Do you know the difference? STS prepaid electric meter and IC card prepaid electricity meter

 In Africa,such as Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, etc, residential electricity metering basically uses prepaid electricity meters, especially STS standard prepaid meters.

Prepaid meters are also widely used in other countries, mainly used in rental housing, shopping malls, school and factory dormitories, new energy power generation projects, etc.

The functions of prepaid energy meters are also increasing, not only the original energy measurement, but also remote communication, anti-tamper, rate, event, alarm, load curve, etc. can be increased according to market demand, more intelligent. Prepaid electricity meter is also called quantitative energy meter, its main feature is that the user first buys electricity and then uses electricity, the purchased electricity does not continue to purchase electricity after use, the electric energy meter automatically cuts off the power supply to stop the power supply, solving the problem of charging difficulty effectively .

Prepaid meters can be divided into two types in terms of electricity charging mode: code type,refers to the STS standard prepaid meter, and IC card type,refers to the card meter. Currently, the market share of IC card prepaid meters are less and less, they are replaced by code-based prepaid meters.

Today, I will share with you the difference between STS prepaid electric meters and IC card prepaid electricity meters. If you realize these main differences to understand why IC card prepaid electricity meters are replaced by STS prepaid electric meters.

	STS prepaid electric meter	IC card prepaid electricity meter
Remote communication	Remote read data and charge	Remote read data
Charge type	No media recharge, 20-digit code charge	IC card charge
security	STS standard encryption with high security	AES standard encryption with low security
compatibility	The STS Standard Transfer Specification is currently the only globally recognized open standard for prepaid systems. High compatibility	Different IC cards use different encryption methods, and different manufacturers of the meters use different protocols. Low compatibility
Fault tolerance	Communication failure can be entered via the keypad to recharge the code	If the IC card is damaged, only by replaced
Convenience	Online purchase electricity	Designated purchase electricity

 

The STS prepaid meter has the characteristics of no medium recharge to purchase electricity, and with the technology of remote communication, the function of remote recharge of prepaid electricity meter is realized; Combined with the prepaid system platform and advanced mobile payment, online power purchase and online recharge are fully realized.

 

At the users end, it can purchase and recharge electricity anytime and anywhere as needed, without fear of the dilemma of difficulty in purchasing electricity at night or on holidays;

At the power sales end, it also saves electricity sales points and power sales management personnel, saves electricity sales operating costs, and improves the satisfaction of power users.

 

In addition, the code-based STS prepaid electricity meter adopts STS standard, and the encryption security is extremely high, which escorts the charging volume of remote online power purchase.