Smart metering installation program announced

PRI Australasia (PRIA) has been appointed a partner of Citipower and Powercor in the delivery of the Victorian government’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) smart meter rollout.

PRIA’s smart, single-phase meter, i-Credit 500 and the three-phase meter, Sprint 200, have been chosen as AMI-compatible revenue metering devices. The project involves the installation of over one million meters throughout Victoria, contributing to making the state a leader in the reduction of carbon footprint, according to Victoria’s Minister for Energy and Resources, Peter Batchelor.

The smart meters are equipped with communication facilities that make them ideal for future Smart Energy Network (SEN) developments, being capable of operating in Wireless Mesh Networks, as well as communicating within Home Area Networks.

Michael Guy, Managing Director of PRIA, says the smart meters will provide valuable benefits to both distributors and end users through features such as remote connection, disconnection; ‘time of use’ load control; half-hour energy profiling; user-friendly tariff information defined by weekday, holiday and seasonal factors.

The smart meters are 4-quadrant devices, making them suitable for import/export metering. This, together with the communication capabilities, provides an exciting future as an integral part of Smart Energy Networks.

“The traditional one-way power flow from generator to consumer will become a thing of the past,” says Guy. “SEN, in which our meters can be an embedded device, will be able to eliminate to a significant extent the excess spinning capacity traditionally associated with power grids because alternate energy sources, including rooftop solar generation, will provide feed-in data.”