System Overview
Meteringonline (MOL) is an internet based energy metering data access and analysis service that allows commercial and
industrial customers to better understand their energy usage.
A customer's meter or group of meters is connected to the MOL system using an appropriate communications network such
as the GSM network, GPRS network or PSTN over land line. Data from the meters are downloaded on a daily basis and the half hourly
consumption as well as the meter registers are stored in the MOL database. Metering data from the database is made available
to the user over the Internet using a a dedicated web site.
Utilisation of the Internet as an information sharing tool is an inherent part of the metering information system.
The Internet interface to the database is an added value function to reduce the workload on metering staff and
provide the customer with information to manage his own consumption and bill virtually in real time. It also
provides a reduction in administration costs if the Internet account payment interfaces are implemented.
With this technology, each electricity customer can log into the database with a secure password using a standard
Internet web browser and view or download billing data and consumption profiles for his or her own meter.
Customers can then make informed decisions about tariff changes or load shifting, or it can simply be used to
promote customer confidence in the electricity billing process. Provision of this information will ensure that
customers are better informed about their particular energy consumption patterns and when coupled with time-of-use
tariff options customers can be encouraged to control their loads. This demand side load management strategy will
impact on the overall consumption patterns of the customer and can only be achieved by making accurate and on
time information available to the right people, the customer.
A major strength of the system is the flexibility achieved with data communication. In applications where a
modern multifunction energy meter is used with communication ability, communication will be achieved directly
to the meter using either a PSTN or GSM/GPRS modem. In cases where legacy meters are used that do not have the ability
to communicate directly, a metering RTU is used as a data collection unit.
The MOL database is an open relational metering database that can be implemented on any modern database engine
with Internet client-server capability for automatic data entry. This database is optimised for volume data storage
and high speed retrieval for batch bill processing. The billing engine allows for the implementation of multiple
time-of-use (TOU) and linear sliding scale tariffs. The complete system is designed with multi platform hardware
support to provide for an open scalable solution in a modern networked environment.
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