What is a Prepaid Meter?
The energy meter that allows customers to pay for utilities in advance is a prepaid meter. Similar to our prepaid sim card used in mobile phones where the customer can call until the amount is used after which the connection is unavailable. A prepayment or prepaid meter is a single device that can be used for integrated monitoring of electricity, gas & water consumption. The prepaid meter allows you to pay in advance for electricity to be on the safer side and ensures you don’t have to pay a penalty & spend the dark nights.
How are things till date with utilities?
In the past, consumers had no option to view the real-time data of how much electricity has been used & had no control over the budgeting. While, the prepaid meters enables the customer to budget their consumption in advance, detect theft /tampering and payment of energy bills, preventing tenant disputes, further eliminate manual errors while taking energy meter readings. The challenges generally observed in the conventional metering system were higher tenant dispute & longer payment period, unavailability of alarm on failure, historical data, real-time reporting, accuracy, aggregated meter location, inability to make forecast & control meter remotely also it was found that longer wiring leads to transmission losses.
Prepaid Meters within your reach: Highly integrable, configurable, and a versatile solution.
Prepaid is a plan that deducts usage charges and any fixed charges from account balance each day. These prepayment meters have given the customer the control to budget electricity expenses & monitor usage anytime, protect equipment against overload/over voltage, notifications and alerts via SMS/ Email when recharge balance is low, to keep records of recharge & consumption history for easy support & follow-ups & much more available on our fingertips using the mobile app. Prepaid Metering Solutions are specially designed to generate every record of energy consumption, VLL, VLN, A, Hz, W, PF, VA, kWh EB & DG, balance, gas and water consumptions, recharge amount. Elmeasure is one of the leading manufacturers of Energy meter products and solutions while designing products on par with customer requirements. We have designed a microcontroller-based contactless prepaid energy meter that provides an effective solution to the electrical service providers. A prepayment meter allows you to budget and stay in control of your utility consumption and, prevent unexpected bills. Prepayment meter can monitor and report real-time data to track energy consumption for precise billing. This device can access and report critical information, alerts via emails or pop-ups when meter tampering occurs. One of the smart features of the prepayment meter is to monitor the meter usage and configure firmware at any time from the mobile app. Further has the ability to monitor grouped meters, integrate gas & water meter.
Smart features of a prepayment meter
Remote Display Unit to have an explicit view of live meter reading.
Direct current measurement up to 100A for 3 phase measurements.
Optional integration of Gas & Water meters extending the flexibility for the user to budget their expenses.
The meter will be provided with 2 separate Energy Registers for EB and DG. EB or DG source is selected by data communication between meter and PC.
Separate load limits for DG/EB tripping & consumption at pre-determined set point for protection and effective use of energy.
ELNet PPS software enables the customer to recharge the meters in a 24×7 mode using the payment gateway.
Two latch relays are provided for reconnection/disconnection of the load.
Buzzer to give the alarm in case of low credit/overload.
Anti-tamper Features provided in the meter as per Indian standards.
Reduces OPEX and manual supervision required.
Benefits of a prepaid meter
Recharge & monitor from anywhere.
Live updates on consumption & improved quality of service.
Direct web-based access for power monitoring & eliminate the need for manual supervision.
Keep records of recharge & consumption history for OPEX savings.
Easy support, follow-ups & much more available on your fingertips.
How to recharge prepaid electricity meter online?
Payment can be made through RF card, online services where billing and recharging of RF card are done with the software. The meters can be networked with RS485, GSM/GPRS. The unique data communication enables the secured recharging of the meter. Elmeasure has developed ELNet PPS software which enables the customer to recharge the meters 24×7 using the payment gateway without even visiting the service provider.
Mobile/Software Features to read a prepayment electric meter:
Monthly fixed charges based on kVA/kW.
Maintenance charges based on area or fixed.
Advance information about tripping with 2 Alert via SMS/Email for the different balance amount.
Holiday cutoff prevention & Night time cutoff prevention, SMS / Email will be sent stating the negative threshold.
EB/DG Grace threshold setting, kW/kWh logging every 15 minutes for future clarification, profiling.
Intimation on ELNet whether it is working on EB or DG to prevent misuse.
ELNet displays EB/DG kWh, kW and Balance ad wrong recharge reversal entry.
A user can get balance credit through any of the interface (Mobile / web-portal) or through Apps.
