Connect One of Kfar Sava and NAMS, manufacturer of state-of-the-art electronic energy meters, power line carrier communications systems and remote metering systems, today announced the immediate availability of the NMM-AKB watt-hour meter with embedded Internet protocols provided by Connect One's iModem.
The NMM-AKB electricity meter, manufactured by NAMS, is a multi-rate, three-phase, direct connection 10 (100) amp meter, intended for indoor installation by residential and industrial customers. The NMM-AKB meter utilizes Connect One's embedded iModem, a drop-in replacement for a standard analog dial-up modem. iModem sends and receives data as an e-mail message via a dial-up connection to an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) local access number, without connecting to a PC or local area network gateway.
"With e-mail messaging inside our electronic meter, we can transfer data between our smart meters and our centralized management and billing system cost-effectively," said Roy Kariv, NAMS' vice president of marketing. "Consumption data now can be uploaded from all of our Energy Service Providers' customers on the same day and when phone rates are lowest. Plus, we can send out new rates to every meter with just a single e-mail."
Connect One's iModem receives electricity consumption and load data from the meter, then packages the data inside an e-mail message, dials the ISP and sends the message to a mailbox at the electric company. Each iModem can be scheduled to download files from a mailbox at the utility and to update the meter's firmware. The meter's tariff generator software is also externally updateable. New tariff schedules are simply downloaded in an e-mail message from the utility's central office to the meter's embedded iModem. Billing data and load profile can be uploaded from the meter to the central office on a regularly scheduled basis.
Connect One develops and manufactures chips, software, and hardware that enable industrial, commercial and consumer devices to connect to the Internet.
NAMS is a world leader in electronic energy meters for the residential, commercial and industrial market segments, Power Line Carrier (PLC) communication systems, and remote metering systems.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 23, 2000.