ADD GRUP has joined the PRIME Alliance. The PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) project was launched by Iberdrola (Spanish utility giant with an 18 million customer base) to define a future-proof, PLC based, open standard telecommunications architecture to support the new AMM functionality. The PRIME Alliance includes smart grid communications providers, smart meter manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers and integrators that share the same objective - development of a truly interoperable PLC based AMM solution. Openness of the PRIME solution and its focus on interoperability as a way to decrease costs in a competitive framework make it very attractive within the industry.

The main ADD GRUP’s driver for joining the PRIME Alliance was the possibility to extend the range of supported communication solutions and obtain interoperability with other manufacturers. ADD GRUP’s latest generation electricity meter - ADDAX Extra meter - supports several communication solutions such as FSK, S-FSK and OFDM, so it was decided to extend meter interoperability as well to the PRIME solution. The PLC module used in the meter and PRIME firmware is based on the solution from Texas Instruments - ADD GRUP’s partner and member of PRIME Alliance. We see our partnership with PRIME Alliance as mutually advantageous. Each new meter manufacturer entering the Alliance enlarges the number of interoperable market players which is one of the crucial requirements of the utility companies worldwide.

Trying to build a communication network utilities have to consider many aspects including network coverage, information flow delay, amount of transmitted data, fraud etc. All these factors together with the huge amount of metering points to be replaced during next 10 years bring utilities to the most obvious communication network choice - Power Line - that excludes costs for additional infrastructure and significantly reduces operational costs in the frames of mass roll out of smart metering technologies.
There are a number of modulation schemes that can be used in PLC such as FSK, S-FSK, BPSK, DCSK, OFDM, etc. The PRIME Alliance has developed a PLC solution based on OFDM that provides following benefits:

AMI systems benefits

• More detailed profiles and energy quality information
• Online communication with meters
• Remote meters firmware update via PLC
• Instant alarms notification

Integration of end devices into the IP network

• Routing-only architecture possible
• Well-defined protocols and services
• Less interoperability and interconnectivity problems
• Existing network management systems

New applications

• Security systems
• Control systems

Future proof

• Ready for new market demands

On 24th of January we have celebrated our company's birthday. We're 18 !

ADD GRUP and Landis+Gyr leaders on their market segments, have decided to join their efforts to conquer the Latin America metering market. ADD GRUP develops and implements AMI solutions based on reliable LV and MV PLC, which is a unique offer on the metering market. Landis+Gyr has a vast portfolio of metering solutions globally.

“We see this agreement as the beginning of a long-term partnership of strategic importance, which will eventually evolve into a relation, beneficial not only for our companies, but for our customers too.” Says Elena Turanskaya, the CEO of ADD GRUP. “We have prepared a special offer for the South American metering market – the Centralized Metering System. This development is based on specific requirements and conditions of the Latin America market and we expect a good reaction from the part of our customers. What is more, based on market researches we strongly believe that the CMS will be successful beyond Latin America, due to its functional characteristics and cost efficiency.”

ADD GRUP is not a new comer in Latin America. We have implemented more than 100 000 metering points in Brazilian utilities.

“We consider the Latin America metering market as a very interesting and challenging opportunity”, added Mrs. Turanskaya. “The AMM market in this region is quite young, but the demand is growing with large paces and the requirements towards advanced metering systems are already shaped and consolidate very fast. We see our new partnership with Landis+Gyr and the new development – the CMS as strong aces in exploring this market.”

On 6th-8th October 2009 the specialized international exhibition “Metering Billing/CRM Europe” will take place in Barcelona. As always, the event will bring together the largest producers of advanced metering infrastructure solutions, representatives of the utilities, state organizations, consultants in the field of remote metering and many others, who take part in the formation of a new hi-tech energy market in Europe.
ADD GRUP invites you to visit our stand at the exhibition in Barcelona. We will inform you about new products in ADDAX series. Learn more about the efficient solutions of our company in the field of AMI!
Get a free invitation to the exhibition and register to attend the conference at a 25% discount here!
Find out more about the event at www.metering-europe.com.

