Meter monitoring network

Coronis Systems and CMC Ekocon have announced a partnership to deploy Coronis wireless technology in the first large-scale automatic metering network in Eastern Europe.

The installation, the first of its type to offer such a high level of automated data collection and remote network monitoring services, will cover the entire region of Water Work Koper, including the cities of Koper, Izola and Piran Slovenia that has about 30,000 water meters.

CMC is integrating Wavenis wireless technology from Coronis to provide more efficient and cost-effective services to WW Koper utility users.

Coronis designs and develops ultra low-power and long-range wireless technologies, with turnkey OEM solutions specially engineered for remote and automatic metering applications.

Network deployment will take place over three years, using the flexibility of Wavenis and its ability to be used for walk-by meter reading using handheld terminals in the short term, while offering a smooth, transition to entirely automated fixed network operation over time.

A battery-powered wireless module is connected to each water meter, enabling value-added services, storing large amounts of meter data and responding to data and administration requests from handheld terminals or a remote server.

The system allows meters to forestall serious problems by spontaneously sending alerts over a wireless connection in case of anomalies such as leaks, backflow, vandalism and low batteries.

The fixed network uses GSM-SMS concentrators to handle groups of up to 2000 meters each.

Depending on the landscape, the extenders will be installed to ensure that 100% of the nodes in each cluster are covered at the lowest cost. A middleware application running on the utility operator’s server handles two-way end-to-end communications throughout the entire network — to each endpoint and
intermediary node — from a central location.