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interoperability: the key to a smart future To facilitate the transition to the smart world, the support or facilitate interoperability among pieces of European Commission asked the three officially hardware. In contrast to mobile telecommunication recognized European Standardization Organizations where network operators directly profit from each unit to define standards for interoperable smart metering in different networks, utilities have to be incentivized systems: the European Committee for Standardization to invest in interoperability. (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and the European A suite of open, universal and customizable standards Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The in the energy industry ensures that no single result is a set of IEC/EN open standards that address manufacturer can monopolize a market by exerting business processes for smart meters such as contract intellectual property rights (IPRs) on their products. and billing, customer support as well as infrastructure A strict separation between the smart metering data management. models and the communication protocols means that standards can be separately extended in terms of new Openness means that the functional architecture functionality (use cases) and in terms of communication specified is capable of meeting current as well as future technology. It is essential to decouple application needs. Most important, it means that the standards modeling from communication technology in order provide a framework that can easily accommodate to protect investments in application development new functionalities and communication technologies while benefiting from the continuous progress of without cutting back on backwards compatibility communication technologies. and consistency. Open standards are achieved by a consensual process reflecting the requirements of all OPEN STANDARDS + COMPANION players in a tightly regulated market. SPECIFICATIONS = INTEROPERABILITY The objective of smart meter open standards is ENERGY – A SPECIAL KIND OF MARKET to describe universal solutions that can be further The importance of interoperability becomes especially customized to the specific user needs of the European clear when compared to other industries that member states. The standards are also important extensively deploy IT and communication technologies. for overcoming trade barriers, critical in an open Historically, there has been no need for utilities to market such as Europe’s. Though they are not laws,