Smart Grid Case Studies

Meters and Scaling New System

Case Study 1: Smart Grid Simulator

A major supplier of smart grid solutions to utilities needed assistance validating the scalability of their newly developed head-end system. While the vendor could test the functionality of the head-end system with test meters, they had no way of validating if the head end system would scale to support the large number of AMI enabled meters that would be frequently communicating back to the head-end system once their product was released.

SUM Global was brought in to build an application that simulated the traffic on a smart grid network. The application needed to simulate millions of smart meters in a manner that the head-end system would not be aware it wasn’t communicating with an actual meter. This would include simulating the exact messages sent by meters as well as simulating the timing and reliability of an actual smart grid network.

The data sent by simulated meters to the head-end also needed to be realistic. This would require simulating consumption for millions of meters in a variable manner based on the profile of the premises being simulated. Additionally, outages would need to be simulated in a realistic manner.

While initially intended as a short term project to validate product scalability, the developed simulator proved so successful that it was used for training purposes and was provided to customers as a tool that could be used during the implementation phase. The simulator is still being utilized by the vendor today, nine years after initial delivery.

Case Study 2: Meter Data Management System

A large digital industrial company needed a light-weight Meter Data Management System (MDMS) to be built to meet a very aggressive release schedule.  SUM Global was able to provide a team of architects and engineers who are experts in the energy industry.  Together, they quickly developed an MDMS system that is still in production today.  SUM Global’s MDMS system integrates with multiple utility company’s Customer Information Systems (CIS) as well as Advance Metering Infrastructures (AMI) to receive, store and provide smart metering data.

Given the quality of the delivered MDMS, and the timely manner in which it was delivered, SUM Global’s engagement with the client was expanded. We are then assisted with establishing a Smart Metering Operations Suite that provided remote management, operations and monitoring of smart meters.