Page 12 - Landis+Gyr | pathway 05

PAGE 12 | | STRATEGY the test of time Purchasing a smart metering system is like entering into marriage: it’s a decision with serious long-term consequences. While marriages have no expiration dates and sometimes end rather quickly, utility executives know for sure that they are making a decision that will influeance their business for about twenty years to come. As in the case of marriage, mistakes are often made at the very outset of the journey, during the selection process. Some of the most important and the most challenging aspects are system architecture, integration and interoperability. One of the key aspects of effective system architecture Working with open standards in software development is its ability to enable near real-time decision making; ensures simplicity and provides opportunities both for this is only possible if the utility can harness the data manufacturers and the utilities. For the utilities, open as it is generated and apply it towards a specific standards provide the most benefits: they ensure a objective. Immediacy and seamless data flow between platform for interoperability, freedom of choice and applications and systems are the critical features of they secure investments in large-scale projects since such architecture. they can work with more than one supplier. At the same time, open standards facilitate communication Immediacy and A future-proof architecture consists of several and cooperation between utilities, manufacturers and seamless data flow layers: the foundation consists of the smart devices local governments. connected to a head-end system (HES), which in turn between applications is integrated into a meter data management (MDM) There is, however, a broad set of standards that applies and systems are system or a distribution management system (DMS). to smart metering. What is important for utilities is to choose the “right mix” of standards. The industry The MDM is integrated into the utility’s advanced the critical features business applications. In order to ensure an effective focus for software and IT systems is the International of effective implementation of the IT architecture, there are a Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61968 series of number of requirements: first of all, systems need standards. The Common Information Model, which IT architecture. clearly defined functional boundaries and a limited the IEC maintains, underlies the 61968 series and number of applicable standards at the interface points. has been widely adopted in the utility industry. The What is also required is a common semantic model for IEC is the international standards and conformance all interfaces and systems as well as communicating assessment body for all fields of electrotechnology. and storing data in a unified way. The DLMS(Device Language Message Specification) FUTURE-PROOF INTEROPERABILITY AND OPEN User Association, on the other hand, is a non- ARCHITECTURE FOR MAXIMIZED RETURNS profit organization with the purpose of developing The successful integration of existing legacy and and maintaining the DLMS/COSEM (Companion state-of-the-art utility systems with the smart metering Specification for Energy Metering) specification that solution is dependent on whether or not standard- sets the rules for data exchange between the metering based devices and software are being used. Industry equipment and the data collection system. It provides standards are created in order to give utilities more a conformance testing and certification scheme for freedom when implementing smart metering. a utility’s metering equipment, which implements the