Rolling out Smart Meters

The choices made during the strategy definition stage will structure the project in the long term and are not easily reversible. A smart meter strategy must be aligned with the organization’s corporate strategy and ambitions while taking into account regulatory constraints and market expectations.

Implementing Smart Meters is about setting up a complex and large-scale infrastructure comprised of hardware (meters and data concentrators), different communication technologies, and end-to-end AMI information systems. Choosing the right technology for each of these components is crucial to reaching the overall ambition of the project while fulfilling the technical, geographical, and budgetary context.

A smart metering project implies a profound transformation for DSOs:

• A heavy impact on historical business activities such as decreased manual meter reading, a revolution of network maintenance, and supervision and increased reliance on support functions (marketing, HR, finance..) during the roll-out phase.
• The emergence of new business activities such as development, management and maintenance of the smart metering infrastructure or the management and exploitation of a large amount of data.

This transformation impacts all DSOs' business processes and it is crucial to anticipate and support it in order to guarantee a smooth and successful transition.