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SAP Advanced Metering Infrastructure Integration for Utilities’ Composite
Technologies to Meet New Demands in Sales and Customer Service
a report by
James McClelland
Senior Global Director, Utilities and Energy, SAP AG
Over the course of many years, utilities have established robust meter scores or other criteria. Not only will linking realtime consumption
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ransmission & Distribution
networks and customer service infrastructures that are supported by analysis to risk-based consumer segmentation create more effective
processes and systems set up for well-defined work routines and collection measures to ensure revenue; tailored rates combined with
functions. This situation is about to change. To address these tailored collection strategies can also change consumption behaviour.
challenges there is a new generation of technology to be applied to This means greater price elasticity for differentiated service offerings.
metering and customer service infrastructures, known as advanced
metering infrastructure (AMI). AMI drives the optimisation of revenues Make Customer Service More Cost-effective
and demand, enables cost-effective customer service and facilitates AMI technology allows utilities to effectively integrate process-centric
market efficiency and the automation of data exchanges at new energy and business data across different systems, including electronic
business networks of energy suppliers and infrastructure operators. meter systems (also called ‘smart meters’), automated meter reading
(AMR), meter data management (MDM) systems, customer information
Energy markets are changing in response to consumer demands and systems (CIS) and outage management systems (OMS).
legislative mandates that seek to conserve resources, protect the
consumer and introduce greater competition by giving customers AMI utilities can perform the following tasks:
more choice. The next generation of metering and data-exchange
technologies is known as advanced metering technologies. AMI has • read meters remotely;
the ability to support the bidirectional flow of information, enables • offer billing services based on actual consumption data and
more responsive sales and service departments and allows customers meter reading;
to make informed energy-consumption decisions in response to • automate the aggregation and transfer of energy data;
different price signals. • more effectively manage customer service inquiries and disputes,
with access to up-to-date profile data;
As utilities begin to feel increased legislative pressure to adapt their • connect realtime consumption data to electronic customer self-
businesses to competitive markets and to support demand management, services;
experts predict that AMI will fill the gap as an enabling technology. • more effectively identify faults and rapidly restore service on the
Ultimately, utilities will invest in comprehensive or selective AMI basis of realtime readings of on-premise conditions and extended
deployments to remain competitive despite lingering attempts to milk enterprise systems into the mobile field force; and
existing investments as they decline. • automatically interpret and implement curtailment and disconnection/
reconnection orders as a result of enforced collection measures.
This article will describe how AMI helps utilities to perform the
following activities: Enable Market Efficiency and Automation
With AMI, utilities markets that are designed to promote competition
• optimise revenues and demand; will force energy providers to focus more intently on specific roles and
• make customer service more cost-effective; and business objectives, such as delivering excellence in customer service,
• enable market efficiency and automation. achieving reliable meter and grid infrastructures and providing meter
reading services and value-added services. In order to make such
Optimise Revenues and Demand markets work, utilities will need collaborative and automated
AMI will not be able to change regulated prices; however, it can processes and enabling business IT, such as portal technologies,
enable sales departments to create demand-response programmes collaboration tools, integration brokers, energy data management
and offer differentiated services on the basis of more refined applications and market processing applications and repositories to
customer segmentation. exchange and monitor aggregated consumption information. AMI
serves this need with next-generation, process-centric data-exchange
AMI enables utilities to process and analyse consumption profiles in infrastructures with capabilities for two-way communication, high-
realtime. With AMI you can introduce different pricing schemes that capacity processing, near-realtime data, rule and context handling and
will allow you to design products for better demand balancing and audit tracking.
margin optimisation. Personalised supply contracts can support
complex billing schemes for realtime and time-of-use pricing (based on Enterprise Service-orientated Architecture
seasonal, day, type and on- and off-peak periods), incentives for non- and SAP NetWeaver
usage (curtailment agreements), power-quality services, street-lighting IT plays a critical role in the business success of utilities. The
services, appliance control, customer service levels based on credit applications and technologies created, managed and maintained
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