DLMS User Association - Business Report 2003

device  language message specification

1999 in Madrid, 2000 in Munich, 2001 in Milan, 2002 in Amsterdam, 2003 in Paris …

…this is the fifth year the General Meeting of the DLMS UA is held together with Metering Europe, which during five years has developed to be the “Annual Conference & Exhibition for the Electricity, Water&Gas Metering Industry”.

This year, the conference and the exhibition focuses on the value of metering information to help utilities interfacing with their customers and customers to use energy more efficiently. In- cidentally, the unusually hot and dry summer this year gave a clear lesson to all of us that there are limits to using energy and we have to do so sparingly.

If metering devices are there to be the cash register and to provide the interface between the utilities and customers, it is DLMS, which enables them to perform this essential task.

1 device  language message specification

Membership

Today, the DLMS UA has 58 members from 24 countries from South Africa to Finland and Australia to Brazil. 7 members from 4 countries are non-European. Since our last meeting, 16 new members from 13 countries have joined and a few more applications are pending.

 ABC, Armin Bartsch Computer, a software company for energy data solutions from Ger- many, http://www.endas.de/  Analo, an energy systems manufacturer from Brasil, http://www.analo.com.br  ASAIS, an energy software solutions provider form France, http://www.asais.fr/  BBS, a communication system provider from Singapore, http://www.bbsgroup.com.sg  Coherent Technologies, a data communications solution company from the UK, http://www.coherent-tech.co.uk  DIGIT, a data acquisition system provider from Italy, http://www.digitsrl.it  ESKOM, the large South African electricity company, http://www.eskom.co.za/  Inteligent Metering Systems, a multi-utility metering systems provider from South Africa, http://www.im-systems.com/  KOCOS, an energy solutions company from South Africa, http://www.kocos.co.za/  M2C, an IT and services company for the energy market from Switzerland (spin-off from Siemens Metering), http://metertocash.com  Marac, a telecommunication systems company from Greece, http://marac.com.gr  Mikronika, a Polish meter manufacturer and system provider, http://www.mikronika.- com.pl  SAGEM, the large French electronics group, http://www.sagem.com/en/  SELMA Consortium, a German interest group working on methods for more secure data transmission of energy billing data, http://www.selma-project.de/  Zera, the manufacturer of test systems from Germany, http://www.zeraweb.de  ZIV, a manufacturer of metering systems from Spain, http://www.ziv.es

Welcome on board!

2 Standardisation

In 2002, the work on international standardisation has been completed with the publication of the IEC 62056 series for electricity, and EN13757-1 for gas, water and heat metering.

The next step is to develop the communication profile for data exchange over the Internet. The project has been started by CITEF. The results have been made available to the DLMS UA. Based on these documents, amendments to the Green book and Blue book and the rel- evant international standards are being prepared.

With the work on the TCP/P profile, and the collection of experience with implementations and conformance testing several maintenance items of the standards have been identified.

With the first implementation of DLMS/COSEM in a gas-metering device, the gas OBIS codes have been reviewed in close co-operation of gas domain experts. New requests for electricity OBIS codes have been handled as well. The table of the standard OBIS codes has been completed.

IEC TC 13 WG 14 has prepared draft IEC 62051-1, Glossary of terms, including more than 140 DLMS/COSEM related terms. The objective of this new document is to facilitate a better understanding of the specification. The final draft will be prepared by WG 14 on their meeting on 20-21st October. The good progress of this project was possible due to the liaison established last year between the DLMS UA and WG 14.

Working groups

The WG Maintenance created in 2002 has been active throughout the year. It had a meeting on 25-26 June in Budapest, the next one is on 3d October in Paris. Convened by Gyozo Kmethy, the WG handles the TCP/IP project and other amendments.

Conformance testing

The CTT is available since May 2002. It is commercialized by Euro DCS, there are 6 copies sold. To date, 8 meter types from 5 manufacturers have been approved.

Rules for third party testing (provided currently by KEMA) have been established.

With the maintenance of the standards, the CTT will have to be updated as well.

Market situtation

Since the international standards have been published and the first implementations have hit the market, there is a growing interest in many countries and utilities. This is reflected in the growing membership and the geographical spread of the new members. Below, just a few examples are given.

Germany, represented by the largest number of members, has integrated DLMS/COSEM in the new VDEW specification for metering equipment. There is good cooperation between the German K 461 committee and the DLMS UA.

In 2003, the DLMS UA has established a mutual associated membership with the SELMA Consortium in Germany. The purpose of the SELMA project is to establish methods for secure transfer of billing data over public communication networks (e.g. the internet). We hope that DLMS/COSEM, enhanced with a few new interface objects and advanced security fea- 3 tures (digital signature) will meet the needs of SELMA and will be adopted as the core tech- nology.

Also in 2003, the large South African electricity company, ESKOM/South Africa has evaluat- ed DLMS/COSEM and decided to join the DLMS UA.

Utilities in other countries start to recognize the advantages of the DLMS/COSEM standard, built on a standard data model, delivering identifiable and interpretable data in a secure way, over earlier solutions full of proprietary elements.

Meter implementations

To date, DLMS/COSEM has been implemented in 6 meter types by 5 manufacturers.

Manufacturer Type Date of C-test 1 Actaris Metering Systems SL7000 Smart V2.34 12 June 2002 2 Energy ICT RTU V2 19 Sept 2002 3 Siemens Metering Landis & Gyr Dialog 20 Sept 2002 ZMD310/400CT/AT.xxxx.B14 4 ENERMET Oy E700 v7.00 LN referencing 23 Dec 2002 5 ENERMET Oy E700 v7.00 SN referencing 23 Dec 2002 6 ENERMET Oy E600 v1.00 LN referencing 30 Dec 2002 7 ENERMET Oy E600 v1.00 SN referencing 30 Dec 2002 8 Landis+Gyr Landis+Gyr Dialog 10 July 2003 ZMD310/400CT/AT.xxxx.B21

The ENERMET meters are the first ones supporting both SN and LN referencing. At least four members are known to be working on new meters, which will hit the markets soon.

