the business significance of meter accuracy

1
Abstracts departments and 3 national laboratories involved in flow measurement. The business significance of meter accuracy G. ARCHIBALD Severn Trent Water, Birmingham, UK The water utilities in the UK have to use meters on domestic supplies which are more accurate at low flows than those meters required for non-domestic supplies in the UK or for any supplies by water utilities elsewhere. Is it right or wrong that this is the case? What are the reasons for this higher accuracy on low flows requirement? Given that it is a requirement, what is the effect on metering households in the UK? Does it mean that they pay more than households elsewhere? What would be the impact on the metered bills of households in the UK of using meters less accurate at low flows? What would be the impact on the metered bills of households elsewhere of using the more accurate low flow meters? How significant are these fine points of meter accuracy to the relationship between a utility and its customers? How customer-orientated are those responsible for setting the standards for meter accuracy? What are the business implications of the stringent standards in terms of higher cost equipment and higher cost maintenance? Is it worth it? Automatic meter reading - The financial case and need for open systems P. M. HARRIE* and S. HOLMESt *Schlumberger Industries, Water & Gas Group UK, P. O. Box 3, Talbot Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 OXX, UK. tSchlumberger Industries, Electricity Management, Langer Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk IPl l 8ER, UK. The meter is the utility's cash register, showing com- modity delivered and consumed. The meter point is technically capable of also providing consumption and usage patterns, theft identification, leakage identification and other parameters. Instant access to this information can provide a new tool for utilities to match supply against demand enabling variable tariff and planned storage. Operating efficiency can be increased. Importantly, customer benefits number privacy, elec- tronic payment, detection of leaks, fast updates on bills, efficient read on move of tenancy. This paper discusses economic justification and how an economic model can be built up. Models tend to be complex and hard to follow. A suggested approach (S. Ward, Schlumberger, Norcross) is to simplify the model and view it in terms of consumer value. Currently, remote and automatic meter reading systems abound which are proprietary and not compatible. Trials are being undertaken on remote read by touch pad, r.f., telephone, power line carrier and hard wired or bus systems. However, we believe that with a diversity of meter types, locations and geographical densities and with utilities having differing drivers for automating reading, no single telemetry solution stands head and shoulders above the rest. Therefore, a mix of telemetry solutions must be enabled which allows a migration of the solution without undue initial or replacement cost. The system itself must be invisible to the function - namely provision of information. Hence meters must be able to be linked in through any medium, whether this be manual input of index reading through to r.f., PLC, bus or telephone link. In order for different telemetry media to interface and for units to be sourced from a number of suppliers, standardization of interfaces is needed. The paper discusses the needs of such an open system and the route to standardization in the UK and Europe. Budget metering in the water sector A. THOMAS and A. MILLARD Severn Trent Water, Birmingham, UK This paper covers the development of water budget metering as approached from the strategic needs of the UK's second largest water company, Severn Trent Water. The paper addresses the underlying financial issues facing water companies with regard to the collection of water charges and places the price level within Severn Trent against that of the European Market. The level of customer indebtness, associated with non- payment, is examined as a percentage of turnover for seven of the UK water plcs, and illustrates the strategic driving force behind developments. Links with social services agencies are discussed and the requirements generated for a water industry pre-payment unit are expounded upon. Features of the system jointly developed between STW and Schlumberger Industries are given, focusing upon the customer needs which the deployed technology must address. A review of current experience and future expectations is presented based upon operating experience. Flow Meas. Instrum., 1994 Volume 5 Number 2 143

Upload: g-archibald

Post on 26-Jun-2016

214 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: The business significance of meter accuracy

Abstracts

departments and 3 national laboratories involved in flow measurement.

The business significance of meter accuracy

G. ARCHIBALD

Severn Trent Water, Birmingham, UK

The water utilities in the UK have to use meters on domestic supplies which are more accurate at low flows than those meters required for non-domestic supplies in the UK or for any supplies by water utilities elsewhere. Is it right or wrong that this is the case? What are the reasons for this higher accuracy on low flows requirement? Given that it is a requirement, what is the effect on metering households in the UK? Does it mean that they pay more than households elsewhere? What would be the impact on the metered bills of households in the UK of using meters less accurate at low flows? What would be the impact on the metered bills of households elsewhere of using the more accurate low flow meters? How significant are these fine points of meter accuracy to the relationship between a utility and its customers? How customer-orientated are those responsible for setting the standards for meter accuracy? What are the business implications of the stringent standards in terms of higher cost equipment and higher cost maintenance? Is it worth it?

Automatic meter reading - The financial case and need for open systems

P. M. HARRIE* and S. HOLMESt

*Schlumberger Industries, Water & Gas Group UK, P. O. Box 3, Talbot Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 OXX, UK. tSchlumberger Industries, Electricity Management, Langer Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk IPl l 8ER, UK.

The meter is the utility's cash register, showing com- modity delivered and consumed. The meter point is technically capable of also providing consumption and usage patterns, theft identification, leakage identification and other parameters. Instant access to this information can provide a new tool for utilities to match supply against demand enabling variable tariff and planned storage. Operating efficiency can be increased. Importantly, customer benefits number privacy, elec- tronic payment, detection of leaks, fast updates on bills, efficient read on move of tenancy. This paper

discusses economic justification and how an economic model can be built up. Models tend to be complex and hard to follow. A suggested approach (S. Ward, Schlumberger, Norcross) is to simplify the model and view it in terms of consumer value. Currently, remote and automatic meter reading systems abound which are proprietary and not compatible. Trials are being undertaken on remote read by touch pad, r.f., telephone, power line carrier and hard wired or bus systems. However, we believe that with a diversity of meter types, locations and geographical densities and with utilities having differing drivers for automating reading, no single telemetry solution stands head and shoulders above the rest. Therefore, a mix of telemetry solutions must be enabled which allows a migration of the solution without undue initial or replacement cost. The system itself must be invisible to the function - namely provision of information. Hence meters must be able to be linked in through any medium, whether this be manual input of index reading through to r.f., PLC, bus or telephone link. In order for different telemetry media to interface and for units to be sourced from a number of suppliers, standardization of interfaces is needed. The paper discusses the needs of such an open system and the route to standardization in the UK and Europe.

Budget metering in the water sector

A. THOMAS and A. MILLARD

Severn Trent Water, Birmingham, UK

This paper covers the development of water budget metering as approached from the strategic needs of the UK's second largest water company, Severn Trent Water. The paper addresses the underlying financial issues facing water companies with regard to the collection of water charges and places the price level within Severn Trent against that of the European Market. The level of customer indebtness, associated with non- payment, is examined as a percentage of turnover for seven of the UK water plcs, and illustrates the strategic driving force behind developments. Links with social services agencies are discussed and the requirements generated for a water industry pre-payment unit are expounded upon. Features of the system jointly developed between STW and Schlumberger Industries are given, focusing upon the customer needs which the deployed technology must address. A review of current experience and future expectations is presented based upon operating experience.

Flow Meas. Instrum., 1994 Volume 5 Number 2 143