Boston, October 12, 2009 — Ambient Corp. and Itron Inc. announced development of the Ambient EDC module.
The EDC module provides utilities a true, efficient path from legacy automatic meter reading (encoder receiver transmitter commonly known as ERT) systems to more advanced smart metering.
The EDC is an optional module integrated into Ambient's smart grid node. Strategically installed at various points along the distribution grid and always collecting data from surrounding meters, the EDC eliminates the need to drive-by each meter to collect meter reads.
The EDC listens for messages from meters equipped with ERT modules and automatically collects and stores that data. The frequency of reads and amount of time the information is stored are configurable by the utility.
Using the new EDC module, utilities will be able to get data periodically for near real-time meter reads, along with outage detection, instead of once-a-month or estimated reads.
Data collected by the EDC module will be transferred to the utility's meter collection software, and eventually to their billing system, as Ambient and Itron work together to complete the end-to-end process.
