Electricity distribution company DEDAS, located in Turkey, has joined forces with radio transceiver manufacturer Hytera to update its metering system via an automated meter reading infrastructure.

The pilot project will see the deployment of 1,350 smart meters, an automated data acquisition and processing system and a cloud-based billing system.

The automated data acquisition system features roughly 2,000 PNC550 push-to-talk over cellular radios, more than 1,300 optic cameras and a custom meter reader app.

According to the companies, the optic camera automatically reads data from smart meters and sends it to the meter reader app via Bluetooth, which then employs an LTE network to send the data to a cloud-based billing system for processing. The cloud-based system then instantly returns the processed information to the customer for billing.

DEDAS is using the system to reduce the time between billing cycles and their subsequently high non-revenue expenses. Likewise, human error associated with the manual process — wherein employees read meters and manually record captured data — will likely be reduced by the system.

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Stanley Song, director of Hytera Middle East & North Africa Region, said: “We are happy with the results we have received on this project so far. This system ultimately changed the way field staff work. It not only alleviates their workload with an automatic data collection system and also enhances their safety to a large degree through remote instruction and supervising.”

The project, which began in 2020, is expected to run through 2021.