Energy - Metering

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Aclara - serves its water, gas, and electric utility clients with unique, custom solutions that combine fixed-network advanced metering infrastructure and automated meter reading (AMI/AMR) systems with sophisticated meter data management software. The company integrates the strengths of the industry’s most proven technologies – the Aclara STAR Network, Aclara TWACS Technology, and Aclara Software – and serves utility clients with superior solutions that meet even the most rigorous requirements.

Actaris - is a world leader in the design and manufacture of meters and associated systems for the electricity, gas, water and heat markets. Our innovative products and systems integrate the latest technologies to meet the evolving needs of public or private energy and water suppliers, utility services and industrial companies.

AMPY Metering - With corporate roots deeply embedded in technology know-how, its no surprise that AMPY continues to invest extensively in the pursuit and application of cutting-edge research and development. Already a pioneer introducing card readers into electricity meters and an expert in the application of power line carrier (PLC) technologies, AMPY is continually broadening its familiarity with and use of additional communication and metering protocols. This commitment to all-around technology mastery provides the foundation for AMPY’s ability to quickly assess, select and apply possible solutions to solve specific customer issues.

Badger Meter - has a software called, One Software Program Does it All. Badger® CONNECT is a unique reading management software program that consolidates collected meter readings from many of your Badger Meter products into one file of data, ready to be used by your billing system. It is fully compatible with Badger’s ORION® system, TRACE® RF system, MC-V™, Radix® and ReadAll® handheld data collectors, and Cybersensor™ Internet-based reading system.

Bglobal Metering - provides smart metering technology and data retrieval services to deregulated global energy markets for non half hourly electricity, gas and water customers. Bglobal Metering identified the advances in metering research and development with respect to mobile technology, and matched them to the need within the SME market for the provision of better data services. Bglobal Metering has been able to establish a leading position in the delivery of Smart Metering to the business market as the first company to have a cost effective end-to-end solution to exploit this opportunity. Bglobal Metering has achieved Industry accreditation for its meter data collection and aggregation services.

Datamatic - Datamatic installed the first electronic meter reading system in 1980 and in doing so, birthed a new industry. Since then, Datamatic has been a force in the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) industry. From the development of that first handheld meter reading system to today’s state-of-the-art MOSAIC AMR, Remote Shutoff and Acoustic Leak Detection technologies, Datamatic’s sole focus has been designing, installing, training and supporting AMR solutions that protect utilities’ revenue streams and add value to their operations.

E-Mon - Established in 1981, E-Mon is the industry leader in solid-state electronic kilowatt-hour submeters, automatic meter reading software and other energy management products and services. E-Mon’s products are installed worldwide for tenant billing, cost allocation, demand side management, energy conservation and load profiling in skyscrapers, shopping centers, airports, factories, office buildings, apartment buildings, college campuses and government facilities. E-Mon is an active member of the Alliance to Save Energy, the Association of Energy Engineers and the U.S. Green Building Council.

Echelon - open, bidirectional, and extensible infrastructure, Echelon’s Networked Energy Services system enables a comprehensive range of utility applications. It goes far beyond traditional automatic meter reading (AMR) systems, which offer only limited meter-reading functionality over proprietary, often one-way communication modules retrofitted to conventional electricity meters.

Ecologic Analytics - is a leading provider of meter data management software solutions and decision management technologies that transform volumes of AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) data for electric, natural gas, and water utilities into valuable information that can be used by the entire organization to make quality business decisions. It was founded in 2000 by a leadership team that has over 55 years of combined utility and AMI experience. Ecologic Analytics delivers value to its clients by validating energy and water consumption data from all leading AMI vendors. Our customers use this information to lower costs, improve customer service, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen their relationship with their customers. Ecologic Analytics is one of the few AMI-neutral companies. Being AMI-neutral enables Ecologic Analytics to recommend software designs that are best of breed and allow utilities to take full advantage of all of their AMI systems. In addition, the use of Ecologic Analytics’ Meter Data Management System (MDMS) software permits a utility to separate the collection of meter data from its use. This means meter data collection systems can be changed without affecting utility applications, and vice versa.

