Initial situation

 

“Armenian Railway” CJSC is one of the biggest electrical energy consumers in the Armenian market, which is why the investment of this program, which improves the calculation system of electrical energy in order to reduce losses by means of the automatic data collection and processing, has had a strategic significance for the company.
The creation of Mettering on “Armenian Railway” CJSC is one of the most dimensioned investment projects of commercial and technical accounting in Armenia. All the three energy supplying branch corporations of the “Armenian Railway” CJSC are included into the system, these are: Gyumri, Yerevan and Hrazdan.

 

Basic objectives of the accounting system investment

Data collection from 35 substations with nominal tension from 6kV to 110 kV.
Complete automatization of commercial and technical accounting.
Protection from unofficial access and embezzlement of electrical energy.
Monitoring and determination of the structure of losses.

System decisions

Mettering system is built on the basis of Elster Metronica software-technical means:
Multifunctional microprocessor electrical energy meters of EuroALPHA series (more than 200 pieces).
Alpha CENTER software provision for multilevel systems.
Software and communication equipment, working stations, database servers.
Mettering on “Armenian Railway” CJSC is created in a hierarchical way and is an automatic geographically distributed system.  It includes the following levels of hierarchy:
Mettering level of energy objects
Level of the data collection and processing center (DCPC).

 

Standard structure of DCPC and energy objects

On the substations of “Armenian Railway” CJSC electrical energy meters of Euro ALPHA series (0, 2 S and 0, 5 S precision, more than 200pieces), which measure the active and reactive electrical energy and the capacity in two directions.  All the meters are completed with additional memory for saving load schedules and also with the unit of digital interface RS – 485 for connecting to the communication hardware and transferring the data to higher levels. The meters are supplied with power backup in order to maintain the functioning of the meter in case of a switch off of the equipment.
EuroALPHA meters provide the possibility of collection of network schedule parameters.
In the center of data collection and processing a server is placed, which is joined to the external modem stand providing the possibility for the expansion of modem consistency for connecting up with a number of energy objects.

 

Organization of communication

Telephone switched and dedicated lines of connection are the basic data collection channels of connection with the substations. The intended discontinuity of data collection in collection centers depends on the condition of the connection with a certain energy object and lasts from 30 minutes to a day. Data collection is possible with the use of all the means of connection.  Data protection and protection of DCPC functions from unofficial access is realized with software and hardware tools (authorization and user authentication, package filtration), and also with the limitation of physical access to the server unit of the DCPC.
In ASCAEE “Armenian Railway” CJSC informational interchange is evident with Mettering “Electric Networks of Armenia” CJSC. Data exporting and importing was anticipated in Alpha CENTER, on the basis of which data interchange with the adjacent units can be provided.

Results

The activities of the implementation of Mettering system into “Armenian Railway” CJSC were completed by “Yerenergo” CJSC in 2004.
The Mettering system of “Armenian Railway” CJSC provides with automated data collection from all the electrical energy meters. The key objective is fulfilled; the system is put in commission.
Reduction of losses and economy of electrical energy consumption is achieved up to 50%.
The integration of the other 15 substations of “Armenian Railway” CJSC into the system is provided.
Now an agreement is signed on implementing the second phase of the system into "Armenian Railways" CJSC.