Technology Allows Smart Metering and Billing on One Architecture Platform

April 26, 2012
Ferranti has announced its strategy for “Big Data” storage and handling of smart meter readings, consumptions and tariff structures for its MECOMS solution for the energy and utilities market.

Ferranti has announced its strategy for “Big Data” storage and handling of smart meter readings, consumptions and tariff structures for its MECOMS solution for the energy and utilities market. This strategy brings “Big Data” and therefore large volumes of information to existing functionality of the MECOMS product, allowing real smart metering and smart billing on one single architecture and technology platform.

Dirk Michiels, CEO of Ferranti: “The introduction of smart metering and smart grid initiatives requires utility companies to deal with huge amounts of data. In the old world most meter readings would be monthly or yearly, but now we see values coming in at a 15 minute pace. In order to make full use of the data explosion that comes with smart metering data, new architectures are needed. Many solutions can already deal with large volumes, but they do not provide sufficient options to use the data is a smart way, let alone integrate with processes like service management, billing, or even forecasting. Our system will do that out-of-the-box, in a very cost-efficient and scalable way on one technology platform.”

In close cooperation with Microsoft, Ferranti is using new technologies to empower the MECOMS solution for big data. With Ferranti's IMA (In Memory Analytics, ensuring real time data processing) and SVS (Smart Volume Streaming, enabling optimised large volume handling), all MECOMS components will be able to make full use of the vast amounts of data. The smart metering components will guarantee input, processing and throughput for millions of records per second, fully integrated with traditional components such as asset management, service management, CRM, billing etc. Benchmarks have shown that the new architecture will easily be able to deal with over 100 million smart meters on standard hardware platforms. Combining this super-performance with new Microsoft SLQ Server 2012 features for data-distribution, secondary storage and / or cloud-based Microsoft Azure storage, offers possibilities without limits.

As with the previous MECOMS versions, the new architecture will be in full compliance with Microsoft’s Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA).

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