Elektromed - has a licence agreement with British UGI Company to produce mechanical gas meters. Website. Locations: Ankara.

Elster Group - Elster Electricity is a leading provider of electricity metering products and services throughout the world. Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Elster Electricity offers integrated, cost-effective solutions including smart meters, communication solutions, and metering automation systems for residential, commercial, and industrial applications. Elster Electricity serves customers through a global sales force.

eMeter - With 20 million meters under contract, eMeter Corporation of San Mateo, California, provides software that enables electric, gas, and water utilities to realize the full benefits of their Advanced Metering and Smart Grid initiatives. EnergyIP, eMeter's premier enterprise MDM software platform, offers a full suite of Meter Data Management functionality, an Integration Platform for linking a variety of AMI systems to multiple utility information systems, and Business Process Management Tools specializing in AMI implementation, operations, and maintenance. With offices located in the United States, Australia, and India, eMeter's experienced professional services team is available to plan, install, and configure the EnergyIP software, as well as provide strategic consulting services related to meter data management, advanced metering, and demand response. eMeter recently announced a strategic partnership for global distribution with Siemens Corporation.

Energomera - is a leading manufacturer of energy meters located in Stavropol, Russian Federation. Manufacturing over 40% of the meters sold in Russia and selling to more than 60 Russian utilities, Energomera enjoys market dominance. Having begun with production of simple single-phase and three-phase electronic electricity meters, the company continuously innovates and expands its range of products—a process driven by customer feedback. Recently, Energomera proudly announced the fifth generation of energy meters going into production—a marvelous achievement for a 15-year old manufacturing enterprise. Special component parts and advanced schematic technologies enable Energomera to create a truly unique model line of energy meters.

EnergyICT - meter data collection and management. A global leader in providing IT (Information Technology), CT (Communication Technology) solutions and energy data and meter data management services to all businesses in today's liberalized energy markets. EnergyICT is world-renowned for its in-depth knowledge of international energy markets and its leading edge hardware and software products. As the core of our IT solutions, EnergyICT^® specifically developed the advanced software platform EIServer^® to collect, store and process the consumption data to accurately generate the desired information for our customers. EIServer^® functionalities include complex calculation algorithms and specific modules to meet the demands of our customers. Typical functions are validation, estimation, editing, peak-shaving, forecasting, allocation, reconciliation and complex billing. EnergyICT^® does not develop or manufacture the energy meters however; we do provide the means to automatically and remotely collect the consumption data inside the meters via a whole range of communication technologies. As part of our CT solutions, EnergyICT^® developed communication hardware called data loggers or data concentrators.

Energy Tracking - provides smart energy metering and power measurement technology to accurately measure, store, track and analyze energy data. Our web enabled energy meter and pulse data logger are Internet enabled and have a built-in web server. In addition, they can report data via email or ftp. The combination of our hardware and software is designed to provide an end-to-end solution from measurement to billing. Our goal is to improve the speed and quality of power measurement information, so that energy professionals will be able to make better management decisions, conserve energy and reduce costs.

Hexagram - their STAR® automatic meter reading (AMR) system allows utilities to read their customers' meters from a central location. The STAR wireless fixed-network AMR system provides performance and capabilities unrivaled in the industry. Website. Acquired by ESCO Technologies.

ista North America - is the proven leader in the consumption-dependent billing of energy, water and ancillary costs. We offer and provide our services to the multifamily, commercial and military industries.

Itron - Itron is a leading technology provider and critical source of knowledge to the global energy and water industries. Nearly 3,000 utilities worldwide rely on Itron technology to deliver the knowledge they require to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Itron delivers value to its clients by providing industry-leading solutions for electricity metering, meter data collection, energy information management, and demand response, load forecasting, analysis and consulting services, distribution system design and optimization, web-based workforce automation, and enterprise and residential energy management.

