The Indian companion specification for DLMS COSEM is almost ready. The adoption of DLMS/COSEM and the drafting of the companion specification is a great step forward for India, in its standardization efforts. The fact that all stakeholders finally understood, appreciated and in the end supported and participated in driving the India specific standard is one of the firsts in India.
This augur's well not only for the the R APDRP programme that the government of India is implementing, but also paves the way for future technology adoption and implementation in the Indian AMR/AMI and Smart Grid space, for the mechanism that was adopted and the maturing and professionalism of the various participants makes it possible for the BIS ET 13 to move aggressively forward in more standardization in the metering and Smartgrid space.
This mode may also be adopted by the LITD 10 of BIS, for a number of standards within the Smartgrid framework needs indegenization and active debate and discussion before it can actually become an Indian standard.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
IEC 62056 / DLMS COSEM Indian Companion Standard
BIS ET13 Protocol Panel is working on a new companion standard for IEC 62056 / DLMS COSEM for India. This companion standard will define country specific (INDIA Specific) requirements that the IEC 62056 protocol implementations in India will need to comply with. The companion standard will ideally define the sub-set of requirements mandatory for any IEC 62056 implementation in India, as well as country specific profiles and event code for events and tamper data.
The companion standard also will define the ABT profiles as well as parameterization as defined the CEA/CPRI/IEEMA protocol panel for the different types of meter's in India. Since these companion standards are specific to India, an India specific certification of the companion standard by CPRI might be adopted, rather than the DLMS UA certification for the implementation.
The companion standard also will define the ABT profiles as well as parameterization as defined the CEA/CPRI/IEEMA protocol panel for the different types of meter's in India. Since these companion standards are specific to India, an India specific certification of the companion standard by CPRI might be adopted, rather than the DLMS UA certification for the implementation.
Monday, February 23, 2009
DLMS COSEM Workshop and AMI Conference in New Delhi
The DLMS COSEM Workshop and the AMI Conference concluded on 19th February 2009 at New Delhi. The Workshop introduced the DLMS COSEM / IEC 62056 protocol to the Indian audience of utilities, regulators and the meter manufacturers. The workshop by DLMS UA President and IEC TC 13 secretary Gyozo Kmethy was well received. Also the presence of Thomas Schwab from L&G and management committee member of DLMS UA added to the depth of IEC 62056 expertise, and the impact of an Indian adoption of the standard. Vinoo S Warrier of Kalkitech, member of the BIS LITD 13 Protocol Panel and the DLMS UA Technical Committee presented an overview of the draft in the works of the Indian Companion Standard for DLMS COSEM for adoption as the National Standard. This was followed by the CTT test tool and the certification laboratory capabilities of http://www.cpri.in CPRI, the largest 3rd Party DLMS Lab in the world.
The conference also saw numerous papers on DLMS COSEM, AMI, Smart Grid, Smart Metering, Security and Meter Data Management presented. Central Electricity Authority presented a presentation on the Importance of the protocol issue and the reasons why government of India is very keen for it's 12 Billion Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program II to be successful to improve the power distribution system in India and how open protocols play an important role.
The conference also saw numerous papers on DLMS COSEM, AMI, Smart Grid, Smart Metering, Security and Meter Data Management presented. Central Electricity Authority presented a presentation on the Importance of the protocol issue and the reasons why government of India is very keen for it's 12 Billion Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program II to be successful to improve the power distribution system in India and how open protocols play an important role.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
CBIP DLMS COSEM Workshop and AMI Conference
CBIP is organizing Workshop on ‘Metering Data Exchange–International Standards & Protocols’ [IEC 62056 (DLMS/COSEM)] and Conference on ‘Advanced Metering Infrastructure’-17-19 February 2009 in Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi. Gyozo Kmethy, President of DLMS UA is taking the workshop on IEc 62056. Kalkitech is sponsoring this event. More details are available here.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Workshop on Metering Data Exchange (DLMS/COSEM) and Conference on Advanced Metering Infrastructure
CBIP (Central Board of Irrigation and Power) is organizing a workshop on metering data exchange (DLMS/COSEM) and Conference on advanced metering infrastructure on February 17-19th 2009 at Le Meridian New Delhi. More details are available from the conference brochure.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
DLMS COSEM to be the Indian National Standard
Time is a great leveler and determination, consistency and patience always pays off in the long run. These could be the best describers of what happened over the last 6-7 years in India, and which culminated in the month of November 2008, where there were hectic parleys which resulted in an expert committee formed by the Ministry of Power In India, formally deciding to recommend to adopt the IEC 62056 / DLMS COSEM Series as India's national metering protocol standard, with India specific companion standard to cater to country specific requirements.
