We are in a context of great opportunity for energy advisers. With a vast market for company digital electricity meters deployed throughout the country and with a picture of growing energy costs, it is necessary to make intelligent use of this infrastructure to optimize consumption and make a rational use of electricity . Now it is possible to offer energy saving solutions thanks to the IEC870-5-102 protocol of the smart electricity meters deployed in Spain, together with the possibility of sending submetering information via LTE / 4G almost immediately to the energy advisers.

Device: MTX-IoT-S,MTX-IoT-XS,MTX-IoT,MTX-T,MTX-T2, 4G IoT modems with MTX-Tunnel IEC870 software

IoT platform: Cervello IoT Platform

When we are faced with a scenario in which we want to carry out an energy efficiency project based on submetering, the most recommended option is to take advantage of the installation’s own recording meter, an infrastructure already deployed and that is useful for our project as long as we are capable to read and understand the protocol they use, the IEC870-5-102.

In Spain, there is currently a meter park of several million units from which much more could be obtained than it is currently available. The meters are classified, according to the regulation of measurement points (RD 1110/2007), in five different types depending on the power contracted in the installation. The meters for installations with greater than 15kW contracted power have the same communications protocol: IEC 870-5-102.

These meters, already installed, supply rates of three and six periods, and constitute a great source of information since they allow obtaining electrical information retroactively. They store up to six months of the load curve (average active power value), the reactive energy of the four quadrants and the last twelve billing closings (distribution of consumption and dates of maximeters in the different pricing periods).

The needs, therefore, of the energy efficiency consulting company go through being able to monitor several of these indicators in real time (readings every 15 minutes) of the Active Absolute Energy (VabA), Inductive Reactive Absolute Energy (VabRi) data, Capacitive reactive absolute energy (VabRc) of an IEC 870-5-102 meter. In addition, in case of poor coverage, the connectivity equipment needs to store the recorded readings and send them the moment coverage returns.

For this purpose, the connectivity device that MTX proposes is the MTX-T modem (or any módem with firmware MTX-Tunnel), a basic modem at a competitive price with an RS232 interface (to connect to the meter) and 4G/LTE connectivity. Thanks to the firmware of this modem, the MTX-Tunnel, the device can be configured to take the readings of the required values, store them in the internal memory and transmit them immediately or, in case of bad coverage, at the moment in which the connectivity.

The modem configuration, having the IEC 870-5-102 protocol included in its firmware, passes only by indicating the identifier, the network address, the measured point address and the password of the meter, in addition to other generic configurations such as operation datalogger, port information or connectivity. All this configuration is done through a simple and convenient TXT file that is loaded directly into the modem.

Once the meter readings have been read and stored, the MTX-T sends the data to the final platform of the energy efficiency advisor, which will analyze the data from the submetering carried out to offer all the detailed information to the end customer.

In addition, thanks to Cervello Stem, it is possible to manage all the devices in the IoT network in a fast, comfortable and intuitive way. From this IoT device management platform you can monitor the status and connectivity of the modems, in addition to being able to configure alarms, execute configuration commands or perform remote firmware updates.