Application of Smart Electricity Meters in Factory Energy Consumption Monitoring

I. Industry Background

Energy costs account for an increasingly large proportion of enterprise operating expenses. Against the backdrop of global energy price fluctuations, controlling electricity costs has become a key part of enterprises' efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency. For example, in large manufacturing enterprises, the loss from equipment standby power consumption and peak-valley electricity price differences can account for 12% of total electricity bills. With data from smart electricity meters, enterprises can analyze electricity consumption characteristics across time periods, optimize operating schedules based on peak-valley electricity prices, and conduct energy efficiency benchmarking analysis for equipment to tap into energy-saving potential.

II. Introduction to ADW300 IoT Product

2.1 Product Overview

The ADW300 wireless metering meter is mainly used for measuring three-phase active energy in low-voltage networks. It boasts advantages such as a compact size, high precision, and rich functions. It supports multiple communication methods, including RS485, Lora, 4G, and WiFi, and features an external current transformer sampling mode, making it easy to install in various scenarios. Building on the capabilities of traditional smart meters, it leverages 4G and other wireless communication technologies for data transmission, combining metering accuracy with remote communication advantages. It is particularly suitable for scenarios with high requirements for real-time and stable data, such as energy consumption monitoring, industrial, and commercial fields.

2.2 Product Usage

ADW300, ADW300-HJ, and ADW300W can all adopt four wiring methods: three-phase four-wire via current transformers, three-phase three-wire via current transformers, three-phase four-wire via voltage and current transformers, and three-phase three-wire via voltage and current transformers. When using three-phase three-wire connection, the meter’s wiring system must be modified via buttons or corresponding debugging software.

The meter is powered by an independent auxiliary power supply, with optional AC/DC85-265V, AC/DC110V-415V; DC24V, 48V, and 20-60V.

On-site installation can be done without power outage. For voltage sampling, magnetic steel or piercing sampling methods can be selected; for current measurement, split-core current transformers (either primary or secondary) can be used.

III. Product Advantages

3.1 Strong Communication Capability for Stable and Efficient Data Transmission

• Wide coverage and strong penetration: 4G networks have extensive coverage, maintaining stable connections even in industrial zones and remote factory areas. This solves the problems of difficult wiring with traditional wired communication (e.g., optical fiber) and weak signals with wireless technologies (e.g., LoRa, NB-IoT), making it especially suitable for large enterprises with scattered equipment installations.
• Excellent anti-interference performance: Compared with wireless technologies like WiFi, 4G communication uses encrypted channels, which are less affected by electromagnetic interference from industrial equipment and environmental obstacles (e.g., factory walls). Its low data packet loss rate ensures complete recording of production equipment operating status and energy consumption data.

3.2 Remote Monitoring and Management to Reduce O&M Costs

• Elimination of on-site meter reading: Remote automatic meter reading via 4G networks replaces traditional manual meter reading, reducing labor costs while avoiding errors (e.g., missed or incorrect readings) and fraud risks (e.g., data tampering) associated with manual work.
• Remote diagnosis and control: It supports remote monitoring of the meter’s operating status (e.g., offline or faulty). In case of abnormalities (e.g., metering deviations, communication interruptions), the platform can send remote alerts. Maintenance personnel can preliminarily locate problems without on-site inspection and even reset devices remotely, significantly improving maintenance efficiency.
• Centralized data management: Meter data is uploaded to the cloud platform in real-time. Enterprises and regulatory authorities can check historical data, energy consumption trends, and equipment operation reports via computers or mobile phones at any time. This facilitates enterprises in analyzing the operating efficiency of energy-consuming equipment and helps regulatory authorities verify whether equipment is operating normally (e.g., checking for "illegal shutdown" of energy-consuming facilities).

3.3 Accurate and Reliable Metering to Meet Rigorous Scenario Requirements

• High-precision metering: Smart 4G meters typically use advanced metering chips with an accuracy class of 0.5S (error range ±0.5%), enabling them to accurately capture minor energy consumption changes in energy-consuming equipment (e.g., fans, water pumps) and avoid misjudgment of working conditions (e.g., equipment being deemed "normal" when operating at low load).
• Multi-functional data collection: In addition to basic electricity consumption metering, it can collect parameters such as voltage, current, power factor, and harmonics. This helps enterprises analyze the energy efficiency of energy-consuming equipment (e.g., identifying inefficient operation or leakage issues) and meets the dual needs of energy consumption supervision and energy-saving optimization.
• Support for multi-scenario expansion: It can connect to environmental sensors (with DI/DO interfaces) or link with the PLC system of energy-consuming equipment, enabling integrated monitoring of "energy consumption + equipment status" (e.g., automatically recording zero energy consumption when equipment stops), satisfying the in-depth requirement of "full-parameter monitoring of working conditions" in energy consumption supervision.

3.4 Strong Compliance to Adapt to Regulatory Requirements

In regions with strict energy consumption supervision across the country, the real-time communication capability of smart 4G meters can directly connect to local working condition monitoring platforms (e.g., Jiangsu Provincial Comprehensive Energy Consumption Monitoring Platform), automatically meeting policy requirements such as "data networking, real-time upload, and abnormal alarm".

IV. Case Sharing

A steel enterprise’s factory project in Suqian City, whose main products include chrome-plated thin plates, stainless steel thin plates, food-grade hot-laminated iron, and steel-plastic composite strips for optical fibers and cables, adopted ADW300 meters for overall factory energy consumption monitoring. This included production workshops (main incoming cabinets, steel processing equipment, etc.) and office buildings (distribution cabinets, public area electricity). A dozen meters were centrally installed in on-site factory distribution cabinets, with WiFi smart meters used and 4G meters adopted for scattered production equipment.

The project utilized ADW300-4GU and ADW300-WifiU meters from our company to upload real-time data of on-site energy-consuming equipment to the energy consumption platform. The platform can perform logical analysis on data such as current, voltage, and power uploaded by the meters (e.g., high power data from the meter when energy-consuming equipment is shut down, or data fluctuations beyond a reasonable range), and automatically trigger alarms for supervisors to verify and handle promptly. Additionally, special hardware supercapacitors were installed in this project to ensure temporary power supply for the meters when the meter power is cut off, allowing the meters to upload power-off alarm information to the energy consumption platform and prevent illegal operations due to power failure of energy-consuming equipment.

Export background data to check on-site equipment monitoring data images

On-site situation of energy consumption projects:

	Picture of factory incoming line cabinet
	Workshop equipment power supply circuit picture 1
	Workshop equipment power supply circuit picture 2

V. Meter Selection

VI. Conclusion

Based on the above energy consumption projects, the ADW300 offers significant advantages in energy consumption monitoring, highlighted by "stable communication, accurate metering, remote controllability, and real-time monitoring". It not only meets the needs of energy-consuming enterprises for efficient management of energy-consuming equipment working conditions but also provides credible real-time data support for regulatory authorities. It is an ideal choice for balancing enterprise operation and maintenance efficiency with energy consumption supervision requirements.

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