NextGen Voice

Alcatel-Lucent to Pilot Test Smart Metering System

By Divya Narain, TMCnet Contributor

Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) has reportedly started a pilot project with KELAG Netz GmbH, an Austria-based power and gas supplier, and energy network operator, for the deployment and integration of smart metering infrastructure.

 

The first in a series of end-to-end pilots including operational support systems, or “OSS,” and business support system, or “BSS,” for smart metering in Austria, this pilot involves the providing of Alcatel Lucent’s smart metering solution to 550 homes. Through this project, KELAG hopes to encourage consumers to be careful about energy use.

 

Alcatel-Lucent’s smart metering system, in conjunction with components supplied by its partners, is a comprehensive system for automatic recording of energy consumption. The service spectrum of the system ranges from the supply of the meter data management system, or “MDM,” through a software-based prepayment functionality to an OSS for alarm management, inventory and ticketing.

 

Gerald Obernosterer, head of Operational Communication, KELAG Netz GmbH, said that Alcatel-Lucent was selected based on its advanced MDM and OSS systems.

 

“The combination of the Meter Data Management System with an OSS provided by the Alcatel-Lucent solution is an important cornerstone of a professional smart metering architecture,” Obernosterer said.

 

“Smart metering touches the critical business processes of the utility,” Thierry Pollet, head of the smart metering solutions at Alcatel-Lucent, said.

 

“With AMI, metering data will become available at a pace as never seen before,” Pollet sai. “Meter Data Management must protect the legacy IT infra-structure, processing the incoming real-time metering data and adapting it to the requirements of the legacy IT infrastructure.”

 

Additionally, Pollet said that MDM must protect the existing IT infrastructure while at the same time allowing a gradual transformation of the utility business processes to smart grid.

 

In other Alcatel-Lucent news, TMCnet recently reported that Alcatel-Lucent and Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert) have launched a Web-based smart metering user interface for the E-Metering field trial in the German city of Friedrichshafen.

 

Divya Narain is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Divya’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Kelly McGuire