Meter reading by DREMS (dual-mode residential energy monitoring system)

Cairo Electricity Distribution Company (CEDC) has over 3.5 million subscribers consuming monthly over 1200 Megawatt hours of electric energy. About 30% of their meters are inaccessible in a typical month due to closed apartments. Most of the meters are located inside the apartments. Over a thousand meter readers and a thousand clerks are involved in collecting, listing and processing monthly consumption and status of data in 24 dispatch stations. Automation was previously limited to a central mainframe for issuing bills. The authors present the outline of the new DREMS system, its features and benefits. In addition, the critical issues of selecting hardware and software components are discussed