It’s all about metering this week, as I’m off to Denver, CO, to attend the Utilimetrics Smart Metering Conference and Exposition, aka Autovation. The conference covers metering primarily in the electric utility industry, and there’s plenty of discussion on the role metering will play in the adoption of the Smart Grid. In Distributed Energy, we’ve been focusing a lot lately on energy management systems, especially in relation to energy efficiency and the promised arrival of a national Smart Grid.
As you know, automatic meter reading (AMR) involves the automatic collection of data from meters (water, gas, and electric). Once the data is collected, it is transferred to a central database for analysis and metering. Of greatest benefit to a utility is the possibility of measuring actual consumption, thereby enabling accurate billing and a more in depth and demand-sensitive resource management.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), on the other hand, pushes data management to another level by including the measurement, collection, and analysis of meter-acquired data. AMI includes not only hardware, but the master data management (MDM) software and customer interface that makes use of all the statistics and information collected, including usage and billing. Another AMI benefit is the ability to craft sophisticated demand-response solutions.
I’m excited to see the newest and most innovative AMR/AMI technology that’ll be on display here in Denver, and you can rest assured that I’ll be passing along everything I’ve to learned to you—especially the ways in which smart metering will enable a smooth interface between the Smart Grid and onsite power generation.
In the meantime, check out some of our past Smart Grid articles:
Ready or Not..
WANTED: Young Guns
The GridWise Future
Conservation Control Initiatives
Distributed-Energy Resources: A Key Element of Grid Modernization