MAY 24--Swedish power companies are expected within a period of five years to invest a minimum of SEK 10 billion in systems for collecting meter-reading data. Systems for monthly reading of meters comprises the major part of investments for many Swedish electricity companies. A new regulation requires mandatory meter reading of all meters at least once a month, for major customers even by the hour. Almost 5 million meters will need to be provided with communication for automatic transmission of meter reading data, which so far has meant replacing the electricity meter.
Now, Anoto Group (Lund, Sweeden; www.anoto.com), through its business unit C Technologies, and Nam Tai Electronic & Electrical Products Limited (Hong Kong, China; www.namtai.com) are jointly developing a camera for optical reading of these electricity meters. The concept has been validated by a joint pilot installation with Öresundskraft (Helsingborg, Sweden; www.oresundskraft.se). C Technologies optical meter reader device is connected to the mechanical meter at the customer's site allowing mechanical meters to be remotely measured. According to Pelle Håkansson, manager of business unit communication at Öresundskraft, 99% of the electric meters in Sweden consist of electromechanical (Ferraris) meters containing inductive devices.