GB2342484A

GB2342484A - Prepayment metering system

Info

Publication number: GB2342484A
Application number: GB9913607A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Robert Edward Jonathan Taylor; Alan C Hulme
Original assignee: Siemens Metering Ltd
Current assignee: Siemens Metering Ltd
Priority date: 1998-09-23
Filing date: 1999-06-14
Publication date: 2000-04-12
Also published as: GB9820686D0; GB9913607D0

Abstract

A prepayment metering system, for a commodity such as gas, comprises metering means 102 and an input device 112, such as a smart card reader, which has a store for recording the value of an additional discretionary allocation of the commodity. The input device is arranged to determine whether the additional allocation is available to a consumer, and to communicate the said value to the metering means once the pre-paid allocation has been consumed. The system may include flow restriction means 106 to prevent the commodity flow, and a communications unit to communicate the consumption of the commodity to a remote station. The system permits continued use of a commodity until a new pre-paid allocation can be purchased.

Description

COMMODITY METER SYSTEM The present invention relates to a commodity meter system, for example, gas, water or electric meter systems, and in particular, meter systems having a prepayment facility.

When metering gas, it is known to use a gas meter with a prepayment unit including, for example, a smart card reader. The gas meter is connected to a shutoff valve and the smart card reader is operably connected to the gas meter. A consumer purchases gas in a shop in the form of a smart card pre-programmed with a predetermined value corresponding to the number of units purchased by the consumer. The consumer then inserts the smart card into the smart card reader, and the pre-payment unit in turn communicates the predetermined number of units to the gas meter. The gas meter stores the predetermined value in a register. As the gas is consumed, the gas meter decrements the register until a value of zero units is reached. When the value of zero units is reached, the gas meter actuates the cutoff valve in order to stop the supply of gas to the consumer.

If the consumer has a gas powered central heating system, once the gas supply is cut-off, the pilot light of the central heating systems needs to be re-lit.

Additionally, the system can be inconvenient for the consumer, for example, in cases where it is not easily possible to purchase a new smart card, such as when the shop selling the smart cards is closed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to obviate, or at least mitigate, the above described disadvantages.

According to the present invention, there is provided a commodity meter system for controlling the supply of a commodity, comprising metering means for metering the commodity, the metering means being operably coupled to an input device for receiving data corresponding to a pre-paid allocation of the commodity, the input device having a store for recording the value of an additional discretionary allocation, wherein the input device is arranged to determine whether the additional discretionary allocation is available to the consumer once the prepaid allocation has been substantially consumed and to communicate with the metering means when the allocation of the commodity has been substantially consumed, the value of the additional discretionary allocation being communicated to the metering means, the metering means metering a supplementary amount of the commodity corresponding to the additional discretionary allocation in response to the communication of the additional discretionary allocation.

Preferably, the additional discretionary allocation being communicated to the metering means to permit continued consumption of the commodity.

The system may further comprise actuable flow restriction means for selectively preventing flow of the commodity, the metering means being operably coupled to the actuable flow restriction means in order to actuate the actuable flow restriction means.

Preferably, the system further comprises a pre-payment unit including the input device. More preferably, the input device is a smart card reader.

Conveniently, the continued consumption of the commodity is permitted until the additional discretionary allocation has been consumed.

Preferably, the system further comprises a communications unit to communicate consumption of the commodity to a remote station.

It is thus possible to provide a more user-friendly commodity meter system.

Additionally, undesirable premature cutting-off of commodity supplies is avoided and also unnecessary initialisations of apparatus, for example, re-ignition of pilot lights or re-setting of clocks. Thus, the supply of the commodity is more convenient to the consumer.

At least one embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a commodity meter system constituting an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 2 is a flow diagram for use with the system of Figure 1.

Referring to Figure 1, an example of a commodity meter system 100 will be described in the context of the field of gas metering. However, it should be appreciated that the following example is equally applicable to the metering of other commodities, for example, water or electricity.

A gas meter 102 is connected to an inlet pipe 104 carrying gas for a consumer from a central storage station (not shown) of a gas supplier. The gas meter is connected to a shut-off valve 106 by means of a connector pipe 108, the shut-off valve 106 being connected to a dwelling inlet pipe 110 in order to carry gas to a dwelling (not shown). The shut-off valve 106 can be a shut-off valve manufactured by BLP Limited (Part No. 48-002-376-912). The gas meter 102 and the shut-off valve 106 can be combined into a single unit, for example, an E6 valve meter manufactured by Siemens Metering Limited. In such a case, the connector pipe 108 would not be required.

The gas meter 102 is coupled to a pre-payment unit 112 having a memory store 111 and a smart card reader for receiving and reading a smart card 114. A suitable example of the pre-payment unit 112 is a Simple Pre-payment Module (SPM), also known as Libra 100, available from Siemens Metering Limited. The pre-payment unit 112 is connected to the shut-off valve 106 by a first wire 116 and to a communications port 118 via a communications cable 120.

