The water industry [automatic meter reading]

Any AMR system must be self financing and should not increase the costs of metering. Systems should be able to develop as metering increases, there will be certain installations where the use of AMR systems will be most cost beneficial. The most appropriate system will need selecting based not just on the immediate needs but how the selected system will allow the reading system to evolve. Standards for the various interfaces will be extremely important to ensure compatibility of equipment and that a change of one part of the system does not reder the whole system redundant. The important point to remember is that the first priority of any AMR system is the reliable transfer of the reading and identity number from the meter to the billing system