Revealed! AMI energy meter hardware composition

 AMI energy meter also called smart meter, it is smart grid electricity terminal monitor.Through AMI energy meters, utilities enable to offer new time-based rate programs and incentives that encourage customers to reduce peak demand and manage energy consumption and costs.

AMI energy meter is the most important terminal hardware of smart grid. Today, I will revealed the hardware composition of AMI energy meter.

 

The power module of AMI energy meter.

In our daily life, the power supply used AC 220V/230V/240V commonly , but the working voltage of most chips is low-voltage DC power supply, common are DC5V, DC3.3V and so on. This requires AC 220V/230V/240V to obtain a stable DC power supply through step-down rectification, and the commonly used step-down methods are resistance-capacitive step-down, transformer step-down, and switching power supply.

 

The metering module of AMI energy meter

It consists of metering chip, current sampling and voltage sampling. Current sampling is to convert large current into measurable voltage small signals, often using current transformers and shunts; Voltage sampling is through high-precision resistor voltage divider form or voltage transformer, AMI energy meter to transmit current and voltage sampling signals to professional metering chips for calculation processing.

 

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is an integrated system of smart meters, communications networks, and data management systems that enables two-way communication between utilities and customers. The system provides a number of important functions that were not previously possible or had to be performed manually, such as the ability to automatically and remotely measure electricity use, connect and disconnect service, detect tampering, identify and isolate outages, and monitor voltage. Combined with customer technologies, such as in-home displays and programmable communicating thermostats, AMI also enables utilities to offer new time-based rate programs and incentives that encourage customers to reduce peak demand and manage energy consumption and costs.

 

The storage of AMI energy meter

It adopts EEPROM, ferroelectric and other devices, mainly storing event information, load curves, cost control schemes, and various power data (current, voltage, power, electricity), etc.

The control part of AMI energy meter realizes the control and management of end power users, and realizes it by configuring magnetic holding relays. When the load power is greater than the set threshold, the power supply is automatically cut off; When the power supply in the area is less, a time period can be set, and the power supply can be switched on or off in different periods to achieve orderly power consumption; When encountering special circumstances, temporary power cuts can be carried out for power users.

 

The communication module of AMI energy meter

It has the ability of two-way communication, which can transmit meter data to the system platform, and can also issue system platform instructions to the meter to realize human-computer interaction. The AMI energy meter communication function realizes the data management of power companies and establishes a basic database for creative derivative functions.

 

AMI energy meters as a metering product need to allow users to easily view electricity data, currently using LCD, display current, voltage, power, electricity and other power data.

The above functional modules of AMI energy meter require MCU processor to coordinate and integrate, and the MCU is the brain of AMI energy meter. People can convert the functional requirements of AMI energy meters into AMI energy meters according to market demand, and write them to the MCU through programming languages to control each functional module to meet user needs.