(European Utility Week, Amsterdam, NL; Milan, Italy; and Cambridge, UK. October 15, 2013) — A new one-stop smart metering system platform has been launched today. It is said to combine word-class communication and metrology solutions for faster time-to-market and significant cost reduction across the complete range of smart meter types.
Accent and Sentec today announced the ASMgrid2-AnyMeter platform, an off-the-shelf smart metering solution based on the ASMgrid2TM standard product family and the latest Sentec current sensor technology. The platform reflects an on-going partnership between the two companies, with approaching 20 million combined meters installed, incorporating respective solutions from both companies. The complete system solution reportedly gives meter manufacturers the ability to improve design more rapidly and at a lower cost across a full range of metering products.
In a competitive market where product innovation is key and where design times are continually being reduced, manufacturers who can respond rapidly to new market requirements will have a significant advantage in their ability to win large tenders. Access to a pre-validated offering with unprecedented system integration, scalability, and innovation can dramatically accelerate development as well as improve cost points. The end-to-end ASMgrid2-AnyMeter platform delivers scalability, metrology performance and a complete set of smart grid communication options.
The ASMgrid2-AnyMeter platform brings together Accent’s ASMgrid2 advanced system-on-chip product family with Sentec’s optimised current sensors as well as production-ready reference designs and standard certified software solutions. ASMgrid2 supports all critical smart grid wireless and wireline communication standards and claims to provide industry leading system integration that smart metering and the rapidly growing machine-to-machine (M2M) markets require. ASMgrid2 features energy measurement performance and end-product scalability, and the same device is cost-effective for industrial, multi-phase as well as residential, single-phase meters.
Sentec’s patented current sensors have revolutionised meter design, with the company’s first licensed sensor, MobiusTM, being deployed in millions of meters since 2001. Sentec’s latest patented current sensor implements a Rogowski coil designed specifically for current sensing in electric meters. This provides superior benefits to other sensor approaches including immunity to magnetic tampering, Galvanic isolation and high linearity. The sensor is designed to be easily integrated into a meter circuit board to provide a simple and cost-effective single board solution for high volume requirements such as smart meter roll-outs. The result is a low-cost, field-proven solution that also meets the most stringent ANSI and IEC Class 0.2 requirements.
“The Accent ASMgrid2 standard product family provides an ideal platform for Sentec’s current sensors, with a signal processing chain optimised for the sensor output. Together we provide manufacturers with a one-stop solution for a unified world meter platform proposition, enabling best in class electricity metering. While we both offer innovative technology in our own right, this opportunity promises to produce something greater than the sum of its parts,” commented Dr Edward Colby, CTO of Sentec.
“The ASMgrid2-AnyMeter platform reflects Accent’s continuing commitment to deliver compelling system solutions for the smart grid market,” added Federico Arcelli, CEO of Accent. “By pre-bundling each company’s solutions into a unified platform, we can dramatically reduce design-in effort and risk while also enabling equipment vendors unprecedented product flexibility and cost savings across an incredible range of meter types.
