Unified AMI information models to support diversified smart grid systems and applications

There is a considerable number of power distribution utilities have installed advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). As a result, meter data management systems (MDMS) become a critical information gateway in the distribution network: it aggregates meter data measurements from various AMI systems using different information models and tailors the collected information to support various smart grid applications, which have their own special requirements on the meter information. Under this situation, defining a unified information model for MDMS to minimize the information gaps between AMIs and smart grid applications becomes necessary. This paper proposes such a unified information model based on the investigation of meter information standards (models) in the current market. Three example smart grid applications supported by the proposed unified information model are illustrated.