FEBRUARY 21, 2007

Gas Natural Distribution has developed an automatic Telemeter system pioneered in Europe. Using the owa22I Ethernet of Owasys, the system is based on mobile transmission data via GPRS with SMS back up.

Less than 2 years ago, Gas Natural Distribution (Gas Natural division) decided to update their infrastructures. They decided to install a telemeter system for the whole of Spain, pioneered in Europe among the gas companies.

For Tomas Villamayor (Measurement and Verification Manager for the Group of Gas Natural) the most important thing was that they were able to mix the best technology available, at that moment in time. “We have taken the most recent of each environment and have integrated in to one system. This has been a great challenge for us. We chose the most innovative in communications, the latest in telemeter equipment. We have not chosen the most secure way because we wanted to innovate, this has been done with very successful results. Now we have a better understanding of the consumption of our customers connected to our network”.

With the establishment of this system, the reading of the equipment which measures the gas consumption in each company is made automatically, avoiding the need for agencies to visit each building to measure, before and after billing.

The information is automatically transmitted via GPRS to the central management system, and from there to the billing system. Furthermore, it is possible to control remotely the installations, the updating of the operating systems, plus applications. This will solve any emerging problems. On the other side, customers can access and authorize information in a very secure and reliable way.

At the moment, the system is concentrated in diary measurements but the objective is to be able to get timetable measurements. This would be profitable, not only for Villamayor, also, for the customers because they could save on consumption. The timetable measurement allows the customers to adapt their flow, to see their consumption curve and in consequence to adjust and fit it in order to save energy and to optimize the investment. It could allow the supplier to make better offers attending to the timetable. At the moment they are testing and the system should now be ready for these kind of measurements”.

The objective is to get a unique structure which allows the group to offer more detailed information; being beneficial for the Customers and for the controllers at, Gas Natural Distribution.

The Genesis of the Project
The project commenced the autumn of 2004. This was when the company decided to update the equipment that was obsolete and those with very high faulty rates and with a very high level of maintenance.

Three months later the first outline of the installation was completed and the devices to be used were specified.

The products in the market did not answer to their expectations, so they had to start the design from the beginning; choosing devices with the required functionality and looking for programming partners.
A reliable, easy to use and easy to programme system was required, based on the standards of the market and with cheap maintenance. “We knew what the controller and the integrated elements should do.  We just needed to know how to assembly them, said Tomás Villamayor-
When the norm ITC 103/104/2005, which restricted us to have telemetry equipment, this encouraged us to begin. In the first instant we had 3 models to choose from, finally, we chose the wireless terminal owa22IETH from Owasys. The Owasys system was easier to programme and more versatile, so we decided to use it. The owa22I Ethernet Works over the Linux operative system and offers several functionalities. It has the possibility of 2 input channels, which in turn is very useful for those customers that require 2 metering units”.
The rest of the elements of the project (feeding source, insulator, joiner and modem) were given by other suppliers. The feeding source is of Taiwanese origin, whereas the insulator is of the mark Esindus and the joiner of the equipment is of Teyco.
Regarding the structure that sustains the communications, the net is based on the GPRS technology with SMS backup. Only in those zones where there is no GPRS coverage or the circumstances do not allow it, the connection is done via telephony network. The service is provided by Telefónica, as it was the only company that could offer us a national level that we needed to operate, with GPRS ".

Problems in the introduction

Being a pioneered project from the beginning, it was often necessary to change direction during the development stages, this enabled us to correctly define the current structure of industrial telemeter system which would support future application

This structure, such as it is, has a validity of eight or ten years. Arriving near to the end of the development there did not arise any problems that could qualify as being negative. However, we had to overcome some small obstacles. The change of the fixed IP by the dynamics, meant some correctors were in English and not Spanish. The GPRS signal which used to fail in summer because the operator was giving priority to the voice against the data transmission, resulting in the SMS becoming very slow.
Last summer all the remote stations that were down, were raised mostly via GPRS.
Only a few systems required an engineer to visit the headquarters to restart the systems. Stage by stage we have been solving these small problems and to date with have installed more than 2.000 systems", said Tomás Villamayor.

The objective now is to extend the functionalities that the system offers, as there is a wide range of applications. Besides measuring the gas consumption, there are also several tests to verify and guarantee pressure. This application is almost finished and is expected to be totally operative and installed for the customers during this first quarter of the year. 

This document is an extract of an interview published by COMMUNICATIONS WORLD.

For further information please contact with: Maite Ruffo
Maite.ruffo@owasys.com