In operation (Figure 2), the consumer purchases the smart card 114 having information stored thereon constituting a pre-paid gas allocation. The consumer inserts the smart card 114 into the smart card reader of the pre-payment unit 112 in order to read the information stored on the smart card 114. The pre-payment unit 112 communicates the pre-paid gas allocation to the gas meter 102.

The gas meter 102 meters (step 200) gas supplied from the central storage station, the gas supplied flowing from the inlet pipe 104 through the gas meter 102, the connector pipe 108, the shut-off valve 106 and the dwelling inlet pipe 110 to the dwelling. As gas consumption is metered, the gas meter 102 determines a value of remaining gas which can be supplied to the consumer based upon the prepaid gas allocation and the amount of gas consumed. The gas meter 102 repeatedly determines (step 202) whether the pre-paid gas allocation has been substantially depleted, or used-up. If the pre-paid gas allocation has not been used-up, the supply of gas to the dwelling is permitted. However, if the pre-paid gas allocation has been used-up, the gas meter 102 interrogates (step 204) the prepayment unit 112 in order to determine whether a discretionary gas allocation has been allocated by the gas supplier to the consumer.

The discretionary gas allocation can be stored in the memory of the prepayment unit 112 and can be pre-programmed by a representative of the gas supplier, or communicated to the pre-payment unit 112 via the communications port 118 and the communications cable 120.

If the consumer is considered by the gas supplier to be a low credit risk, the gas supplier allocates the discretionary gas allocation to the consumer thereby allowing the consumer more time to purchase a new smart card and so pre-pay for more gas.

If the discretionary gas allocation has not been allocated to the consumer, the pre-payment unit 112 actuates (step 206) the shut-off valve 106 to close, thereby stopping the supply of gas to the dwelling. The pre-payment unit 112 then awaits (step 208) the insertion of a new smart card containing information corresponding to a new pre-paid gas allocation. When the new smart card has been purchased and inserted into the smart card reader, the pre-payment unit 112 actuates (step 210) the shut-off valve 106 to open again, thereby permitting gas to be supplied to the dwelling once more.

If the discretionary gas allocation has been allocated to the consumer, the gas meter 102 determines (step 212) whether the discretionary gas allocation has been used-up based upon the value of the discretionary gas allocation and the amount of gas consumed by the consumer. If the discretionary gas allocation has not been used-up, the continued supply of gas to the consumer is permitted.

However, is the discretionary gas allocation has been used-up, the pre-payment unit 112 actuates the shut-off valve to close, thereby preventing further supply of gas to the dwelling.

The pre-payment unit 112 then awaits (step 216) the insertion of the new card containing information corresponding to the another pre-paid gas allocation.

When the new smart card has been inserted, the pre-payment unit 112 deducts (step 218) the amount of the discretionary gas allocation already consumed from the new pre-paid gas allocation and actuates (step 210) the shut-off valve 106 to open again, thereby permitting gas to be supplied to the dwelling once more.

Although the above example has been described in the context of the prepayment unit 112 having a smart card reader, it is conceivable that other input devices can be used, for example, a keypad for entering a code purchased which corresponds to the pre-paid gas allocation.

Although reference has been made to a"new"smart card, smart cards exhausted of units can be"re-charged"with units and re-used.

In another embodiment of the invention, consumption related data, for example, volume readings, or status information, such as whether the discretionary gas allocation is currently being used, is transmitted to a remote monitoring station. The consumption related data is transmitted to the remote monitoring station by means of a communications link, such as a telephone line, via the communications cable 120 and the communications port. Additionally, the prepayment unit 112 can be located remotely from the gas meter 102.

It should be appreciated that other modifications or variations are envisaged without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

Claims 1. A commodity meter system for controlling the supply of a commodity, comprising metering means for metering the commodity, the metering means being operably coupled to an input device for receiving data corresponding to a pre-paid allocation of the commodity, the input device having a store for recording the value of an additional discretionary allocation, wherein the input device is arranged to determine whether the additional discretionary allocation is available to the consumer once the pre-paid allocation has been substantially consumed and to communicate with the metering means when the allocation of the commodity has been substantially consumed, the value of the additional discretionary allocation being communicated to the metering means, the metering means metering a supplementary amount of the commodity corresponding to the additional discretionary allocation in response to the communication of the additional discretionary allocation.
2. A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the additional discretionary allocation being communicated to the metering means to permit continued consumption of the commodity.
3. A system as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, further comprising actuable flow restriction means for selectively preventing flow of the commodity, the metering means being operably coupled to the actuable flow restriction means in order to actuate the actuable flow restriction means.
4. A system as claimed in any one of Claim I to 3, further comprising a prepayment unit including the input device.
5. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the input device is a smart card reader.
6. A system as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the continued consumption of the commodity is permitted until the additional discretionary allocation has been consumed.
7. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a communications unit to communicate consumption of the commodity to a remote station.
8. A commodity meter system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1.