Hardware
- A customer interface unit (CIU) communicating with a metering unit by MBUS, RF, or PLC for energy consumption and credit balance monitoring, credit limitation alarming, and credit charging
- Smart prepaid energy meters (smart prepaid gas meters, smart prepaid water meters, smart prepaid electricity meters), single or 3-phase devices measuring consumption per residence
- A data concentrator unit (DCU) collecting data from a group of smart prepaid electricity meters, usually through G3-PLC communication
- A network connecting the DCUs with the data center / WebClient (or POS) through either GPRS or ethernet communication.