Metering Europe – Barcelona ‘09

Posted by Milan Stefanovic on October 14, 2009 under conferences & events | Be the First to Comment

On 06-08 of October 2010 there was a metering conference in Barcelona on which my colleague Vladimir Pejović and I as E-Smart delegates were attending together with over 3000 delegates (this number is increasing every year). I should say that this is very nice time of year to be in Barcelona…

The conference program was divided in 4 main tracks:

 - Smart grids – from pilots to mass rollout,

 - Communication, MDM systems and meter design

 - Smart metering and climate

 - Smart billing

Besides lectures, we had a chance to talk with companies who are leaders in different areas of smart metering. So, after these 3 conference days we heard about some lessons learnt from pilots in Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, etc.

We saw that Zigbee protocol for communication is today much more popular and accepted than last year. The Wireless M-Bus protocol is near to Zigbee, but PLC communication is still looking for its place because nobody found yet fast and reliable way for communication using this technology. Regarding standards, DLMS seems to found his way to become generally accepted standard. Speaking of standards, it was a few words about global standardization on different levels (meter interfaces, security, protocols for communication, minimal requirements for meters, concentrators, AMR software, etc). One of the projects for standardization is Open Meter Project (www.openmeter.com).

Also, in difference from last year conference, today Smart home and Home automation systems are very popular. The main aspects are “real-time data”, “IP addressing” and “Dashboards” for displaying data and indicators of consumption to the end customer. These dashboards can be accessed over displays at home, over laptop or any mobile device with Web access. Displayed data can contain current power load and consumption, averages, key indicators, even some predictions about future consumption and mechanisms to manually control home appliances. But, there are no advanced techniques for controlling these systems (for 3 days of conference, nobody mentioned semantics nor multi-objective reasoning). So, this is one more confirmation that SESAME project is far beyond the-state-of-the-art today.

For further information you can visit www.metering-europe.com.

Dissemination activities: 10 years of FTW and FIS’09

Posted by Anna Fensel on October 9, 2009 under conferences & events | Be the First to Comment

FTW, the research center coordinating SESAME project, celebrates its 10 years anniversary!
The main date for celebration is October 12, and it will be distinguished by a high-profile event “Pathways to a Digital Future”.

SESAME team will have a poster and some promotional materials at the FTW’s booth dedicated to the Energy sector at the event’s exhibition area. Feel free to come around there and meet us any time between 10:00 and 17:30.

As another recent dissemination activity, SESAME poster paper has been a part of the 2nd Future Internet Symposium, 1-3 September, Berlin, Germany.

SESAME poster and flyer can be viewed here.
SESAME short paper for FIS’09 can be viewed in the publications section.

Smart Metering in Germany

Posted by Tassilo Pellegrini on October 1, 2009 under conferences & events | Be the First to Comment

On February 23 & 24, 2010 the 3rd Conference on Smart Metering in Germany takes place in Cologne.

Austrian energy regulator diggs into smart metering

Posted by Tassilo Pellegrini on under case study, conferences & events, regulation | Be the First to Comment

On May 8, 2009 the Austrian energy regulator E-Control held a workshop about the state of the art und future perspectives of smart metering. Although the talks mainly adressed the Austrian situation the EU representative Anthony Doherty, Unit C2 – Electricity and Gas Markets, gave an overview over the legal situation and Iiro Rinta-Joupi, Head of Development at Vattenfall, gave an insight into smart metaring in Sweden. E-Control has put plenty of material online, so you can easily dive deeper into the topic.