Landis+Gyr - Landis+Gyr is a leading global provider of precision, commercial and industrial, and residential electric meters, as well as innovative metering systems. Globally, the company employs over 3,000 people, with the North American headquarters in Lafayette, Indiana, responsible for marketing throughout the worldwide ANSI markets. The U.S. Company also oversees operations at its Reynosa, Mexico manufacturing facility. Landis+Gyr Inc. is committed to maintaining its leadership position by manufacturing, marketing and delivering state-of-the-art, innovative, high-quality solutions to its customers on time, with value added, and at competitive prices. Website. Management.

LS Industrial Systems - The LK Series Single-Phase and Poly-Phase Electric Meters are intelligent, fully featured revenue-grade energy meters with integrated communication function. These solid-state meters feature two-way communication via plug-in type communication modules using standard-based ZigBee® and PLC (Power Line Communication) technology. Each meter complies with IEC 62052, 62053, and 62056 standards.

MADRI Toolbox - http://www.energetics.com/madri/toolbox/ - The Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resources Initiative (MADRI) Toolbox was developed to provide Mid-Atlantic PUCs with additional resources for learning more about advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

MuNet - Mission is to provide the highest quality and most cost effective products to enable utility applications using Internet Protocol (IP) enabled components and services. To implement IP Based Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) products, extending residential and commercial Automated Meter Reading (AMR) to the full range of data collection, in-premise / in-business applications and tools needed for improving operational efficiencies of the 21st Century Utility.

Power PLUS Communications AG - Website in German. Website. Locations: Germany.

Rodan Energy - is a North American provider of energy monitoring and management solutions. Website. *

Sensus Metering Systems - The Sensus Metering Systems companies are leading world-class providers of water, gas, heat and electric meters including comprehensive metering communications system solutions that comprise both automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. Additional linked businesses include Smith-Blair, Inc., a leading provider of pipe clamp & coupling products for the water, gas, and industrial markets; and Sensus Precision Die Casting a producer of complex, high quality die castings. Website. Management.

Locations: Raleigh, North Carolina. Customers: Portland General Electric Company. *

Silver Spring Networks - products and advanced networking technologies make it cost-effective to operate an IP-based utility network that extends to the edge of the service territory. Leveraging proven, advanced networking technologies, Silver Spring Networks’ products are designed to meet the strict reliability, scaling and security requirements of the utility industry at a cost that delivers demonstrable value. The experience of other industries — including cable, telecom and IT — proves that leveraging open standards lowers cost, accelerates product innovation and grows market opportunities. San Mateo, CA *

SmartSynch - SmartSynch makes advanced metering easy for electricity service providers. From C&I to residential wireless metering systems, we create solutions that enable utilities to reduce operating costs, improve customer service, and offer conservation incentives. The core product, the SmartMeter™ System, enables energy and utility companies to communicate with electricity meters using wireless networks and the Internet. The system manages the delivery of critical information to any application system, workstation, computer, or browser-enabled personal communication device. Investors: Battelle Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Nth Power.

Tantalus - develops, manufactures and markets two-way, real-time wireless data communications networks for electric, water and gas utilities. The Tantalus Utility Network–TUNet®–is advanced metering technology that enables a utility to monitor, control and respond to events anywhere and at any time across its distribution network. It serves as the communications backbone that makes Automatic or Smart Metering, Power Quality Monitoring, Outage Reporting, Load Control, and Distribution Automation practical and cost effective. The result is more efficient operations, more accurate billing, and the ability for a utility to deliver a high level of customer service.

Triacta - has a product called The PowerHawk™ 3350. An affordable, high density, solid-state electricity monitor, The PowerHawk 3350 provides you with the information you need to better manage your energy costs. This system is compatible with any single, poly or 3 phase application. A software product called HawkFocus reporting tool. Website. Locations: Canada.

