Electronic Meter Utility Project

Introduction To Electronic Utility Project

Electronic meters compared to traditional mechanical solutions in use offer several additional advantages to the utility market. The metering utilities that can be replaced are gas, water and electricity. The advantages are:

� Better reliability
� Better accuracy
� Ease of calibration
� Anti-tampering protection
� Automated meter reading
� Security
� Advanced billing

Of particular importance to the utility company is the tampering of meters. It is estimated that millions of dollars are lost due to the tampering of these meters. Among the tampering are temporary meter disconnect for a period of time before the readings are taken, the use of permanent magnets to saturate current transformers and insertion of mechanical devices to slow down the mechanical turning of the disc.

Simple block diagrams of the gas and electricity metering project are as shown below.

A good document on the application of this can be found from Microchip Electronic Meter Tutorial website.