Online Electricity Monitoring & Controlling System
JLanka Power & Energy (Pvt) Ltd
JLanka Power & Energy, Sri Lanka’s pioneer in innovative energy related technology, introduced the first smart meter, e-PRO1000 targeting the domestic industrial and commercial and the utility supplier market. The e-PRO1000 will help electricity consumers monitor and control their electricity consumption on a daily basis, thus contributing to a greener economy and a lower energy bill by having unique features which are currently not available in a single device in the market.
INTRODUCTION
JLanka Technologies (Pvt) Ltd started as a solar electricity supplier and installer in Sri Lanka. A major problem was finding a way to register the energy consumption of households and industry. The only solution is having a data logger to log energy consumption. There are many data loggers in the market but for a proper analysis, a meter has to be fixed at the site and someone has to go to the site to collect the data. If the data is not enough the person would have to go back to the site again. This can be cumbersome. As a solution, a new smart meter with online monitoring facility was designed and created, leading to the establishment of JLanka Power & Energy, and the ePRO1000 Smart meter.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
As ePRO is a relatively new product, the company’s focus is to introduce the product to the market and to establish better customer relations with potential users. ePRO can help industrial users carry out the most effective energy audit without any time constraints. Periodic health monitoring can be carried out on all electrical appliances and the ePRO1000 can be customized according to the client’s specific monitoring and controlling requirements. This helps to prevent unnecessary maintenance costs and assures the maximum life time. Additionally, this pioneer technology gives industrial users the ability to closely monitor and identify real maximum demand, instantaneous power factor and critical operation conditions of loads and hence, implement an effective solution.Smart meters will also be beneficial for electric utilities since the individual consumption data could be useful to do surveys on energy use. Similarly, more detailed consumption data will ultimately enable distributors to measure energy lost during distribution rather than estimating losses using complex models.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
JLanka Power & Energy has installed ePRO1000 in many corporations, including Hilton Hotel Colombo PLC, WKV Group (project in Indonesia), Finlays Tea Solutions and several domestic outlets. Energy accounting using the ePRO1000 will show usage patterns, and identify wastage and over-expenditure. These data will enable the consumer to tract energy usage, which can lead to more prudent and efficient usage of energy.Annual world consumption of energy is equivalent to over 11 billion tons of oil in fossil fuels. Crude oil reserves are depleting at a rate of 4 billion tons a year. If we carry on at this rate, known oil deposits will be gone within the next century. Reserves of oil, natural gas, coal will last another 40, 60 and 200 years respectively. It is therefore important that we should find alternative sources of energy and adopt better energy management. The first step of energy management and saving is to track, monitor and control consumption.
FUTURE DIRECTION
The main aim of the project is to establish a system that has total control of monitoring of all electricity related activities to make it real “the smart city concept”. When it comes to smart city concept there must be a perfect system with proper coordination of “Smart Buildings, Smart Grids and Smart Vehicles.” The Smart Meter has the ability to emerge and convert a home or office to become a ‘Smart Home’ or ‘Smart Office’ as the technology develops. This ePro1000 ‘Smart Meter’ is said to be country’s first ever ‘Internet of Things’ Product, related to the electricity.
The e-PRO1000 is Sri Lanka’s first smart meter device that helps every house and office monitor and manage their energy consumption. The Smart Meters are ‘smart’ because they will provide information about the energy you use directly in each minute, without anyone having to read the meter, which should mean no more estimated bills. They can also help people better understand their consumption and provide the platform for time of use tariff and smart grid concept.
