State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company: AR glasses enable 'information seeking for assets'

"In the past, to check the verification information of an electricity meter, we had to navigate multiple layers of menus in the Marketing System 2.0. Now, verification date, delivery date and operating status float right beside the meter at a glance, and verification is completed within seconds," said Shengyong Yu, senior metrology manager at the Secondary Metrology Warehouse of the Customer Service Center, State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company, on September 1.

Wearing AR glasses for on‑site metrology‑asset operations that day, he scanned electric meters to be dispatched and retrieved devices following voice prompts, finishing the whole verification process in less than three minutes.

For a long time, the metrology department of State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company has conducted asset management via the Marketing System 2.0. Due to the large quantity and diverse statuses of metrology equipment, as well as multi‑level procedures for traceability inquiry, on‑site operations are plagued by pain points such as manual entry‑dependent warehousing binding, time‑consuming location search for inventory assets, and frequent omissions and errors in stocktaking. These issues make it difficult to meet the requirements for refined and intelligent management of metrology assets.

To address these challenges, State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company carried out field research on on‑site metrology‑asset operations and sorted out existing problems in April this year. It jointly developed a field‑application solution for AR glasses together with Fantian Company. Fully leveraging the built‑in Bluetooth and industrial camera of AR glasses, the solution builds a three‑tier interactive architecture of "AR Glasses‑Mobile Marketing Handheld Terminal‑Marketing System 2.0". The AR glasses are responsible for information input and visualization, parsing unique equipment IDs through barcode scanning. The mobile marketing handheld terminal undertakes business logic: upon receiving equipment IDs, it automatically invokes backend interfaces to obtain asset and work‑order data. The backend system provides data support including ledgers and storage‑location information. Real‑time synchronization is achieved via Bluetooth links, forming a closed‑loop data workflow of "Identification‑Query‑Presentation".

The solution was piloted and launched in August at the Secondary Metrology Warehouse of the Customer Service Center, State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company. It realizes hands‑free intelligent operations for four scenarios: electricity‑meter information query, warehouse panoramic overview, equipment warehousing and equipment outbound dispatch.

In the electricity‑meter information‑query scenario, after operators scan devices, layered floating windows display data including asset models, verification dates and operating status. No handheld terminal or manual browsing is required, and continuous verification of multiple meters is supported. In the warehouse‑panoramic‑overview scenario, when operators aim at the dedicated overview code, full‑range data such as total equipment volume, breakdown of stocked and issued assets, items pending expiring verification, faulty‑to‑repair devices and overdue‑untreated records are displayed, enabling operators to grasp the overall warehouse situation upon entry.

During intelligent warehousing, the system automatically completes work‑order matching, compliance checking and ledger recording. In case of mismatched equipment types or statuses, AR glasses trigger real‑time red alerts and block non‑compliant warehousing, realizing error‑proofing,‑duplication‑proofing and‑omission‑proofing. The intelligent outbound module adopts the first‑in‑first‑out rule, actively reminds operators of target devices and turnover boxes for dispatch, and intercepts risks such as out‑of‑stock items and abnormal equipment statuses in advance. All data is automatically archived for traceability. 

It is reported that the Secondary Metrology Warehouse under the Customer Service Center currently manages more than 60,000 metrology devices. Since the solution went live, operators’ hands have been freed. The time consumed for single‑item query‑and‑check has been reduced to less than one minute with zero operational errors. Warehouse operations have shifted from "people searching for information" to "information searching for assets", further improving the standardization and efficiency of on‑site metrology‑asset work.

(By Lu Yuanyuan, correspondent of State Grid Suqian Power Supply Company)