It would not have been too far from truth, if one were to worry even 6 months ago, whether India will ever have a meter communication protocol standard. The metering lobby has been all along pushing for an API based proprietary metering mechanism, with data export to a standard XML format as their version of a communication standard. The fact that this was not a metering communication protocol standard in the first place, and was inflexible to build good AMR and AMI architectures and had limited profile support all were in the end it's biggest short-comings. Even after proposing this standard called MIOS 3-4 years back, the detailed specification of the same, in a standard format and completeness to the same, took a long time to be formulated by meter manufacturers, considering the complexity of the register based naming and lack of homogenity. The fact that this standard itself was becoming a problem for meter manufacturer's to maintain, upgrade and implement might be the hidden truth.
DLMS/COSEM has always been seen suspiciously by the major meter manufacturer's in India, even though all had DLMS/COSEM compliant meters for International market was something many experts in this field cannot digest. It has to be believed that the CPRI DLMS/COSEM conformance testing center, together with Kalkitech's DLMS/COSEM Server and Client Source Code Library, gave a lot of confidence in the community that, if one were to implement the same, they still could do it in a short time, and once they all started implementing, their own confidence in the protocol all would have played a major role in taking the entire community to gravitate and finally accept a DLMS/COSEM Metering standard for India.
It would be right to state that the intervening 5-7 years, were really accrimonious times for the remote metering space in India, and the major problem that used to get thrown out at people supporting DLMS/COSEM was the Indian requirement of supporting vast amount of tamper conditions, and the seemingly general statement that Indian conditions cannot be captured fully under DLMS COSEM. This has been one of the major planks that we have been trying to expose, and with kalkitech's report on a companion specification under DLMS COSEM to handle India specific tampers, and the new event object's that were introduced by DLMS UA, went a long way to reduce the opposition to DLMS and help enable capture country specific conditions and incorporate in a generic fashion within DLMS/COSEM.
Finally in November 2008, Indian Power Ministry decided, India will have a standard set of communication protocols for metering, AMR and AMI and will also have it's own set of companion standard that captures India specific conditions. This decision historic in many senses, also requires us to appreciate and understand that metering protocols are not a closed chapter, but an always evolving area and India will need to consistently spend time and effort in actively participating in making it work for the Indian conditions, as well as for AMR and AMI applications that get's conceived in the future.
It would not have been too far from truth, if one were to worry even 6 months ago, whether India will ever have a meter communication protocol standard. The metering lobby has been all along pushing for an API based proprietary metering mechanism, with data export to a standard XML format as their version of a communication standard. The fact that this was not a metering communication protocol standard in the first place, and was inflexible to build good AMR and AMI architectures and had limited profile support all were in the end it's biggest short-comings. Even after proposing this standard called MIOS 3-4 years back, the detailed specification of the same, in a standard format and completeness to the same, took a long time to be formulated by meter manufacturers, considering the complexity of the register based naming and lack of homogenity. The fact that this standard itself was becoming a problem for meter manufacturer's to maintain, upgrade and implement might be the hidden truth.
DLMS/COSEM has always been seen suspiciously by the major meter manufacturer's in India, even though all had DLMS/COSEM compliant meters for International market was something many experts in this field cannot digest. It has to be believed that the CPRI DLMS/COSEM conformance testing center, together with Kalkitech's DLMS/COSEM Server and Client Source Code Library, gave a lot of confidence in the community that, if one were to implement the same, they still could do it in a short time, and once they all started implementing, their own confidence in the protocol all would have played a major role in taking the entire community to gravitate and finally accept a DLMS/COSEM Metering standard for India.
