Re: energy in UK

On 4/19/2025 4:58 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

No idea.  But, even replacing batteries (every year or so?) would
be cheaper than coming around and reading EVERY meter EVERY month.

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The smart gas meters around here are powered by batteries with a 10 year life. They only have a short range wireless link to the smart electric meter in the same house that can then have a much longer range link to the utility transceiver on a nearby utility pole.

 To do that, the electricity meter has to be designed for that usage from the start, maybe a decade before (here).

Yes.  And, the "electric company" (presumably the entity who owns/controls
those meters) has to enter into a long-term agreement with the "water
company" (or whoever owns/controls the water meters).  This covering both
the right to access/use that transport medium, the fees for doing so
and the obligation of the electric company to ensure that service is
available at a specific level of quality.

How short is short?  OUR gas and electric are adjacent.  But, many homes
have the gas meter in an alley while the electric is on the load center.
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So, the gas company has an agreement with the electric utility?  When I
was doing this stuff, comms was the big challenge (measuring power
and tracking it -- internally -- is easy.  But, getting a tariff with
"someone" to haul the data back to the utility was a political/business
issue not easily addressed with technology.

 At apartment buildings, if the meters are bundled together in an utility room, maybe they can handle a single transmitter with more power. But at the sites I have seen the gas meters are not joined in a single room, they are either close to each apartment, or grouped in a cupboard at each floor.
 I am remembering that the water company they said they would use gadgetry with SIM cards, so some sort of data connection by mobile phone.

This is becoming increasingly common.  E.g., most new cars include
an embedded "cell phone" for telematics.  Many also offer paid services
atop that medium for "roadside assistance".

[PLC won't work as there are too many inductors between the customer
and the utility.  And, pole-top relays don't save much as there may
only be 2-4 subscribers on a single transformer.]

 Electricity meters here use some kind of PLC. At the big transformer (several cubic meters) there is hardware to collect the data from each home and either send by another network, or pass somehow to the high voltage side of the transformer. Surely the transformer is remotely controlled, so the data network is there.

Here, there is a "smaller, BIG transformer" between the customer and
the "REALLY big transformer" that serves a street/neighborhood.
E.g., 4 subscribers per transformer is typical, here (as that
transformer would have to serve 400A to its group of subscribers)
Getting "across" these to a REALLY big transformer that exists in
more limited quantities is the issue.  I think the high side of these
local "smaller, BIG transformers" is ~13KV but it may be as low as ~5KV
(I think you can deliver ~3MVA on a 5KV branch; that should support ~100
households.)

Since it has plenty of power, the electric meter provides updates every few minutes to allow time of use metering. The gas meter only provides once per day updates, presumably to conserve power.

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