Integration of gas meters with video surveillance systems.
Video surveillance systems integrated with water, electricity, and gas meters are now common among the offerings of the Russian TSB market. But, you must agree, any issue requires detailed study and specific knowledge of the existing regulatory framework and the specifics of the facilities. Especially when it comes to integration with gas meters.
Let's dwell on the current market offers of gas meters themselves. Gas meters are divided according to their operating principle into turbine, ultrasonic, membrane, jet, levitation, drum, etc. However, the degree of complexity of integrating meters with other systems is determined by the format of the data stored in the meter archive.
An analysis of the current state of affairs leads to the following, in our opinion, rather unexpected, conclusions. For many years, the accuracy of gas meters has been the cornerstone of their development and production. It is indeed very difficult to ensure this, since the parameters of gas environments significantly depend on temperature, pressure and other factors. A very illustrative example is the past winter, when, due to abnormally low atmospheric pressure, some gas meters gave incorrect readings that could not be adjusted. Therefore, accurate gas meters with a large range of gas flow measurement are expensive. And the presence of convenient information transmission functions in the devices makes them even more expensive. It is clear that manufacturers are very reluctant to go for this additional price increase. And consumers do not want to pay for these functions. In addition, as we said above, until recently there was no serious regulatory framework and regulated requirements for the transmission of information from gas meters.
Let us give several examples of currently widespread systems for integrating gas meters with information processing systems.
Measuring and computing complexes KI-STG of flow and volume of natural gas (developer and manufacturer EPO «Signal») can be used in automated control and accounting of gas consumption. This complex for connection to automated systems can be integrated with correctors of the type «Hyperflow» (NPF «Vympel»), SEVC-D (Actaris) and others. The specified complex provides archiving of gas flow parameters in the memory of the corrector, provides protection of the entered database of the corrector settings and the archive information stored in its memory from outside interference. To read, register and view the archive database from the corrector, information comes via the RS-232 electrical interface or remotely via a two-wire RS-485 communication line to a personal computer, to print reports, as well as reconfigure a number of adjustment parameters of the corrector at the installation site, it is necessary to use an additional program for viewing archives.The RegionEnergoService company offers the following scheme for connecting gas meters. The communicator collects data from pulse meters, in particular, gas, and transmits them to the electricity meter via the Mbus bus. Data on electricity consumption from the meters, as well as on gas consumption, are sent to the local area network of the settlement via the interface converter. Data is collected at the control center, where a computer with the installed software package is installed. The communicator has four non-voltage pulse inputs or S0 pulse inputs for connecting external measuring devices (gas, water, heating, temperature), two alarm inputs for 230 V, a built-in temperature sensor, power supply: via the M-Bus bus, additional power supply via 3.9 V lithium batteries.The SG-TK gas quantity (volume) measuring complexes by ELSTER GazElektronika consist of a gas volume corrector and a gas meter. The SG-TK1-D-65 measuring complex is equipped with a gas volume corrector and a diaphragm gas meter. The operating principle of the SG-TK complex is based on simultaneous measurement of the gas volume (under operating conditions) that has passed through the meter and the gas temperature, followed by calculation, processing and archiving of the gas volume reduced to standard conditions, taking into account conditionally constant (substitute) values of pressure and gas compressibility coefficient using the gas volume corrector. This complex allows programming and reading information from the corrector using an optical port installed on the front panel of the device, displaying the current measured and calculated parameters, archive data on the display, forming an archive of more than 500 records with an interval of an hour, day or month for the operating and standard gas volume, substitutive pressure, gas temperature, and correction coefficient. Recording of values in the archive occurs after the measurement period, as well as in the event of an emergency (exceeding the limit values of the measured parameters) or in the event of changes in the corrector settings. This complex also has an additional RS232 remote access interface and the ability to connect an external DC power source +5-9 V, which allows it to be used in an automated commercial gas metering system. It is also possible to program two digital outputs to transmit gas volume values in the form of pulses and/or transmit error messages and provides signaling of abnormal situations (unauthorized intervention, violation of the boundaries of measured parameters, etc.).
Modern gas meters, which provide communication with computer networks via the RS 485 interface, provide wide opportunities for reliable and flexible integration into various networks. The ultrasonic gas meter BUG-01, with gas flow ranges of G-25 to G-100 (MZEP-1), has recently appeared on the Russian market. This meter is equipped with a built-in microprocessor, and no additional devices are required to transmit information to the network and process it.
The system «gas meter with RS 485 port — video surveillance» is not only a security system, but also a gas consumption metering system. The need to perform these two functions is imposed on the owners of gas supply systems by the Federal Law «On Gas Supply of the Russian Federation» (No. 69-FZ) dated March 31, 1999. Article 13 of this law requires the organization — the owner of the unified gas supply system to conduct continuous dispatch control over the functioning of the facilities of the unified gas supply system, as well as the gas supply facilities connected to it at the points of their connection and to manage the functioning of the unified gas supply system. In addition, Article 31 of the same law requires, with respect to each facility of the gas supply systems, to constantly predict the likelihood of accidents, disasters, create engineering systems for their prevention, as well as warning, communication and protection systems.It is clear that video surveillance systems combined with gas meters are a serious security tool for hazardous industries working with gas environments. The integration of video surveillance with gas meters is especially important due to numerous accidents in mines.
A well-designed video surveillance system integrated with gas meters allows the operator to monitor gas consumption and metering, create a database to coordinate the balance of its consumption. Software for a video surveillance system integrated with gas meters allows you to monitor the operational situation at the facility and analyze the archive of current events. Modern video surveillance systems are well suited for broadcasting readings from meters integrated with them over remote distances and allow you to organize gas consumption metering at a new level. Both meter readings and the external situation at the facility are broadcast simultaneously. Considering that many gas distribution stations are located at a significant distance from populated areas, sometimes in hard-to-reach areas, such information is simply irreplaceable. In this case, such a function as delimitation of access and control rights is important. In addition, with higher access rights, such a comprehensive system allows you to control the operator's actions.
The «gas meter — video surveillance» system can switch to an alarm mode (broadcast and record in «real time») when there are sudden changes in meter readings. Moreover, not only those video cameras that are integrated with gas meters switch to this mode, but also any other video cameras of this system, for example, located at the station where the meter is located or at remote enterprises consuming gas. This is determined by the modes specified when configuring the system. As a result, it is possible to analyze at what stage a leak or unauthorized increase in gas consumption occurred. The system can provide information on which situations and at what time lead to a leak or overconsumption of gas. This information is very useful for both security services and organizations monitoring gas consumption and technological processes.