It would be right to state that the intervening 5-7 years, were really accrimonious times for the remote metering space in India, and the major problem that used to get thrown out at people supporting DLMS/COSEM was the Indian requirement of supporting vast amount of tamper conditions, and the seemingly general statement that Indian conditions cannot be captured fully under DLMS COSEM. This has been one of the major planks that we have been trying to expose, and with kalkitech's report on a companion specification under DLMS COSEM to handle India specific tampers, and the new event object's that were introduced by DLMS UA, went a long way to reduce the opposition to DLMS and help enable capture country specific conditions and incorporate in a generic fashion within DLMS/COSEM.
Finally in November 2008, Indian Power Ministry decided, India will have a standard set of communication protocols for metering, AMR and AMI and will also have it's own set of companion standard that captures India specific conditions. This decision historic in many senses, also requires us to appreciate and understand that metering protocols are not a closed chapter, but an always evolving area and India will need to consistently spend time and effort in actively participating in making it work for the Indian conditions, as well as for AMR and AMI applications that get's conceived in the future.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Status of DLMS COSEM Adoption in India
DLMS COSEM adoption in India, has been a hotly debated subject for many years. After the CPRI organized National Conference on Metering Protocols and DLMS and setup the DLMS/COSEM 3rd Party Certification Laboratory, the adoption of DLMS / COSEM has been gaining momentum. Today DLMS COSEM has many supporters and the major Indian meter manufacturer's have implemented DLMS/COSEM for their export requirements. In the 12 months DLMS COSEM and standardization in protocols have got more impetus with many utilities facing problems in implementing AMR / AMI solution using proprietary protocols. A recent report by Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai to Distribution Company of the state of Maharashtra has recommended the adoption of DLMS COSEM in MSEDCL projects.
IEEMA, the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturer's Association has been at the forefront of opposing the adoption of DLMS COSEM in India and proposed an alternate protocol standard called MIOS (Meter Interoperability Standard). They have till date only one implementation of their standard in India and that too has many issues. Indian Standard's Body, the BIS (Beaureau of Indian Standards) has an ongoing effort at standardizing DLMS/COSEM as well as MIOS, however the progress has been delayed due to meter manufacturer opposition to DLMS.
Considering the difficulties faced by the utilities to have successful remote metering deployments, and the heavy loss of more than 30% of AT&C (Aggregate technical and commercial) losses in Indian Power Distribution Sector and the non-viability of additional government subsidies to make these utilities viable, the Central government has been forced to think broadly for a solution. The CEA, the Central Electricity Authority, started a process of consultation and arrive at a consensus to implement a standard protocol in India. The CEA started the process in February 2008 to discuss this issue. There were different view point's raised, for and against DLMS/COSEM and MIOS. Mr. Murugesan (formerly of CPRI) presented the advantages of DLMS / COSEM and Kalkitech and CPRI and several utilities stressed the need for a standard open protocols, adoption of DLMS in India as a national standard. However this meeting also did not proceed further, and the recommendation and action items at this meeting were not acted upon seriously.
The Indian Government announced the APDRP-II, the accelerated power development and reform program that intends to fund Indian Distribution Sector with upwards of 10 Billion dollar's for Distribution Modernisation in the next 5 years. The central government felt that without the remote metering protocol issue was sorted and settled it was not possible to make this program successful. Hence the Government once again instructed the CEA and an empowered committee to make recommendation to the Government on adoption of an open and standard protocol within a fixed time frame. This committee in it's final report last month is being reported to have recommended DLMS/COSEM as the protocol to be followed for all new metering in India under the APDRP-II program, and essentially all other programs. The committee also is known to have recommended that existing installations may go for a replacement of meters or use protocol converter's to meet the requirement of a common protocol and that the BIS be entrusted with the task of adopting DLMS/COSEM as an Indian standard. CPRI, CEA and BIS will play an active role in defining India specific OBIS or tamper specifications.
