Utilities firms closer to solving intelligent metering infrastructure challenge

In August last year, SAP and seven utility companies formed the SAP AMI Lighthouse Council to address AMI from the back office to the meter, and Zarko Sumic, vice president with analyst Gartner says it’s getting close. He explains that SAP AMI Integration for Utilities software is aimed at allowing utility companies to perform on-demand reads of customers’ meters via a call centre, as well as managing remote disconnects and reconnects, outage reporting etc. “Beyond the IT integration issues, there is an operational technology aspect of AMI, which is being driven by energy efficiency initiatives in North American and Asia Pacific-Japan markets, and market restructuring in the EU,” says Sumic. “AMI also serves a role as a bridge to integrate consumers in energy markets and as an enabler for inclusion of consumer technology such as appliances into the overall utility technology space,” he adds. “AMI is part of a trend that will change the conventional business model of a utility company and mark a giant step forward for the utilities industry,” says Jeroen Scheer, member of the SAP Advisory Customer Council for Utilities (ACCU) and manager of IT Strategy & Architecture for Nuon, a Dutch energy company serving more than 3 million private and business customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. “This is a trend that has only just begun, and by taking the lead, SAP has once again demonstrated its commitment to a high level of innovation.”