DAAZ metering system (2001)

January 2, 2001 The DAAZ plant is a major Russian supplier of carburetors and headlights. In 2001, due to installation of modern metering system the DAAZ managed to enter the FOREM (Federal electricity market).

The DAAZ plant in Dimitrovgrad is a major Russian supplier of carburetors and headlights. The plant manufactures over 1600 various types of products. In 2001, due to installation of modern metering system the DAAZ managed to enter the FOREM (Federal electricity market). The article will give you an idea of the ways used to achieve this goal, the equipment which will be installed, and the benefits the plant management is awaiting as the result of metering system introduction.

Initial conditions
At present, most of consumer enterprises purchase energy from the revenue metering departments of regional power utilities. In this case, the pricing is based on the cost of energy purchased in the FOREM, federal customer charges, power utility overheads, cross-subsidizing of preferential customers (residential customers, budget-dependent organizations, etc.) and, consequently, is twice as mush as in the FOREM.

The condition of the energy metering technical basis indirectly, still, considerably affects the energy costs. For instance, the operator-on-duty at the substation which supplies energy to the plant has to daily attend all the meters available and enter their readings in a logbook (it takes 40 to 60 minutes), then pass over these data to the Chief Power Engineer Department. The delay in time and poor accuracy of manual data input and processing are unavoidable. This makes the obtaining of overall plant balance more complicated while making settlements with “Ulyanovskenergo” and residential and commercial customers.

Purpose
To cut the cost of production, the DAAZ management took a decision to change to energy purchase from the FOREM.

For this purpose, the negotiations with “Ulyanovskenergo” were conducted and a permit from the Regional Energy Committee was obtained.

Since one of the basic prerequisites for working with the FOREM is the availability of a certified metering system designed according to the FOREM operator requirements, an agreement for supply of energy billing equipment and a means to organize the energy billing system was concluded with ABB VEI Metronica.

Solution
The system based on metering system Alpha CENTER soft/hardware fully corresponding to specifications delivered by ZAO CDR FOREM was offered for installation at the plant to resolve problems associated with commercial energy billing.

The metering system includes EuroAlpha meters types EA05RAL-B-3, EA05RL-B-3, EA10L-B-3 providing commercial energy metering in billing points of substation “Cheremshanskaya” included in OAO “Ulyanovskenergo” electric networks of the city of Dimitrovgrad, 6 other substations, and residential and commercial customers. Microprocessor based energy meters EuroAlpha provide bi-directional multirate active and reactive energy measurements, logging of load profile data, and recording the maximum demand. The meters are equipped with interface board RS485 (bus interface up to 1,2 km).

For long-distance data transmission it was planned to use the fiber-optic cable providing high speed, security and noise immunity.

The meter data are communicated via digital and fiber-optic communication channels (RS-485, FOCL) to data collection and transmission units (RTU) RTU314E-B04K. RTU-300 are designed for automatic meter readings collection, processing, storage and transmission via telecommunications channels to the higher level.

Meter readings are collected in parallel via several lines with interface converters, if required, IRPS in RS485 and RS232. Data are sent to the manager workstation in the order the meters are interrogated with the following real-time displaying. The manager workstation provides the database generation, data retrieval capabilities, printout of output reports and generation of filing layouts.

Data are transmitted via fiber-optic communications line to the workstation in the DAAZ Energy Billing Department (by means of Alpha CENTER), to “Ulyanovskenergo” Revenue Metering Department and ZAO CDR FOREM via the dialup channel.

ABB VEI Metronica prepared a preliminary design of a system, manufactured and supplied energy meters, RTU, software and other metering and communications equipment. Mounting and supervision was carried out by specialists from the Central Supervisory Department “Elektrocenternaladka”.

Achieved results
The first stage of metering system introduction at the plant consists in organizing a real-time energy metering system. At any moment, the shift engineer can obtain overall data on the load profile for plant divisions and individual workshops, including daily average load patterns at any specified time period.

For the second stage realization it is planned to integrate into the system, which has already been put into operation, the capability of measuring the consumption of energy carriers: hot and cold water, steam and gas. Further system development will provide the remote on-line disconnection and control of substation cubicles in the event of the power limitations. In this case, the shift engineer can use the control panel to connect or disconnect any object, substation or switchgear at the energy manager command.

This is especially important in existing conditions, since several independent units have been organized at the plant: lighting fixtures department, production of radiators, bushings and metal-ceramic ware.  

All these subsidiary production units make individual energy payments. The introduction of metering system provides the possibility for more accurate determining the cost of products manufactured by each production unit.

All measured quantities are sent to the computer in the Energy Billing Department which handles all settlements with the suppliers. Load patterns for the entire plant and for each individual department are created on the basis of the energy billing system information.

At present, the system is in pilot operation. This year the plant will enter the FOREM.

According to Vladimir Ivanovich Toporkov, the DAAZ chief engineer, “during this year only at the expense of entering the FOREM the plant will save over 30 mln rubles”. This will be achieved due to comprehensive commercial billing automation, its higher accuracy and appropriate targeting.