New Meter Offers High Accuracy along with Recording and Communications Capabilities
John Reckleff, executive vice president and general manager of ABB Electricity Metering, explained, “Customers have been very impressed with the extensive functionality of the ION 8500 meter and told us that, for some applications, a subset of those functions would be an ideal solution. The ION 8400 meter economically serves as a high-end, direct-access meter for those applications that don’t call for the ION 8500’s advanced power quality capabilities such as waveform and transient recording.
The rich features of the ION 8400 and 8500 models have resulted in a new class of billing meter optimized for grid and ISO applications in the era of deregulation. The new meters provide information and communications capabilities that can give energy suppliers a competitive edge by helping their industrial, commercial and institutional customers cut energy costs and reduce downtime.
ABB Introduces ION 8400 Revenue Meter Page 2-2-2 Like the 8500, the new meter’s display features a back-lit graphical LCD, watt-hour and VAR-hour calibration/test LEDs and keypad to help reduce calibration and installation time while enhancing usability. It provides a wide range of energy and demand information including time of use data, per-phase magnitude and phase angle, along with a real-time status bar. Completely customized displays can also be created. Operators can easily switch between displays using the meter’s front panel push buttons. Up to 10 data logs, each tracking up to 16 parameters can be stored in the system’s 1MB non-volatile memory. This enables load profiling and high-speed event logging with optional GPS time synchronization to help determine the source and severity of power disturbances.
As with the 8500 model, simultaneous, multi-protocol communication on up to four ports allows the energy supplier to share data with multiple departments as well as customers. Aside from the number of ports, these are the first socket meters to offer an Ethernet TCP/IP 10BaseT port for fast, inexpensive connection to existing corporate local or wide area networks (LAN/WAN) or the Internet without having to integrate other communication standards. They also include an RS-232 / 485 port, an RS-485/modem port, and an optical port. The internal modem communicates at an industry-leading 33.6 kbps. In addition, the meters are compatible with billing systems such as the MV90, and support Modbus™ RTU and DNP 3.0 protocols for seamless integration with distributed SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), energy management or process control systems.
The ION 8400 and 8500 meters are based on patented ION® technology, an object-oriented architecture that allows more flexibility and extensibility than any existing revenue meters. This is important for simultaneously addressing the varied data and control needs of different utility departments and customers. The ION architecture enables the meter to provide each party with exactly the information or control functions they require. The ION 8400 meters are available now from ABB.
ABB Introduces ION 8400 Revenue Meter Page 3-3-3 ABB, with U.S. headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., serves customers in power transmission and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; building technologies; and in financial services. Power generation customers are served by the joint company ABB ALSTOM POWER. ABB's U.S. operations employ about 16,000 people at manufacturing and other facilities in 41 states. Worldwide, ABB Group reported revenues of $25 billion in 1999. The Group employs about 165,000 people in more than 100 countries.
ION® is a registered trademark of Power Measurement, Ltd. of Saanichton Victoria, British Columbia.