Tests of single-phase (NP515) and three-phase (NP580) electric energy meters, manufactured by ADD GRUP Company, were completed successfully in SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute (BORAS, SWEDEN, www.sp.se). This is not a single case of successful certification of ADDAX meters in Sweden. The first Swedish certificate for our three-phase meter (NP58) was received in 2004.

More Info (certificates)

On the 7-8 of April 2009 in Warsaw Metering Central and Eastern Europe 2009 exhibition/conference will take place. This event will be organised by Synergy company.
AMM system ADDAX IMS, manufactured by ADD GRUP, will be presented by the Platinum sponsor of the event - T-Matic systems.
T-Matic Systems, acting as an Exclusive ADDAX Distributor in POLAND, is engaged in pilot projects implementations with the main Energy Distribution Companies across Poland and carries on negotiations for further roll-out of the system in case of successful pilot projects.

We would like to welcome you to our partner’s exhibition stand where you can find more about the ADDAX IMS system and the opportunities for this system on the Polish market.

Transtech Company, ADD GRUP’s partner in Slovakia, have provided smart-technologies to Hrachová residential estate in Bratislava. The buildings were equipped with ADDAX IMS – integrated solution for energy management. ADDAX meters provide Time-of-Use metering, thus providing to consumers the possibility to essentially decrease their electricity consumption bills. The balance feature, implemented in the transformer substations have led to the location and cutting-down of losses in the power-lines.

The ADDAX IMS solution is based on Power Line communications over the LV and MV PL, thus, the exploitation costs of the system are minimized. Such an approach allows data collection on daily basis without any expenses related to the communication with the meters.

 

In addition to electricity meters, the system integrates data collection from water and heat meters. All the information related to consumption comes to the Common Data Management Center, where it gets redistributed to the concerned departments. Due to the integration of water and heat meters into ADDAX solution, the consumers receive monthly bills, based on real readings. In the same time, the distribution company has decreased its expenses related to data collection.

 

“Our goal was to offer complete automation of resources management of Hrachová residential estate and its transformation into a Smart Building in accordance with European standards” says Stanislav Hutnan, Transtech’s general manager. “Within a short time after the commissioning of the system, the common consumption of the entire complex has markedly decreased – and this means decrease of green-house gases. Of course, in the scale of the whole country it doesn’t affect the ecological situation, however, we are glad we contributed even with a small degree to the promotion of “green” technologies in Slovakia. We consider this project a successful one and as a confirmation we have received several other contracts for the implementation of ADDAX solution. Trnavska complex is next in list of Smart Buildings – the AMM system will be launched there in the nearest future. Jarabiny and Olympia are new residential estates which are designed as “Smart” from the beginning – these complexes are in construction now and ADDAX IMS was included at the stage of building design”.

The AMM-system from ADD GRUP will be launched on the networks of “CEZ Elektrorazpredelenie Bulgaria”. ADD Bulgaria, the Bulgarian distributor of ADD GRUP, has won the tender, organized by CEZ and beginning with 1st of April 2009 30,000 meters will be mounted on the networks of the above mentioned energy distribution company.
In some regions of Bulgaria energy distribution companies are facing high level of technical losses, theft and barriers in what regards fast data collection. The use of AMR-systems becomes an efficient mean to eliminate these problems.
Particularly, implementation of the solution from ADD GRUP will allow to reduce technical and commercial losses, introduce multi-tariff metering, simplify and speed up the data collection, as well as perform on-line monitoring of power consumption. Power lines (LV & MV PLC) will be used within the system. It will allow data transmission without any operational expenses.
ADDAX will be implemented in Sofia and its district, in Pleven, Blagoevgrad, Vidin, Vratsa, Lom and other cities.
Since 2003 ADD Bulgaria has implemented a large series of ADD GRUP AMR-solutions in all the country, including Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Sliven, Nova Zagora, Yambol, Pazardzhik.

