The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on January 16, 2025, issued guidelines for Standardization and Interoperability in AMI Systems for End to End Communication between Smart Meter, HES and MDM.
The present guidelines on AMI Interoperability are aligned to the specific deliverables of Phase A and phase B as below:
• Phase A - Unified HES – MDMS Interface Specification
An initial and early solution that provides the main objective of ensuring a Unified HES with interoperability across its interfaces to the MDM above as well as to the Meter fleet across 2 broad categories of communication technologies
a) Direct Cellular equipped meters
b) RF Mesh equipped meters
i) via an Aggregator provided by the same Meter vendor
• Phase B – Pluggable Module Specification
A secondary solution that separates the communication module at the meter end from the meter itself, while still providing a common secure enclosure. This is proposed to be achieved by standardizing an interface in the meter that can connect to a pluggable module that employ either of the communication technologies listed above (and with consideration for other communication technologies that may be found suitable in future). This standard is being designed under BIS ETD13 and will be specified there.
The Guidelines aim to standardize the following:
• A single Unified HES with standardized interfaces to the MDM and Meters / Aggregators. Such that different makes of HES that conform to this document may be used in an interoperable manner
• For WAN Connected meters – this specification support two options
o Direct IS-15959 Parts 1, 2 and 3 for the application protocol between the Unified HES and Meters. This option is to be mandatorily supported by the Unified HES as well as Meters
o Through a WAN Adaptor - employing IEC61968-9 (plus additional message) - based interface to the HES
• For RF and other NAN connected Meters through a NMS Adaptor - employing IEC61968-9 (plus additional message) - based interface to the HES
• For upstream communication between Unified HES and MDMS – employing an IEC61968 based API.
These guidelines are expected to significantly improve the efficiency and scalability of smart metering deployments in India by:
• Promoting interoperability between different vendors’ equipment.
• Reducing integration complexities and costs.
• Facilitating the adoption of new communication technologies in the future.
