Manual meter reading is both costly and ineffective. Charges don´t even reflect the actual costs as the reading is based on a forecast of consumption and the price varies over a time period.

In Sweden, as from July 2009 all customers are invoiced for the actual consumption, which in practice means that all electricity meters must be continuously remotely read. This new regulation meant that many energy companies could be forced to spend large amounts of money to replace all existing meters.
However, another solution is available – the Altero solution is was much simpler, cheaper and considerably more resource efficient.

Instead of dismantling and scrapping a large number of existing electricity meters, which can continue to work just fine for many years, a small, intelligent meter camera can be assembled on them.

The digital meter camera automatically reads the meter and converts the image of the reading to digital information. This information is then transmitted further via the mobile network or the Internet as a basis for invoicing.
The Altero system for remote meter reading is called MeterCam and thanks to this smart solution, heavy costs for purchasing and installing new electricity meters are avoided. The same functionality is achieved - but at a much lower cost.
Other advantages are that power cuts with the installation are avoided and it is not either necessary to pre-warn customers.
MeterCam is used today by many companies including the Danish energy company Modström.

 

This is how Altero´s remote reading camera MeterCam works