ADD GRUP is taken part as a gold sponsor in one of the top level European metering events: Metering Scandinavia 2009. We would like to invite you to visit out booth at this unique event that will gather more than 200 highly experienced industry speakers, on the 4-5 of March in Oslo, Norway.
Nordic region was the pioneer in implementing the smart metering technology and is still on the forefront of the European smart metering experience. By the end of 2012 the full rollout will be achieved in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
Hope to see you in Oslo!
Please follow the link to have a 25%discounted registration fee for this event.

Register here

On 27th-28th of November ADD GRUP took part at specialized seminar, covering AMI issues in Austria. The seminar is organized yearly by the Union of Austrian Electricity Enterprises (VEÖ – Verband Der Elektrizitätsunternehmen Österreichs).

The event has gathered together representatives of utilities, state authorities, metering solutions providers, consulting companies and many other specialists involved in the field of AMI in Austria and other countries.

On the seminar the presentation of new trends in ADDAX remote metering system has been shown. The OFDM solution has attracted substantial interest of the utilities, which were present at the event.

See this presentation here.

On the 14-17 October 2008, in the city of Trenčín, Slovakia ELO SYS, the 14th International fair of electrical engineering, electronics and power engineering , took place . Sponsored by The Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, this was a unique international event where you could meet key players from electrical energy sector. The metering technologies topic was one of the most discussed during this event.
ADD GRUP’s distributor on Slovakian market, Transtech, a.s., has presented ADDAX IMS system and it’s main features such as:
• Technology proved by time(since year 2000) and implementations (more than 1.5 million metering points installed worldwide)
• Cost effectiveness achieved by the use of Power Line communications, both LV and MV
• Cutting-edge technology (use of TCP/IP and OFDM)
• and many others

Transtech a.s., distributor of ADD GRUP, has participated at ELO SYS 2006 – international fair in the field of electrical engineering, electronics and power engineering, which took place on 10th-13th of October in Trencin, Slovak Republic. Transtech has presented on the fair the SMART IMS equipment. It is the first presentation of ADD GRUP products on the Slovak market.

On 22-24th of September in Amsterdam the international exhibition “Metering, Billing/CRM 2008 Europe” took place, which was the 10th anniversary exhibition “Metering Europe”, organized by Synergy. It joined together a record number of exhibitors and visitors.
ADD GRUP has participated at this event as sponsor. Software R&D manager, Mr. Serghei Drutsa, has made a presentation of OFDM solution, developed by ADD GRUP, which has attracted a large attention of the visitors. During the speech of Mr. Drutsa the new OFDM modem has been presented. The modem allows data rates up to 76,8 kbps for one mains phase (up to 230 kbps for 3-phase communications), and the shift from S-FSK to OFDM can easily be made.
Get more information on our OFDM solution by contacting us directly!
Here you can download our latest presentations on the S-FSK / OFDM technology.

On the 21-22 of October 2008 “Metering Russia and Baltic States” exhibition/conference will take place in St. Petersburg. It will be the first event of such a high level organized by the Dutch company Synergy for one of the most interesting and rapidly developing metering technologies market in the world.
ADDAX IMS – automated metering infrastructure by ADD GRUP will be presented at the exhibition by the Silver sponsor of the event- Russian company Matrix Ltd. Having the license for the production of metering equipment under ADDAX trade mark, Matrix Ltd. successfully implements automated meter reading systems on the Russian market starting from the mid of the year2005. More then 300 000 metering points were installed during these 3 years.
We would like to invite you to visit our exhibition stand and to find out more about our latest developments in the field of metering technologies!

On the 22-24 of September 2008 ADD GRUP will take part as a Gold Sponsor at “10th edition of Metering, Billing/CRM Europe”, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
We would like to welcome you to our exhibition stand #F12 where you will have an opportunity to get a closer look and to test our latest development – OFDM module - the technology that offers 100 times higher data transmission in comparison with FSK and much higher steadiness for the network noises.
The “Metering, Billing/CRM” events besides the exhibition are also famous for its high level speakers presenting their vision on the key issues facing the metering industry. Mr. Alexander Gherman, Director of Software R&D Department at ADD GRUP, having a rich background in PLC communications will make a presentation on the topic “Next generation communication network for AMI: Comparison of various approaches”.

SEE YOU IN AMSTERDAM!