TWACS - a fixed network utility communication system that uses patented technologies to communicate over electric power lines or via short hop radio frequency (RF), providing low-cost, highly-reliable, two-way communication between the utility and the consumers of electricity, gas, propane and pit-set meters. The TWACS system uses the existing power lines for data transmission, and since it modulates the waveform at the zero crossing point, it uses the utility’s network at the frequency for which it was designed. They are a fan of PLC - the low bandwidth partner to BPL. See Aclara above. Bought by ESCO Technologies.

USCL Corporation - advanced metering. Website. Customers: Southern California Edison.

Xemtec - enjoys the rights to highly innovative "retina-inspired" optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Xemtec is developing a series of innovative products incorporating its core OCR technology in combination with complementary technologies, taking advantage of synergy in product platforms and system architectures to address different market segments and applications. Website. Locations: Switzerland.

Electricity retailers may wish to charge customers different tariffs at different times of the day. This is because there is generally a surplus of electrical generation capacity at times of low demand, such as during the night.

Multiple tariffs are made easier by time of use (TOU) meters which incorporate or are connected to a time switch and which have multiple registers. In the UK such tariffs are branded Economy 7 or White Meter and are commonly used in conjunction with electrical storage heaters. The popularity of such tariffs has declined in recent years, at least in the domestic market, due to the (perceived or real) deficiencies of storage heaters and the low cost of natural gas.

Domestic variable-rate meters normally only permit two tariffs ("peak" and "off-peak") and in such installations a simple electromechanical time switch may be used. It is common in the UK for switching to happen via a radio-activated switch rather than a time switch to prevent the possibility of the user tampering with a sealed time switch to obtain cheaper electricity. This happens by a nightly data signal sent within the longwave carrier of BBC Radio 4, 198khz. The times of Economy 7 in the UK are between 12.30am - 7.30am, and this is designed to power storage heaters and immersion heaters.

Large commercial and industrial premises may use electronic meters which record power usage in blocks of half an hour or less. This is because most electricity grids have demand surges throughout the day, and the power company may wish to give incentives to large customers to reduce demand at these times. These demand surges often corresponding to meal times or, famously, to advertisements in popular television programs.

Some multiple tariff meters use different tariffs for different amounts of demand. These are usually industrial meters.

The multiple tariff rates may also be dependent of frequency, also known as availability based tariff (ABT), deployed in gGrid substations and inter-utility transfer points for bulk transfer of energy. This is based on the premise that the system frequency is inversely proportional to the current load. This also causes self-regulation because the rates are higher when the system frequency is low, eventually bringing down the demand.

Smart Meter Implementation Examples

The world's largest and arguably "smartest" smart meter deployment was undertaken by Enel SpA, the dominate utility in Italy with over 27 million customers. Over a 5 year period beginning in 2000 and ending in 2005 Enel deployed smart meters to its entire customer base. These meters are fully electronic and truly smart, with integrated bi-directional communications, advanced power measurement and management capabilities, an integrated, software-controllable disconnect switch, and an all solid-state design. These meters communicate over low voltage power line using standards-based power line technology from Echelon Corporation to Echelon data concentrators at which point they communicate via IP to Enel’s enterprise servers. The system provides a wide range of advanced features, including the ability to remotely turn power on or off to a customer, read usage information from a meter, detect a service outage, detect the unauthorized use of electricity, change the maximum amount of electricity that a customer can demand at any time; and remotely change the meters billing plan from credit to prepay as well as from flat-rate to multi-tariff. In various publications Enel has estimated the cost of the project at approximately 2.1 billion Euros and the savings they are receiving in operation of 500 million Euros per year, an astonishing 4 year payback and a testament to the power of next-generation advanced metering systems.

The Ontario Energy Board in Ontario, Canada has actively strived to define the technology [20] and develop the regulatory framework around their implementation. Smart meters will be installed in 800,000 homes by 2007, with an eventual goal of 100% penetration by 2010.

