Cooperative Meter Sharing Between the Water Utility and Commercial Water Customer

Jim MimlitzSCADAmetrics

Cooperative Meter SharingBetween the Water Utility

and Commercial Water Customer

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Latest Technology Solves The Common Problems Involved WithConnecting Flow Meters To SCADA, Telemetry, & Building Automation Systems.

• Revenue-Grade Total/Flow Using Standard AMR Protocols. Sensus, Neptune, Elster Meter Communication Protocols w/ Auto-Detect. Most Major Meter Brands Are Compatible. Pulse-Counting Errors Eliminated, Pulse-Synchronization No Longer Required. Reverse Flows are Detectable/Alarmable For Many Meters.

• RRF Splitter Device Enables Data Sharing Between Water Utility and Commercial Water Customer Allows Commercial Customers To Better Manage Their Water Consumption By Monitoring The Same Metering Data As The Water Utility.

Does Not Interfere With Water Utility AMR System.

• Comm To Automation System Using Standard Protocols MODBUS® Via Serial and Ethernet Ports, Allen Bradley DF1, Allen Bradley EtherNet/IP™, Can Communicate With Vast Majority of Commercial and Industrial Automation Systems.

• Integrated Networking Industrial Networking Protocols: MODBUS®/TCP/UDP and Allen Bradley EtherNet/IP™. Web Server, Remote Configuration/Management Via Telnet

• No Manual Pulse Synchronizations Required Even After Power Outage Or Cut Cable


Key Advantages… SCADAmetrics

EtherMeter

Radio-Read Filter

Ensuring The Commercial Customer Meter Reading SystemDoes Not Interfere With the DEP AMR System.

• Collision Avoidance: I don’t have specific engineering information on how Aclara’s unit would handle a collision, but I would expect it would be interpreted as a one-time read error or checksum error, followed by a retry. I anticipate that all MTU’s would handle it that way.

• Wide Sample Periods: A key is to smooth coexistence is to ensure that the EtherMeter does not attempt to read the water meter at too-short sample periods. I would recommend no less than 600-sec sample periods. Please note that we could pre-program all NYC-destined EtherMeters for such a default. And with a sufficiently long sample period, the odds of collision are very slim; and if the rare collision is followed by a successful retry, the result would be transparent to DEP.

• History: Approximately 500 Radio-Read Filter Units installed throughout the USA and Canada with many types of MTU (probably many are Aclara), and we have not heard complaints of compatibility or collision problems.

• NYC Test Case: Some months ago, an RRF was installed by Mosto Tech under permit at the 1675 Broadway property, and there have been no Aclara MTU compatibility complaints from either DEP or the property owner.

• Montreal Case: In 2015, after extensive compatibility testing, the City of Montreal (Quebec, CA) approved the EtherMeter and Radio-Read Filter as the only City-approved system for water meter co-reading.

• Behavior Under Loss-of-Power: The DEP/Aclara MTU is connected to the “Normally-Closed” Contacts; and therefore its connection will be kept alive under all Loss-of-Power events. Consequently, the EtherMeter connection will be uncoupled during these times.


Concerns Addressed… SCADAmetrics

RRF is a 2-Pole Solid-State Switch

RRF Actuation Is From a 5VDC Control Signal From the EtherMeter

Actuation Occurs 1000ms Before EtherMeter Read, and Halts Immediately Following Read.

Entire Read Process Takes Approximately 1.750 s.

Radio-Read Filter Operating Sequence…

EtherMeter AMR Endpoint

RRF

Water Meterwith Absolute Encoder Signal Output


RRF



RRF


Jim Mimlitz

SCADAmetricsSt. Louis, Missouri

636.405.7101scadametrics.com


SCADAmetrics

Engineering

Cooperative Meter Sharing Between the Water Utility and Commercial Water Customer