We are glad to announce that ADD GRUP will be the Gold Sponsor at “4th Annual European Utilities Intelligent Metering”, held in Barcelona, Spain on 28-29 of May, 2008.
We would like to welcome you to our exhibition stand #4 and to the conference, where our software R&D manager Mr. Serghei Druta will make a presentation on the topic “OFDM – The 3rd generation of narrowband power line communications”.

Smart metering challenges not only lie in the interoperability, massive installation, benefit realization and the management of increased meter data volume, but also become intensified by the regulatory pressure, environmental issue and increased competition. How do you find your future-proof smart metering strategy and infrastructure without making the wrong investment decision or lagging behind?
Join this 4th annual event and hear more than 20 case studies from leading companies such as DONG Energy, EDF Energy, EDF, Eneco, E.On, Essent, Iberdrola, Linz, Vattenfall, etc and get technology updates from the exhibition, so that you are better prepared for more than meter reading!

On the 1-2 April 2008 ADD GRUP will participate as a Gold sponsor at Smart Metering “Central and Eastern Europe 2008” exhibition/conference in Prague.
The Smart Metering Central & Eastern Europe exhibition/conference will give the unique possibility to hear the discussions and forecasts regarding the ways of development of the metering industry. Top-level speakers from all key industry segments will present their views on how this technology might be applied in Central and Eastern European countries and why today is just the right time for Smart Metering.
ADD GRUP invites you to visit our stand and get acquainted with our new developments in the field of Smart Metering industry.
You can find more information about this event at:
http://prague.smartmetering.eu/
We look forward to your visit!

ADD GRUP’s partner on Brazilian market - ITRON Corporation (USA) has started in the end of year 2007 the installation of ADDAX IMS pilot project in the distribution networks of LIGHT Servicios De Electricitade.
Being one of the biggest electrical distribution companies in Brazil, Light’s customer base counts today more than 3.8 mln. people. The deployment of ADDAX IMS project was initiated within the frames of the anti tampering campaign. During last year, around 290 000 electrical energy tampering cases were detected. Another reason for the deployment of ADDAX IMS was the automation of the Energy Consumption Management.
The implemented solution is based on PLC communications, which allows reducing considerably communications costs.
Itron Corporation, owing to the fact of acquisition in 2007 of ELO SISTEMAS E TECNOLOGIA LTDA, possesses the license for the manufacture of ADDAX equipment in the territory of Brazil. This fact allows direct shipment of equipment to Brazilian customers, from Itron’s factory in Brazil.
So far 40 000 meters and 1000 Routers have been installed with the possibility of further on roll out of the project.

On the 18-19 of November 2007 in Slovakia, city of Piestany, the “Energoforum 2007” conference took place. It was dedicated to the different issues in Power Industry, such as:
• Use of the EU funds for financing of energetic projects
• Unbundling process in power industry
• Discussing problems in power industry of Slovakia
• etc.
Top managers from different companies expressed their vision concerning the future of the power industry of Slovakia and proposed different technical solutions for the successful evolution of this industry.
One of the speakers was Mr. Stanislav Hutnan, director of the company Transtech- the distributor of the ADD GRUP company on Slovakian market. S.Hutnan has made a presentation on the topic: ”Integrated Metering Systems ”. The presentation contained information about AMI system ADDAX IMS, developed by ADD GRUP, its advantages, such as cost efficiency and high reliability together with the possibility of further implementation of the system on the Slovakian market.

During the exhibition Metering & Billing/CRM Europe 2007 in Vienna ADD GRUP has presented the general concept of the new, seventh version of ADDAX IMS. The presentation of the new version can be found here. The main principle of the seventh version is the support of DLMS/COSEM over TCP/IP by all devices in ADDAX.Net. Besides, ADD GRUP continues to enlarge the possibilities of data communication through MV-networks. There is a growing interest of energy distribution enterprises regarding MV-communications due to its functionality and cost efficiency.

Also within the conference Metering Europe 2007 Jan Berglund, AMR Manager of Swedish utility company Jämtkraft, has presented a report about the implementation of AMI solutions by SAMS consortium.