Usman Gauhar

Work Summary:
Supervising Metering section of Transmission & Distribution department of MARAFIQ including performing of Corrective & Preventive Maintenance activities, up-dating/expansion of metering infrastructure, compliance to various metering specifications, trouble-shooting/analyzing failures, evaluation of technical submittals/bids & all other activities related to metering.
Work Description:
• Supervising foreman & technicians’ team in Metering section of T&D Department.
• Supervising / performing Preventive Maintenance & Corrective Maintenance for Metering infrastructure owned by MARAFIQ in Yanbu Industrial City.
• Leading the Implementation of Smart Metering project in Yanbu Industrial City for MARAFIQ customers.
• Recommending/defining necessary procedures, work instructions & related guidelines for the activities performed by the metering section.
• Ensuring conformance to ECRA requirements related to metering defined through Saudi Arabian Grid Code and Saudi Arabian Distribution Code.
• Ensuring conformance to Health, Safety & Environmental Standards in place in MARAFIQ including OHSM (Occupational Health & Safety Management) system in place in MARAFIQ.
• To keep an update with the latest metering technology, equipment, standards being implemented around the world and strive for the implementation of same at MARAFIQ.
• Evaluation of metering performance by monitoring/ analyzing various metering installations.
• Trouble-shooting/ analyzing metering system failures & perform root cause analysis.
• Participate in SAT (Site Acceptance Tests) FAT (Factory Acceptance Tests) for modifications and addition metering system/equipment.
• Evaluation/Review of bids/ proposals related to metering.
• Interacting with customers for technical clarifications and resolution of disputes related to metering.
• Maintaining of Metering Laboratory and ensuring that relevant software for the test bench and various energy meters are available with back-up upon requirement.
• Execution of work orders generated through SAP system. Maintaining/updating of records related to metering in the SAP system.
• To maintain necessary inventory level for all the metering equipment being used in the field including at Sub-Stations as well as in the field at distribution level.
• Provide training to the metering staff for the latest metering technology/equipment required for the performance of their duty.
• Review proposals for metering and related system additions or modifications.

Research & Development of Static Energy Meters, Smart Energy Meters & the related technologies i.e. AMR, AMI to meet the challenges of providing accurate metering data, cope with the tampering conditions, providing data for energy management, support to billing infrastructure & ensuring reliability of all the components involved from a utility’s point of view.
Development of the overall system architecture and implementation of the AMR (Advanced Meter Reading) system and the AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure).
•Leading a team of engineers locally as well as working in coordination with partner foreign R&D setups for the development, implementation of the scope of work mentioned above.
•Responsible for the application testing and product approval from the utilities through the process of proto type approval according to local and IEC applicable standards.
•Responsible for Pre-Sales and Post-Sales activities related to Static Energy meters, AMR & AMI Systems.
•Delivered presentations to different distribution companies of WAPDA/PEPCO (local power utility in Pakistan) and also in KESC (local power utility for Karachi, Pakistan) on Smart Meters, AMR System & AMI, especially to elaborate the benefits of the system for the utility.
•Attended field complaints and carried out site visits regularly to diagnose problems experienced by the customers and to collect the feedback of the product’s performance in the field.
•Responsible for providing sales support in the form of technical demonstrations of Meters, AMR/AMI portfolio of capabilities to customers (utilities).
•Performed as a product advocate by clearly articulating and demonstrating the advantages of latest metering products to solve issues faced by the local power utilities and showed how the meters can be integrated into AMR & AMI systems to provide end to end solutions for the utility.
•Responsible for testing, maintenance, repair and installation of all types of energy meters.

•R&D on Static Energy Meters and its related technologies i.e. Smart Metering, AMR, AMI to keep pace with the latest developments in these areas around the world.
•Type Testing, application testing, detailed analysis of the newly developed product and to confirm its performance according to the applicable national/international standards (IEC, ISO, ANSI, WAPDA).
•Approval of developed static energy meters from the power utility through type testing, sample testing and routine testing.
•Supervision/execution of development of Meter reading software, AMR software, billing reports, event reports, load profile reports, meter program reports as per utility requirement.
•Guidance to production for the smooth and efficient manufacturing of energy meters.
•Work on the field complaints, repair of in-process rejections.
•Possesses in depth knowledge of specifications of WAPDA/PEPCO, IEC, ISO & ANSI standards related to electricity metering and the applicable testing requirements for the metering products.
•Prepared & recommended specifications for WAPDA /PEPCO design office & KESC R&D office for Static Energy Meters, AMI and for relevant up-grades required in the specifications according to the latest field conditions and tampering challenges.
•Responsible for customer relationship management to carry out the job responsibilities assigned by keeping regular contact with the design, inspection and other important offices of the power utility for customer feedback, complaints and improvements in specifications.

• Design, Development, Product changes in Electromechanical & Static Energy Meters.
• Execute Routine Testing, Sample Testing & Type Testing of Electromechanical & Static Energy Meters.
• Training of power utility field staff on correct installation, fault detection, trouble shooting, repair work and analysis of data recorded by energy meters.
• Analysis, repair of field return meters along with the report on recommendation/ feedback to improve future versions.
• Maintain quality of the outgoing product ensuring minimum field complaints for Electromechanical and electronic energy meters.
• Attended customer complaints nationwide and provided training to the field staff on technical issues experienced by the power utility relating to metering.

Smart Metering Projects
Execution of GSM/GPRS Based Smart Metering Projects
• Successfully carried out GSM/GPRS based Smart Metering system deployment of C&I Electronic Energy Meters in Hyderabad for HESCO & in Karachi for KESC as pilot projects. Pilot projects are in place for more than 03 years.

• Facility of complete data retrieval from the meters including billing, instantaneous values, tamper events recording, load profile, program configuration & historic data.
• Implementation of scheduler for downloading of data from the meters. Different types of data can be configured to be downloaded with pre-set time interval selected by the user including hourly data, half hourly, monthly reads at specific date and time.

• Web based client software, with ease of access to the server from anywhere in the world over the internet.

• Facility to remotely configure software in the meter e.g. changing TOU timings, thresholds for tamper events recording, defining time period for load profiling as well as defining synchronization of date and time with the server.

• Graphical data presentation to facilitate analysis of load profile data.

• Various reports generation including billing, instantaneous data, tampering events, load profiling as per customer's requirements.

Development of AMR Meters to be read through HHU

• Designed for the implementation of low cost meter reading automation removing the manual method of reading recording from three phase whole current and single phase electronic meters.

• Meter readings are transferred to a Hand Held Unit (HHU) and then to the main server station which extracts the billing information from the HHU.

• Communication method between the meter and the HHU is Radio Frequency working at 433 MHz. Reading transfer through IR (Infra Red) is also developed as the other option for communication with the HHU.

• Communication distance between HHU and the meter is 20 meters (line of sight)

• HHU specification is being finalized along with the PEPCO's design office.

Development of Smart Meters with DLMS Certification

• Working on the product development of Smart Meter solutions for single phase, three phase whole current and LT/HT electronic energy meters with DLMS certification.

• Selection of communication technologies for various meter types and defining of network architecture.

• Especially focused to address the issue of multi-vendor compliance of the smart meters from the power utility's point of view.