Use Case - Energy billing to tenants

Energy billing to tenants

Energy Billing with SENSECOM-CMD series

Case

A developer renting space in a shopping mall needs to collect information on the energy consumption of individual tenants on an ongoing basis in order to be able to bill them on a monthly basis.

How this was done in the past

Individual tenants had secondary electricity and water meters installed. The centre’s maintenance technician went round all tenants once a month and manually copied the consumption figures. Further manual transcription of data into the system increased the risk of error in the billing documents. In addition, if the technician was dealing with more serious maintenance issues, the billing was sometimes sent late.

What it looks like today

Most of the installed sub-meters in this shopping centre had either S0 pulse or direct data output. The SENSECOM-IMD device was connected to the pulse output and the SENSECOM-CMD device (with RS485 interface and MODBUS communication protocol) was connected to the data output. The installation did not require any intervention in the electrical or data infrastructure of the building or replacement of the meters with built-in wireless communication. The SENSECOM devices were added to the existing meter cabinets. The SENSECOM devices communicate wirelessly to the entire network, so data flows into the center’s information system without the need for manual editing.

Conclusion

With automated data readings of energy consumption directly from the sub-meter display, the basis for billing tenants is now not only accurate but also immediately available. In addition, if there is increased consumption during the period, the tenant is immediately informed by email or text message so that he or she can take timely action against increased energy costs.

Use in other areas

The SENSECOM-CMD readout device is used to read registers from devices other than meters, it is connected to sensors or devices communicating via RS485 or RS232 with MODBUS protocol. The device has galvanic isolation of this communication interface and thus cannot damage the connected meter.

SENSECOM - CMD Use case EN

SENSECOM-CMD

Ongoing information on the energy consumption.