Other jurisdictions such as California are actively pursuing the same technology [21]. On July 20, 2006, California's energy regulators approved a program to roll out of conventional meters retrofit with communications co-processor electronics to 9 million gas and electric household customers in the Northern California territory of PG&E. These meters report electricity consumption on an hourly basis. This enables PG&E to set pricing that varies by season and time of the day, rewarding customers who shift energy use to off-peak periods. The peak pricing program will start out on a voluntary basis, and the full rollout is expected to take five year. [22]

More than 1 million prepayment smart gas/water/electric meters are implemented by Elektromed in Turkey as one of the highest records in the world.

In 2004, the Essential Service Commission of Victoria Australia(ESC) released its changes to the Electricity Customer Metering Code and the Victorian Electricity Supply Industry Metrology Procedure to implement its decision to mandate interval meters for Victorian electricity customers. The ESC's Final Paper entitled "Mandatory Rollout of Interval Meters for Electricity Customers" foreshadowed the changes to be implemented and contained the rollout timetable requiring interval meters to be installed by 2013 for all small businesses and residences with new and replacement installation commencing in 2006. The ESC forecasts that within 7 years of the start of the rollout up to 1 million large customers and other customers will have existing meters upgraded to interval meters. The Victorian government is not alone with other state governments and the Commonwealth issuing a Joint Communiqué at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra on 17 February 2006 committing all governments to the progressive rollout of smart metering technology from 2007.(http://www.esc.vic.gov.au/apps/page/user/pdf/IMRO_FinalDecisionFinal9July04.pdf).

Meter Communications

Of all smart meter technologies the critical technological problem is communication. Each meter must be able to reliably and securely communicate the information collected to some central location. Considering the varying environments and locations meters find themselves, that problem can be daunting. Among the solutions proposed are: the use of cell/pager networks, licensed radio, combination licensed and unlicensed radio, power line communication. Not only the medium used for communication purposes but the type of network used is also critical. As such one would find: fixed wireless, mesh network or a combination of the two. There are several other potential network configurations possible, including the use of Wi-Fi and other internet related networks. To date no one solution seems to be optimal for all applications. Rural utilities have very different communication issues than urban utilities or utilities located in challenging locations such as mountainous regions or areas ill-served by wireless and internet companies.

OpenHAN - is a task force of the UtilityAMI working group operated under the auspices of the Utility Communications Architecture International Users Group (UCAIug). OpenHAN is charged with addressing issues related to the utility/consumer interface which is one of several tasks of the UtilityAMI work plan. Specifically, OpenHAN is developing use cases, requirements, high level architecture, and security policy to support utility applications that utilize a Home Area Network (HAN) established and/or accessed through utility owned equipment such as a meter or poletop gateway (also referred to in the industry as a utility/ consumer portal).

(The) UCA International Users Group - is a not-for-profit corporation consisting of utility user and supplier companies that is dedicated to promoting the integration and interoperability of electric/gas/water utility systems through the use of international standards-based technology. It is a User Group for IEC 61850, the Common Information Model – Generic Interface Definition (CIM/GID as per IEC 61970/61968), advanced metering and demand response via OpenAMI. Our Mission: To enable utility integration through the deployment of open standards by providing a forum in which the various stakeholders in the utility industry can work cooperatively together as members of a common organization.

Utilimetrics - is the world’s premier association dedicated to providing utilities with information about innovative AMR/AMI technologies that lead to improved operations, customer service and resource utilization.

UtilityAMI - is A forum to define serviceability, security and interoperability guidelines for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand responsive infrastructure (DRI) from a utility / energy service provider perspective.
UtilityAMI has developed high level policy statements that can be used to facilitate efficient requirements and specification development using a common language that minimizes confusion and misunderstanding between utilities and vendors. UtilityAMI is coordinating with other industry groups as required to efficiently carry out its mission.
UtilityAMI has a goal to utilize the UtilityAMI work products to influence the vendor community to produce products and services that utilities need to support their AMI and DRI initiatives.

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