Converge

Summary
Key Features
Key Business Benefits
System Overview
Head End Metering Protocols
Meter Data Management
Energy Management

Summary

In today’s competitive Energy market, there are increasing demands on the quantity, quality, accuracy and availability of data. This makes the need for automated, end-to-end processes all the more critical.

Metering data is key to determining energy consumption and developing customer-specific offerings in addition to accurate billing. Smart Metering is key to realising high volume accurate data, whilst reducing the operational cost of data acquisition.

Data from a wide variety of meters must be read, edited, estimated, processed and passed to multiple market participants and systems. This data underpins critical business processes covering billing, settlement, tariff structures and customer care.

B-Smart™ Converge delivers the prerequisites for an automated, end-to-end process – from metering to billing. It can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or in conjunction with other applications from the B-Smart™ suite in the Energy Retail, Meter Operations and Data Collections sectors.

B-Smart™ Converge is built on the market leading(1) B-Smart™ Flow Manager technology used by 7 major UK Energy companies.
(1) B-Smart software manages an estimated 70% of the supplier energy asset data in the UK market place.

Key Features

Pre-configured support for over 80 meter types from 13 different manufacturers. This capability is being continually extended
New meter types can be easily added through configurable communication modules
Supports multiple communication protocols (SMS, GPRS, GSM/Data, Power Line Carrier, PSTN, LAN)
Two-way communication with the meter enables functions such as remote disconnection and demand management
Integration with B-Smart™ Meter Asset Manager, Meter Reading Manager, Job Manager and Market Messenger applications enables Smart and non-Smart meters to be utilised and managed concurrently
May be implemented as a complete integrated B-Smart™ solution or as a stand-alone MDM application able to integrate with any third party systems via B-Smart SOA framework
Powerful scheduling software allows full automation of data acquisition and processing activities
Scalable and flexibly adaptable to your changing business processes
Fully configurable data processing engine for enhanced validation, estimation, editing and billing determinants
Flexible and user-definable reporting providing operational and management information

Key Business Benefits

Multiple meter communication protocols facilitate optimal meter hardware procurement.
Encourages innovation in meter design as new meters can be added easily through configurable communication modules.
Flexible choice of meter communication methods (SMS, GPRS, GSM/Data, Power Line Carrier, PSTN, LAN are supported).
Two-way communication with meters in real-time.
Protects existing investment and supports phased roll-out allowing Smart and non-Smart meter co-existence.
Dependable and robust industry solution with many proven installations throughout Europe.
Low cost implementation as pre-configured for UK market.
Fully integrated with B-Smart suite of applications supporting Business Process Intelligence and Market Messaging.

System Overview

B-Smart™ Converge consists of three components, each of which may be used independently or as part of a complete end-to-end solution.

Head End
Meter Data Management
Energy Management

Head End Metering Protocols

The Head End component handles the two-way communication with the meter asset. It consists of the following:

Communication Method Adapters
Meter Protocol Adapters

The path of information flowing between a specific type of meter and the Meter Data Management component is defined as the combination of a Communication Method Adapter and a Meter Protocol Adapter.
Communication method adapters handle the physical information flow to the meter asset. The following methods are supported:

SMS
GPRS
GSM/Data
Power Line Carrier
PSTN
LAN

Meter Protocol adapters handle the translation between business events (e.g. request ad-hoc meter reading) and the native language understood by the firmware of the meter. B-Smart™ Converge currently supports in excess of 80 different meter types from many different manufacturers, and more are being added all the time.

Meter Data Management

The Meter Data Management component controls how and when the data is acquired from the meter (using the Head End component), and what happens to that data once acquired. It also allows functions of the meter to be controlled remotely.

For data acquisition, the Meter Data Management component of B-Smart™ Converge would typically be used for:

Obtaining and recording billing, load profile (interval) and meter status information from the meter asset.
Setting up and monitoring of scheduled acquisitions, e.g. once a day from each meter asset.
Receipt of spontaneous events, e.g. tamper indicators.

For remote meter control, the Meter Data Management component of B-Smart™ Converge would typically be used for:

Remote energisation and de-energisation of the meter.
Uploading tariff changes and Time-of-Use information to the meter.
Resetting of maximum demand and other registers.

For data processing, the Meter Data Management component of B-Smart™ Converge would typically be used for:

Validation of data obtained from the meter.
Estimation and Editing of acquired data, e.g. smoothing out of missing interval readings.
Data aggregation for complex billing
Setting up and monitoring of data processing schedules, e.g. to coincide with scheduled acquisitions.

Energy Management

One of the key environmental benefits of Smart Metering is the ability to use the additional consumption information to change consumer behaviour.

The Energy Management component of B-Smart™ Converge can be used to present, in graphical form via a web portal, information acquired from meter assets by the Head End component and processed by the Meter Data Management component.

If a Home Display Unit is deployed with the meter, this component can also be used, in conjunction with the Head End component, to upload information via the meter to the HDU.