Manual reading is thus no longer necessary. This makes life much easier for both service providers and customers. Consumers can also track their own electricity consumption in near real time and view historical data. In addition, the rollout of smart metering systems is also expected to drive the energy transition and enable cost reductions for consumers.
However, all of these benefits depend on good mobile connectivity for the electricity meter. Ensuring this is the biggest challenge in installing smart metering systems. For this reason, it makes sense to perform a mobile radio measurement at the installation site before installing the metering unit. For this purpose ENQT GmbH offers network testers which are suitable for the measurement of GMS/GPRS, UMTS and LTE reception. Our devices score among other things with easy operation, automatic updates and optional remote maintenance, access to our measurement data portal, and central device management.
In our last article, we explained the advantages of our network tester LTE. In the following instructions, we explain how to make the best use of our devices and thus make the installation of smart metering systems a success in six simple steps.
Step 1: Remove old meter
Before you can start installing the smart metering system, you must first dismantle the old analog meter.
Step 2: Meter test
In the second step, the LTE network tester is used for the first time in preparation for the iMSys installation: The meter test can be used to determine the available mobile networks at the installation site.
Step 3: Install new meter and iMSys
After successful verification of cellular reception, the new electricity meter and smart metering system can be installed.
Step 4: Signal test
In live measurement mode, the network tester can now be used to check the signal in the desired network in the vicinity of the iMSys. This enables the selection of the ideal position for the antenna.
Step 5: Antenna mounting
In the next step, the antenna can be mounted in the previously determined position. To ensure a reliable connection, we recommend validating the reception of the mobile signal by the antenna once again. The LTE network tester can also be used for this purpose.
Step 6: Complete installation and document
Once the installation has been successfully completed, the measurement data collected with the Netztester LTE can be exported and easily integrated into the documentation of the process.
