Communication structures and data processing in AMI systems

According to EC directives and widely accepted ESMIG (European Smart Metering Interest Group) communication model, AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) system should provide bi-directional and secure communications via standard interfaces and with the standard data format, between utility service providers and digital meters and two-way communication between meters and customers. While the solution of a two-way communication between digital meters and service providers is now not too much problem, proposing a solution to meet the second requirement is not so obvious. The problem is not due to lack of technical capacity, but some of the consequences of proposed solutions. This paper presents the chosen communication structures dedicated to AMI system and scalability to ensure that they will be ready to introduce the concept of distributed processing for individual structures. Measurement data processing strategy is another dilemma in AMI systems. Due to the fact that these systems will provide the basis for Smart Grids, the solutions to the measurement data that will be used not only for billing purposes, has a significant impact on the reliability of the whole system and affects the load paths of communication.