Remote Metering for Water Utilities

The InDTU324 offer reliable connectivity for remote metering of water utilities.

 / Smart Metering

Background

In many cities, water meter reading is done by traditional manual labor. However, water meters are dispersed in many different places, some even in remote field, so the work of meter reading is a practical problem for staff of water utilities. With urbanization and the development of communication technology, more and more cities choose network-based automatic water meter reading system to replace the traditional method.

Customer Requirements​

Real-time Meter Reading

It is necessary to achieve real-time meter reading for water meters in various regions of the city, enabling accurate tracking of water usage and optimizing water resource management.

User Service Optimization

By utilizing real-time meter reading and data analysis, we offer an analysis of users’ water consumption habits. This enables the optimization of water billing methods, enhancing the overall user service experience.

Secure and reliable communications between meters and monitoring center

Robust communication with redundancy mechanisms ensures uninterrupted data transmission to the central monitoring center.

Reliable operation during long periods of time in unattended environments

Design durable hardware resistant to environmental factors, coupled with energy-efficient components, for consistent, long-term operation in unattended or challenging settings.

Solution​

In this project, the water company provided water supply for both downtown and suburban areas. In the downtown area, water meters were installed in every resident’s house; in suburban areas, meters were installed separately at each villa, and usually, the distance between two villas was 500m to 5km. Traditionally, the water company used to hire thousands of meter readers to go around to read the meter, and always spend much money on traffic and labor.

Based on the requirements of water meter automatic reading, we provided GPRS based solution. For the downtown areas, we used InDTU324 industrial GPRS modem to connected with the concentrator by RS485 bus in each apartment; for suburban areas, we used InDTU324 to connect directly to the meter of each villa. In each GPRS modem, there was a valid SIM card provided by local mobile operator. These SIM cards could provide special private APN (Private Access Point Network) service which prevented access from public internet and also enabled the access from the water company’s data center to a certain remote meter. (You can consult your local mobile operator about private APN and SIM card).

Benefits

Easy deployment across designated areas

Wireless service makes it easy to build up network and can ensure the network cover all the meters in the specified area.

Secure and reliable data transmission

The network is reliable enough and can safely transmit data from meters to monitoring center.

Robust design for long-time reliable operation in varying environments

The InDTU324 features industrial-grade design, with a wide operation temperature range of -40~70℃(-40~158℉), proving quite resilient in harsh unattended sites. Compact size makes installation easy.

Built for the scenarios

The InDTU324 supports several industrial data protocols including Modbus RTU/Modbus TCP, Transparent TCP, IEC 101 to 104, etc., and also supports customization for customers’ requirements.

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