Data collection system implementations

Görlitz delivered the first client system, the ENZ 2000 – DLMS, capable to exchange data with meters from different manufacturers. This system is currently being enhanced to become a genuine DLMS/COSEM client. For local reading, the software "EnzLocal" is capable to read meters via serial line and optical interface.

Asais has also developed a data collection system, Saturne, supporting DLMS/COSEM.

Dobos in Hungary has implemented the specification in a hand held terminal based system.

Training

The training package has been developed in 2002.

The first official training seminar was held at Metering Europe in Amsterdam, on 30th Septem- ber 2002. Since then, the following training courses were given:  21-22nd November 2002, in Kranj, Slovenia (Gyozo Kmethy, Dr. Martin Wisy)  9-10th April 2003 in Budapest, Hungary (GK)  4-5th August 2003 in Johannesburg, South Africa (GK)  30th September in Paris, France (GK, planned) The training package has been updated for each occasion to suit the needs and has been enhanced with many practical examples.

4 The training seminars given at Metering International generate revenue for the DLMS UA, the other seminars are self-supporting.

Support

The DLMS UA provides support through the website, in particular the Forum and the FAQ pages, which has been updated beginning of 2003. The website also supports the maintenance process.

Euro DCS, the Görlitz company commercializing the conformance test tool, has made available a log-module, providing a complete decoding of all frames and supporting debugging.

Gnarus Engineering (Gyozo Kmethy), on behalf of the DLMS UA provides support to the members. This activity, among others, covers answering questions concerning the specification, the conformance test and collecting items for maintenance.

KEMA provides consultancy services and third party testing. It has developed a protocol an- alyzer. A demo version is downloadable from their website.

Promotion

The DLMS UA regularly provides with news the Metering International magazine and the Görlitz Metering Automation magazine.

Gyozo Kmethy will give a presentation at Metering Europe 2003 in Paris about user support.

Summary

We enjoyed support from many parties during this business year. We will not miss the oppor- tunity to thank all supporters of the DLMS UA. Our colleagues of the DLMS UA office in Geneva did a very good job all year round. Many thanks also to those member companies who sponsored the association in form of human resources.

With all elements in place for wide scale application, DLMS/COSEM is becoming a reality. We still need more products, and most importantly, we need to work together to increase awareness of potential users about the advantages and benefits of using DLMS/COSEM. The DLMS UA is committed to support its members in this process and to become an information hub.

With spreading awareness, growing membership, a larger choice of metering equipment, data collection systems and communication media, DLMS/COSEM is even better positioned as the Electronic Data Acquisition solution. It is even more suitable to meet the challenges of today’s metering business environment, and transform the meter to be a real interface between utilities and customers. May we encourage you all to further co-operate to achieve our objective – to serve the liberalized industry with an efficient tool for meter data exchange.

Gyözö Kmethy, President, and Paul Fuchs, General Secretary of the DLMS User Association

5 The General Meeting

It takes place on October 2nd, 2003, 16:30 h. The place is the CNIT Conference Centre at La Défense, Paris France. The Metering 2003 Conference and Exhibition is in the same place. The DLMS User Association is on booth #3.12, the meeting room will be close to the booth. The General Meeting starts at 16:30 h and ends about 18:00 h. The agenda is added as a separate document. Main points are the elections (Management Committee and auditor), acceptance of the annual report and accounts and decisions on the budget and membership fees for 2004.

The Coloured Books

The Green book Ed.3, the Blue book Ed. 5 and the Yellow book Ed. 2 are available for the members in electronic form. The content of the Green Book and the Blue book is identical to the IEC 62056 series of standards.

The international standards

The international standards can be purchased from the National committees of the IEC and CEN. Links: IEC Web store (http://webstore.iec.ch/) and On-line Catalogue of European Standards (www.- cenorm.be/catweb).

Brochure and News

The brochure is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, either in paper form or on the Internet (Information). The news are a dated list on the homepage.

Internet "www.dlms.com"

The DLMS.COM site is visited between 300 and 450 times per month. The ratio of visits to the language versions English : German : French is 10 : 3 : 1.

The start page of Internet site has been completely redesigned. The site has the same "visual identity" as the brochures. Furthermore, the site is prepared to become a tool for a more efficient work. Pass- word protected areas allow access to the most recent documents, minutes etc. for groups as "Mem- bers", "Management", "WG Member" etc. This avoids sending around heavy attachments to e-mails and makes it easier for the user of the information, as he or she does not have to care about archiving.

Office

The office is in Geneva, close to the Airport. Mrs. Madeleine Roques and Mrs. Catherine Petit-Mantil- leri successfully run the office. The printed matter are characterized by the trade marked DLMS logo. Mail must be addressed to DLMS User Association, Pre-de-la-Fontaine 19, CH-1217 Meyrin-Geneva, Switzerland.

Accounts

Mr. Raphael Odoni, the treasurer has resigned. We would like to express our gratitude for all the work done and support given. He has been replaced by Mr. Peter Kieffer, who signs financial transactions in the Geneva office. Mrs. Beatrice Nghiem keeps the accounts, settles invoices and releases calls for membership fees. Mr. Jean-Claude Grossiord verified the accounts of 2002 and accepted them.