Elster Electricity, LLC, a provider of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) global solutions, announces the new IEC-compliant A1800 ALPHA meter series. The A1800 ALPHA meter offers advanced revenue protection capabilities combined with a platform designed to support utility customers’ present and future communication needs. The robust design and advanced functionality makes the A1800 ALPHA meter suitable for commercial, industrial, and substation applications.
“The A1800 ALPHA meter was engineered based on Elster’s world-class metering expertise,” remarked Rafael Cabrera, director of international business development at Elster Electricity. “We’ve combined state-of-the-art technology with global meter application knowledge to provide our customers with the best in revenue protection and system application metering.”
The A1800 ALPHA meter meets standard four-quadrant metering, active, reactive, apparent energy and time-of-use metering requirements while offering the high accuracy expected from the proven ALPHA meter chip technology. The A1800 ALPHA meter is upgradeable and provides customers with the flexibility to meet changing metering requirements and future business needs. The A1800 ALPHA meter can be equipped with two simultaneously readable communication ports to support different communications needs. A second independent communication port is available as an installed option. This option accommodates instances where the system operator and distribution company both need to read the meter. The A1800 ALPHA meter supports many communication options including RS-232, RS-485, internal and external telephone modems, and cellular communications connectivity.
The A1800 ALPHA meter provides exceptional performance even under diverse and harsh environments including extreme temperatures, water and dust. The meter is encased in a rugged polycarbonate enclosure and operates within a wide temperature range of -40°C to +85°C, and within a wide humidity range of 0% to 100% non-condensing. The A1800 ALPHA meter features wide current and voltage ranges and is IP54-compliant for water, dust, and sand resistance.
Elster engineers have worked with tampering specialists and other metering system operators at electric utilities worldwide to create a set of superior anti-tampering and advanced security features in the A1800 ALPHA meter. An optional “Always Positive" theft-resistant measurement feature records reverse energy flow as positive energy flow. Other features include TRueQ monitoring and relaying, instrumentation profiling, reverse energy flow, history and event log, write prevention lock, hidden battery, and an optional transparent terminal cover.
“TRueQTM is a culmination in revenue protection technology,” says Michael Longrie, international sales manager at Elster Electricity. “TRueQ makes it easier to ensure that the revenue stream is protected and secure. Unauthorized attempts to access the meter are instantly blocked or recorded.”
The TRueQ features and other meter parameters of the A1800 ALPHA meter series can be configured using Elster’s Metercat support software, Release 1.8. Metercat is a Windows-based meter support software available in multiple languages.
