connections are made, enabling it to immediately take whatever remedial action is necessary,” he explained.
The existing power line is used as the communication channel between the CIU at the consumer’s premises, the meter situated in the metering box and the data concentrator in the mini-sub, while GPRS provides the communication between the concentrator and the master server.
For more information contact Brian van Rensburg, ACTOM Protection & Control, +27 (0)11 820 5319, [email protected], www.actom.co.za
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