Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2006-) | Subject: Mercury AMM system
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 30 January 2008
Metering systems boost efficiency in
Russia
The Mercury AMM system for electrical power distribution networks uses TI controller technology to provide automated data collection directly from consumer energy meters over power lines.
Incotex is using technologies from Texas Instruments in its meter management solutions now being implemented throughout Russia, Kazahstan, the Ukraine and Belorussia TI's MSP430 microcontroller (MCU) and TMS320C2000T digital signal controller (DSC) technologies help utility companies comply with environmental protection standards, minimising power leakages while also advancing customer service with automatic outage detection and more accurate, timely readings
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 4 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Based on TI's TMS320F28015 DSC, MSP430F155 and MSP430FE427 ultra-low power MCUs and data convertors, Incotex' automated meter management (AMM) systems for electrical power distribution networks are optimised to deliver advanced efficiency capabilities to utility providers and end-users around the world.
The company's Mercury AMM system for electrical power distribution networks uses TI controller technology to provide automated data collection directly from consumer energy meters over power lines.
This makes it possible for electrical utilities to easily detect and correct the location of energy losses.
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TI's MSP430 MCU helps reduce the meters' energy loss up to 30 % through detection of electric energy loss and theft.
"Energy efficiency is paramount and Incotex, together with TI, is committed to delivering technologies that enhance products and services while reducing power usage", said Batrakov Nikolay, Technical Manager, Incotex.
"Based on TI's analogue and digital solutions, Incotex' meter management products demonstrate how technology can save energy and simultaneously improve business operations and the quality of service provided by utility companies".
With Mercury PLC AMR, utilities also have the ability to enable "time of day pricing" in order to better match prices to the cost of generating and delivering power.
Consumers also receive more accurate and timely information on electrical consumption, which helps them reduce costs by making better energy purchase decisions.
Substantial cost reductions are also possible through the elimination of manual meter reading at the consumer's site through powerline communication between the utility and meter.
High-performance signal processing is critical to ensuring that two-way communications between the utility and meter are received and sent over power lines, as the infrastructure was not initially designed to handle communications traffic.
Incotex' Mercury PLC AMR transmits data at up to 100 different frequencies in two directions, ensuring reliable and accurate transmission in high noise conditions.
The Mercury PLC uses TI's F28015 DSC to simultaneously provide orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single path.
Additionally, the TI DSC is used for phase shift keying (PSK) of the frequency hopping carrier, which varies the phase of the transmitted signal to convey information.
TI's DSC also handles OFDM signal processing through the implementation of Fast Fourier Transform calculations that analyse the frequencies contained in a sampled signal.
TI's TMS320C2000 DSCs provide 32bit fixed-point and floating-point offerings with up to 150MHz performance, 512Kbyte flash and 68Kbyte of SRAM memory.
The 60MHz TMS320F28015 controller used in the Mercury PLC modem is a single-chip solution with a fast 12bit ADC and PWM generators that perform the digital to analogue conversion.
Ultra-low power MSP430 MCUs offer a combination of low power consumption and analogue integration.
Devices within the MSP430FE42x series are energy measurement system-on-chips (SoC), providing for distributed energy metering applications.
MSP430FE42x devices integrate an energy measurement subsystem that consists of three independent, high-precision 16bit analogue to digital convertors (ADCs) along with an LCD display driver, temperature sensor, hardware multiplier and energy calculation algorithms.
This highly integrated solution eliminates the need for the multiple external components and ICs traditionally responsible for measuring and calculating energy, providing the real-time clock and driving the LCD.
Additionally, the measurement subsystem can be calibrated and initialised to accurately calculate energy, power factor and other parameters for a wide range of metering sensor configurations.
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