Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has newly released comprehensive guidelines for standardization and interoperability of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems.
These guidelines known as “Guidelines for Standardization and Interoperability in AMI Systems for End-to-End Communication between Smart Meter, HES and MDM” aim to standardize the following:
- A single Unified HES (head-end system) with standardized interfaces to the MDM (meter data management) and meter aggregators, such that different makes of HES that conform to this document may be used in an interoperable manner
- For WAN Connected meters – this specification support two options
- Direct IS-15959 Parts1,2 and 3 for the application protocol between the Unified HES and Meters. This option is to be mandatorily supported by the Unified HES as well as meters
- Through a WAN Adaptor – employing IEC61968-9 (plus additional message) – based interface to the HES
- For RF and other NAN connected Meters through a NMS Adaptor – employing IEC61968-9 (plus additional message) – based interface to the HES
- For upstream communication between Unified HES and MDMS – employing an IEC61968 based API
(Note: RF=radio frequency; WAN=wide area network; NAN=neighbourhood area network; API=application programming interface; MDMS=meter data management system)
The detailed guidelines may be viewed using this external link
Background
These guidelines are the result of a Union power ministry order dated June 4, 2024, which recommended the constitution of a committee for standardization and interoperability of AMI layers.
The order stated that although the Indian standard for smart meters (IS-16444 Part 1 and 2) has been in force in the country, the physical and functional standards were yet to be established. It was therefore decided to standardize various layers of the AMI system so as to reduce vendor-specific solutions the AMI chain, to achieve higher level of cross-system communication and to achieve higher level of interoperability for ease of integration at all levels (meter to HES and HES to MDMS)
The main deliverables of the committee included identification of areas between meter and HES communication that are bottleneck to interoperability, mainly for RF and NBIoT communication technology.
It may be mentioned that currently in RDSS projects, three communication technologies – RF, PLC and Cellular – have been specified in the Indian standards. Cellular communication can further be based on 4G/5G or NBIoT technology. In current scenario, most of the RF Mesh solutions are proprietary and there are multiple routing/mesh protocols, security mechanisms, etc. Similarly, with NBIoT, extra intelligence is added to increase the network performance. Also the HES used for communication based on above technologies, are generally separate and not unified, for several technical reasons.
Also read: EA proposes regional standing committees for power system planning
Featured photograph (source: CyanConnode India) is for representation only
