• TechnologyInnovator
• NextInnovator
• EnterpriseInnovator
• SecurityInnovator
• DefenseInnovator
• WirelessInnovator 
• HPinnovator
• EnergyInnovator
• TransportationInnovator
• SMBinnovator (beta)

• NextInnovator(at)Live.com

• Ghost City
• Frontline Sentinel
• Innovation Insights
• WebInno
• Over the River
• Enderle Group
• Security Insights Blog 
• McAfee Audio Parasitics
• Rethinking Security
• Ovum
• iSuppli
• Canalys
• eMarketer 
• CRM Help Desk SW 
• Rethink Research
• The Gadgeteer
• Master the Moment

 

Early deployments of residential smart meters during the past five years created the specific requirement for residential meter data management (MDM) applications. MDM vendors faced a number of challenges in these deployments: scaling their systems to manage several million meters, and developing complex algorithms to validate meter readings and make estimates where readings were missing. Most vendors have now addressed the issues of collection and storage of meter data, and MDM is entering a second phase of maturity. Vendors are now helping their utility customers extract maximum value from their meter data. A new report, Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Meter Data Management Solution for the Utilities Industry, looks at nine MDM vendors and compares their products to help utilities better understand the MDM vendor landscape.

The MDM market is transforming

The MDM market has proven to be very dynamic during the past 12 months. Market leader eMeter has been acquired by long-term partner Siemens, and Ecologic Analytics has been fully acquired by its erstwhile minority shareholder Landis + Gyr, part of Toshiba. A couple of vendors are entering the market: HP hopes to build on its telecoms success with its Utility Center product, while Telvent is developing a number of applications on long-term partner OSIsoft’s PI architecture.

Vendors are starting to create their own niches: Aclara and Telvent are likely to gain the most success from existing clients from other parts of their business; Ferranti, Aclara, and Elster EnergyICT will win most (but not all) of their revenues from smaller accounts; Oracle and Ecologic Analytics will challenge market leaders eMeter and Itron for a greater share of larger accounts globally; and Telvent will focus on delivering advanced applications for distribution operations.

MDM products are maturing

While the core function of MDM will always be the validation and storage of smart meter data, utilities are increasingly demanding additional functionality to support more business processes, right across the utility value chain. Most MDM vendors in Ovum’s report have developed applications to serve the majority of these business processes.

The first phase of MDM maturity saw vendors and their clients work together to cope with scalability issues and develop validation, estimation, and editing (VEE) algorithms. The second phase in the maturity cycle is to develop a modular approach to help utilities extract full value from their meter data. Most vendors are now developing suites of analytics-based modules that help utilities in a number of different areas, such as: customer billing, credit management, outage management, meter asset management, market settlement, and distribution management.

MDM is becoming increasingly SOA-compliant

The industry is increasingly demanding open standards and SOA-based solution models, while vendors are seeking to simplify deployments with preconfigured out-of-the-box solutions. About half of the solutions in Ovum’s report are SOA-compliant; most of the others are working toward it. This should come as no surprise. Given that MDM is the central repository for smart meter data, it must interface with a number of different applications. Most vendors have demonstrated a commitment to industry standards, particularly the International Electrotechnical Commission’s common information model (IEC CIM), although some also work with the MultiSpeak standard. Utilities purchasing an MDM product should ensure that their potential vendor supports their chosen industry standards.

It is not yet proven that MDM’s future lies in the cloud

The vast majority of utilities have opted for a conservative approach to MDM deployment: nearly every instance of MDM supporting residential advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) is located within a utility’s own data center. This is perfectly understandable. Residential AMI is new, and there are few mature examples from which utilities can learn. By keeping their AMI investments close, utilities can better manage the unexpected.

However, a few utilities in fragmented markets such as the US, Germany, and Scandinavia have pointed the way to a different model. Unable to bear the financial risk of full-scale AMI deployments, these utilities have adopted an AMI-as-a-service approach, where a third party manages their smart meter data. Ovum believes that as AMI matures, utilities will be more willing to outsource their MDM and store meter readings in some form of private cloud. However, there is an implied operational risk associated with storing meter data offsite. Cloud adoption will be driven by the adventurous and capital-restrained.

This will be no easy sell to utilities: a conservative industry will be reluctant to let its residential consumption data be stored offsite. This data is, after all, central to a utility’s ability to bill its customers. However, the transaction-based nature of cloud services could well be attractive to utilities, assuming that service providers can adequately address concerns regarding security and reliability.