Metering hardware
MOL reads any major meter. PMT also designs its own range, because data used for billing depends on knowing exactly how the instrument behaves. Every meter we supply is calibrated in our own SANAS-accredited laboratory before it leaves us.
MTR1000 · MTR3000 · MOL4000 · MTR3500 · DIN-6041
The revenue meter where the utility's supply enters the property. It communicates over power line or RF (radio) to a data concentrator, holds time-of-use tariffs, and logs events and tamper attempts. Direct-connected models can disconnect and reconnect the supply remotely. The bill is raised against this meter.
Compact, revenue-grade rail-mounted meters for points downstream of the supply point: individual tenants, floors, plant, chillers and common areas. They are wired over RS-485 to a gateway rather than communicating over the grid, and are sized so that many fit in one distribution board.
Every meter PMT sells is revenue grade, wherever it is installed. Most installations use both types: a smart meter to prove what the utility supplied, and DIN-rail meters to measure what each tenant consumed. Together they allow tenant recovery to reconcile.
The basics
A conventional meter keeps one running total, and someone has to visit the site to read it. A smart meter records when energy was used as well as how much, interval by interval, and sends the readings back without a site visit.
Time-of-use billing, maximum demand, load profiles, tenant recovery and bill verification all depend on knowing what was consumed in each half hour, not only across the month.
A twelve-channel load profile records consumption and demand interval by interval. MOL bills and analyses on this half-hourly data.
Readings are sent over power line or RF to a data concentrator and on to MOL. Instructions and tariff changes are sent back by the same route.
A replaceable battery-backed real-time clock allows the meter to apply time-of-use tariffs itself, so every interval is recorded in the correct tariff period.
Active and reactive energy, both imported and exported. This matters once a site has solar generation or a generator.
The meter logs events and tamper attempts, and MOL reports them: phase loss, reverse energy, and a last-gasp notification when the supply is lost.
Direct-connected models have an integrated load switch, so a supply can be disconnected and reconnected remotely.
The range
DLMS/COSEM (the international standard for exchanging meter data) throughout, four-quadrant measurement, a twelve-channel load profile, full event and tamper logging, and a replaceable battery-backed real-time clock.
Single-phase, direct connected
Residential and small commercial supply points on an AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) rollout.
Three-phase, direct connected
Three-phase supplies in small commercial and light industrial premises, where the load is within the meter's direct range.
Three-phase, CT connected
Large commercial and industrial intakes, where current is measured through current transformers.
Three-phase, CT or CT/VT, high accuracy
Revenue metering at MV (medium-voltage) intakes and bulk supply points, including 11 kV via voltage transformers. It is also the reference-grade meter for check metering and bill verification.
How smart meters report
POWER LINK DCU
Smart meters on a power line network do not each need their own SIM card. The POWER LINK range communicates over HD-PLC (high-definition power line communication) across the existing low-voltage reticulation, with no new wiring. HD-PLC uses OFDM modulation and error correction to carry far more data, more reliably, than conventional PLC.
The concentrator manages the mesh, collects data from up to roughly a thousand meters, and sends the aggregated data to MOL over a single cellular connection. In a dense installation, one backhaul link replaces a thousand.
In hybrid mode the meters add a mesh radio channel to HD-PLC, so each meter can reach the concentrator over the power line, over RF or through neighbouring meters. This extends coverage and maintains readings where one path is poor. DLMS/COSEM is used end to end, from the meter through to billing.
Additional product
MOL SN4G · 4G/GPRS
Meters that are not on a power line mesh, such as a single intake, a bulk supply point or an isolated site, are read directly. The SN4G connects to the meter's serial port and sends its readings to MOL over the cellular network.
Inside the board
Class 1 active and Class 2 reactive accuracy, Modbus RTU over RS-485, four tariff registers and a four-channel load profile. Like every meter PMT sells, they are revenue grade, so a landlord can bill tenants directly from their readings.
POWER LINK
Single-phase, direct
POWER LINK
Three-phase, pass-through
POWER LINK
Three-phase, CT connected
A specification describes a meter model. A calibration certificate records the measured accuracy of the individual meter supplied. PMT calibrates in its own laboratory, accredited by SANAS to ISO/IEC 17025 since 1997, to a measurement uncertainty of ±0.03%, and the customer receives the certificate.