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We have updated our product line to include current transformers for EV chargers. Please see our product page for more details.
Author: admin| Time:2022-08-08
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The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has revised a key international standard to enhance the security and functionality of prepaid meters and related systems.
The revised open Standard Transfer Specification (STS), IEC 62055-41, will benefit customers of electricity, water and gas utilities, particularly in developing countries, according to a statement.
The IEC 62055-41 is a globally recognised international standard for electricity metering payment systems. It facilitates more efficient grid management by giving utilities access to enhanced consumption data, as well as ensuring interoperability between system components from different manufacturers.
The standard was originally developed by the IEC Technical Committee13 in South Africa in 1993. The aim was to support the public utility’s electrification programme to connect 10 million households to the supply grid by making use of prepayment metering technology.
However, the focus shifted to helping governments and utilities across the globe to liberalise energy markets and fight climate change by tracking carbon emissions.
The ‘pay-as-you-go’ solution is based on a 20-digit token system that enables consumers to buy in advance and to manage their consumption more efficiently. Offline token-based credit transfer methods are particularly suitable for environments where the online communication infrastructure is poorly supported.
Don Taylor, director os the STS Association, said: “We wanted to improve drastically the encryption algorithms and make them state-of-the-art secure. The idea is for the encryption level to be valid for the next 30 years.
“Most people living in developing countries find it very difficult to predict how much money they will have left at the end of the month.
“Wages are often paid weekly and a monthly electricity bill, similar to what exists in Europe or the USA, would be totally impractical.”
Author: admin| Time:2018-05-15
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Energy market intelligence firm Frost and Sullivan predicts that the global smart meter installation rate will reach 85 million annually by 2025.
Increased implementation of regulatory initiatives especially in Europe will drive the growth of the smart meters market stimulated by efforts to reduce utilities’ non-technical losses, improve billing accuracy and expand renewable energy portfolios.
Malavika Tohani, research director of the Energy and Environment division at Frost and Sullivan, said: "In a highly competitive and commoditised market with little product innovation, leading players such as Landis+Gyr, Itron, Wasion and Hexing are pursuing price differentiation strategies and offering a complete technology solution.
"Price competition will continue to intensify, particularly as Chinese meter manufacturers start aggressively targeting the international market once their domestic rollout is completed in 2018."
Europe is expected to dominate other regions in terms of revenue adoption within the global smart meters market by 2020 followed by the Asia-Pacific region.
Countries like the UK, France, Germany, Austria and Spain are expected to lead in smart meter adoption to meet smart meter deadline targets set under regional and state-based policies.
In Asia, South Korea is expected to emerge as a key market for smart meters as installation is projected to reach 2.5 million units per year between 2015 and 2025.
Africa is forecasted to lag behind in using smart metering systems as utilities will mainly focus on installing basic metering systems including prepaid meters.
However, "smart metering as a service will increase as meter manufacturers look for ways to attract investment from utilities that lack the financial resources to implement a capex-led rollout," added Tohani.
According to its findings, Frost & Sullivan attributes the smart meter growth in China, as the primary driver in overall growth in the AMI market (reaching 115 million installations in 2015) globally.
‘Smart Grid Solutions Company of the Year’
In other news, just recently, Frost and Sullivan has named Itron the '2016 Asia Pacific Smart Grid Solutions Company of the Year' for its comprehensive smart grid solutions. [Frost and Sullivan issues guidelines on grid connectivity]
The award was presented during Australian Utility Week and recognises the company’s performance in 2015 as a result of its ability to address unmet customer needs and exceed their expectations with its OpenWay Riva IoT solution.
“Itron is a leader in technology and services, offering solutions to utilities across the globe that help them be more resourceful with energy and water. The company has demonstrated an ability to meet the emerging needs of the Asia Pacific smart grid solutions market with its OpenWay Riva solution,” said Avanthika Satheesh, industry analyst for energy and environment at Frost and Sullivan.
The smart grid solutions market in the Asia Pacific region saw significant developments in 2015 with an increase in smart metering, demand response and grid automation investments in Japan and South Korea. Smart grid testbeds and smart metering trials grew in Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Author: admin| Time:2017-06-13
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According to a new report compiled by Frost and Sullivan, the Asia Pacific region is poised to become the global leader for clean energy in 2017.
"We expect 2017 to be a transition year for long term changes, globally. With the rising protectionism across the world, issue of energy security will once again come to the fore in Asia Pacific. This will accelerate adoption of clean technologies which can be harnessed locally and those that are less impacted by global policy and price fluctuations," noted Ravi Krishnaswamy, vice president, Energy & Environment, Asia Pacific, Frost and Sullivan.
Frost and Sullivan notes that Despite the likely reduction of feed-in-tariff support in many countries including Australia, Japan, Philippines etc., a healthy growth for renewable technologies lead by solar PV at about 17.8% in 2017. [Report: renewable energy in Asia Pacific – the outlook to 2030]
Initiatives by the local governments to increase the access and quality of power supply, to both residences and industries, is aiding the growth of a range of distributed energy technologies such as biomass, solar PV, microgrids and small temporary power plants. The total distributed energy market is likely to be $18.36 billion in 2017 in Asia Pacific representing a 14.0% year-on-year growth.
Furthermore, with nearly $137 billion likely to be invested, the transmission and distribution sector will present the largest opportunity for power equipment. With China's rollout of smart meters having peaked, the market will depend on Japan's ongoing implementation. [Smart meters worldwide: Asia Pacific pushes growth to 780m by 2020]
Countries such as China, Japan, India and Thailand are also investing significantly in large distance ultra-high voltage transmission capacity to balance the grid, with increasing share of renewable energy.
Energy storage
The firm states that Asia Pacific is home to some of the largest battery manufacturers, but lags behind the US and Europe in terms of storage. China, however, China's is driven toward leveraging energy storage to effectively integrate its large intermittent renewable resources, as a part of its 13th five year plan, offering major stimulus to the Asian market.
Apart from storage, biggest beneficiary of ongoing global trend of digital transformation will be the homes and buildings sector in Asia. Proliferation of competitive energy management technologies will be aided by the use of cloud and open platform building management solutions (BMS). Frost and Sullivan is of the opinion that facility management companies will move into new service frontiers by acquiring and engaging in partnership with niche information technology players. With the availability of cheap and user-friendly devices for home automation, the smart home market is expected to show a strong growth in China, South Korea and Japan.
Author: admin| Time:2017-02-17
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European Utility Week Barcelona marks the most sophisticated gathering of the smart community all at one location. This includes everything from Grid Optimization, Renewables, Energy Storage, Smart Metering, Smart Cities, Smart Homes, Energy Services & Efficiency, Intelligent Buildings, Data Management, Analytics and IoT, Cyber Security, Smart Gas and Smart Water. Our target smart metering customers have shown keen interests primarily in our current transformers and power line communication transformers which meets IEC and ANSI standards for accurate and precise current measurement and communication. Our ability to customize and provide quality innovative solutions has been a primary advantage in the industry.
Author: Admin| Time:2016-12-19