With these developments, we believe the standardization discussion is reaching it's final shape. The true shape it will take will be known when the DLMS/COSEM project's for remote metering are rolled out and becomes successful. Also, the specific requirement for reporting, billing and tamper in the Indian context needs to be addressed. We do hope that once we bury our hatchet on which protocol is good for India, all the stakeholders including government, Meter Manufacturer's, System Integrators, Utilities, Standardization Bodies and regulators will work together in addressing the issues of making appropriate modifications as is required to meet the unique tampering and energy trading requirements of ABT in India. Also, we believe the investment in AMR/AMI infrastructure brought out by APDRP-II will result in more of the tampering issues shifting from meter to the IT domain, with advanced software to track usage and detect tampering in real-time and the protocol standardization concerns will revolve more on security, reading effectiveness, cost's, maintenance, deployment efficiency, last-mile reading, adoption for residential applications etc.,
IEEMA, the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturer's Association has been at the forefront of opposing the adoption of DLMS COSEM in India and proposed an alternate protocol standard called MIOS (Meter Interoperability Standard). They have till date only one implementation of their standard in India and that too has many issues. Indian Standard's Body, the BIS (Beaureau of Indian Standards) has an ongoing effort at standardizing DLMS/COSEM as well as MIOS, however the progress has been delayed due to meter manufacturer opposition to DLMS.
Considering the difficulties faced by the utilities to have successful remote metering deployments, and the heavy loss of more than 30% of AT&C (Aggregate technical and commercial) losses in Indian Power Distribution Sector and the non-viability of additional government subsidies to make these utilities viable, the Central government has been forced to think broadly for a solution. The CEA, the Central Electricity Authority, started a process of consultation and arrive at a consensus to implement a standard protocol in India. The CEA started the process in February 2008 to discuss this issue. There were different view point's raised, for and against DLMS/COSEM and MIOS. Mr. Murugesan (formerly of CPRI) presented the advantages of DLMS / COSEM and Kalkitech and CPRI and several utilities stressed the need for a standard open protocols, adoption of DLMS in India as a national standard. However this meeting also did not proceed further, and the recommendation and action items at this meeting were not acted upon seriously.
The Indian Government announced the APDRP-II, the accelerated power development and reform program that intends to fund Indian Distribution Sector with upwards of 10 Billion dollar's for Distribution Modernisation in the next 5 years. The central government felt that without the remote metering protocol issue was sorted and settled it was not possible to make this program successful. Hence the Government once again instructed the CEA and an empowered committee to make recommendation to the Government on adoption of an open and standard protocol within a fixed time frame. This committee in it's final report last month is being reported to have recommended DLMS/COSEM as the protocol to be followed for all new metering in India under the APDRP-II program, and essentially all other programs. The committee also is known to have recommended that existing installations may go for a replacement of meters or use protocol converter's to meet the requirement of a common protocol and that the BIS be entrusted with the task of adopting DLMS/COSEM as an Indian standard. CPRI, CEA and BIS will play an active role in defining India specific OBIS or tamper specifications.
With these developments, we believe the standardization discussion is reaching it's final shape. The true shape it will take will be known when the DLMS/COSEM project's for remote metering are rolled out and becomes successful. Also, the specific requirement for reporting, billing and tamper in the Indian context needs to be addressed. We do hope that once we bury our hatchet on which protocol is good for India, all the stakeholders including government, Meter Manufacturer's, System Integrators, Utilities, Standardization Bodies and regulators will work together in addressing the issues of making appropriate modifications as is required to meet the unique tampering and energy trading requirements of ABT in India. Also, we believe the investment in AMR/AMI infrastructure brought out by APDRP-II will result in more of the tampering issues shifting from meter to the IT domain, with advanced software to track usage and detect tampering in real-time and the protocol standardization concerns will revolve more on security, reading effectiveness, cost's, maintenance, deployment efficiency, last-mile reading, adoption for residential applications etc.,
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