Remote Meter Reading in Remotly Located Scattered Agricultural Areas Through LPWAN Technology-An Effective Techno-Commercial Solution for DISCOMs Sakariya Hardik M., Patel R.B. Gujarat Power Research and Development Cell, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, IIT, Gandhinagar Online published on 6 February, 2020. Abstract Meter reading in the remotely located and scattered agricultural (AG) areas is a big issue for every distribution utilities in India. There are various factors, which cause the poor meter reading accuracy, for this category of the consumers. This, in turn, causes huge commercial loss to the utility and ultimately the utilities have to bear huge revenue loss. To overcome this issues, Gujarat Power Research and Development (GPRD) Cell-A Government of Gujarat Initiatives-has taken up a pilot research project, of a LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) based metering system. This system can be retrofitted to the existing meters. The LPWAN has main advantage of covering a long range through wireless RF which is best suited to the rural area scattered meter reading. This paper describes the meter reading difficulties, being faced by the DISCOMS for the AG consumers. Why the technological selection for LPWAN was made-its advantages and disadvantages, the comparison of various metering communication technologies and discussion on the case study of a pilot project of remote meter reading by LPWAN is under taken by the GPRD cell. Top Keywords LPWAN, Remote Meter reading, AG Consumers. Top |