Meter Data Management

Meter Data Management (MDM) refers to a key component in the Smart Grid infrastructure that is in the process of being evolved and adopted by utility companies. An MDM system performs long term data storage and management for the vast quantities of data that are now being delivered by smart metering systems. This data consists primarily of usage data and events that are imported from the head end servers that manage the data collection in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or Automatic meter reading (AMR) systems.

An MDM system will typically import the data, then validate, cleanse and process it before making it available for billing and analysis. The more flexible the MDM application, the better it is able to integrate to existing enterprise applications and help to streamline utility business processes. Benefits can be seen in billing, customer service, outage management and analysis of utility operations.

Solutions

Solutions based on meter data include the following:

- Smart meter deployment planning and management
- Meter and network asset monitoring and management
- Automated smart meter provisioning (i.e. Addition, Deletion and Updating of Meter information at utility and AMR side) & billing cutover
- Meter-to-Cash; including complex billing determinants for legacy Customer Information Systems (CIS) and billing systems that cannot perform complex calcuations of interval data and rate structures
- More accurate Customer Service and invoicing information
- Automated validation, editing, and estimation (VEE) of meter data
- Transmit meter data outside of their organization to Counter parties
- Provide Settlement Statements and auditing information
- Provide information to create Executive Level Reports
- Revenue Protection business processes automation and reporting
- Data Aggregation for network loss and theft detection
- Outage detection and event management
- Remote connect and disconnect of accounts reducing truck rolls
- Customer information portal, use and billing analysis applications

Meter data management systems (MDMS) provide a platform for managing data from multiple metering systems and make available this data to multiple applications (in-house or hosted). An MDMS may provide data and interface with other systems such as the utility billing and customer information system, outage management system, workforce management system, asset management and other systems. Furthermore an MDMS may provide reporting capabilities for load and demand forecasting, management reports, customer service metrics, and other operations and support the activities.

An MDMS provide application programming interfaces (APIs) between the MDMS and the multiple destinations that rely on meter data. This is the first step to ensure that consistent processes and 'understanding' get applied to the data.

Besides this common functionality, an advanced MDM may provide facility for Remote Connect/Disconnect of meters , power status verification\power restoration verification and On demand read of remote meters .

Market and vendor analysis

According to GTM Research the market for MDMS will grow by over 300% through 2014.

IDC Energy Insights forecasts that the North American market for MDMS will grow to $869.1 Million in 2013. They state that a smaller utility will spend upwards of $250,000 on an MDMS while large utilities have contracts ranging from $2 to $4 Million.

Most reports mention that following vendors as the established vendors in the market: Ecologic Analytics, Aclara, eMeter, Itron, and Oracle.

Various companies provide Meter Data Management Systems.

See also

Automatic meter reading
Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Smart Grid

References