From DistribuTECH 2000: ABB Launches ION 8400 Advanced Intelligent Revenue Meter
ABB Electricity Metering has introduced their cost effective ION 8400 revenue-class, socket-mount electricity meter to supply-side markets worldwide. The new polyphase billing meter offers many of the advanced analysis and multi-port communications features of their recently introduced ION 8500 meter for customers who do not require the extensive power quality capabilities of that device. The new meter is available immediately, exclusively from ABB to utilities, energy service providers, meter service providers, ISOs, and power marketers.
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.
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.
ABB Marketing Rep Doug McCall and MarComm Specialist Andrea
Lopez with the New ABB Electric Meter at Distributech 2000
Edited by John McKnight