Metering is a fundamental business enabler for companies in the utility sector. At the beginning of 2006, there were approximately 246 million electricity meters; 101 million gas meters and 3 million district heating meters in EU23+2. Electricity reaches virtually every household and business in the whole of Europe, while gas is most widely used in the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, Germany, France and Poland. Metering practices are undergoing radical changes in the wake of the liberalisation of the European energy markets. The new situation will require that the utility meters of tomorrow are connected to data communication networks.
Automated meter management (AMM) is a generic term for intelligent metering services based on two-way data communication. AMM could be considered as the third generation of metering technology. Manually read meters have been around since the advent of the utility industry in the late 19th century. Over the last three decades, automated meter reading (AMR) based on one-way or two-way communication has evolved, particularly in the US where radio-based AMR is widely used. AMM broadens the scope of AMR beyond just meter
readings with additional features enabled by two-way real-time data communication.
There are numerous drivers, as well as barriers, which influence the developments on the European AMM market. Macroeconomic factors such as energy consumption patterns and tax policies play a major role. The regulatory and competitive environment in each country is also important for regional markets. Technology development is a fourth factor influencing market developments. Electricity prices and electricity consumption levels are stong factors influencing whether AMM is deployed or not in different markets. The European countries with the highest market activity are those with the highest electricity consumption per household – Norway, Sweden and Finland, and those with the highest electricity retail prices – Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy.

Northern Europe became the hotspot for AMM in Europe in 2003 when Sweden announced the decision to require monthly readings of all electricity meters by 2009. Soon activities spread to the other Nordic countries. Vattenfall, Fortum and E.ON decided to deploy AMM in Finland as well as in Sweden, as the leading industry players in both countries at the time.
Developments in Denmark took off in 2004 with several ambitious projects being announced by the country’s largest utilities. Norway has taken a more cautious stance, but in June 2007 the Norwegian energy authority NVE declared that it would recommend new legislation requiring smart meters to take effect in 2013. As of August 2007, almost all of the DSOs in Sweden had signed contracts for AMM solutions. In Finland and Denmark, the share of metering points under contract was 23 percent and 15 percent respectively. Norway was lagging behind with just 6 percent. Altogether contracts for nearly 8 million smart meters are still open in the Nordic region.
Energy market reforms and growing public interest in energy conservation has also set the Western European market for AMM-solutions in motion. While deployments in Italy are nearing completion, other countries are becoming increasingly active. The Netherlands is set to follow the Swedish example and introduce legislation requiring smart metering by the mid 2010s. Governments in Austria, Ireland, Spain and the UK are also encouraging AMM in various ways. At the same time the market is driven forward by the initiatives of leading energy industry players which are increasingly confident that advanced metering technology is needed to improve efficiency. In August 2007, large-scale deployments of AMM had been announced by Enel, ACEA, AEM-Torino and ASM Brescia in Italy, Endesa and Enel Viesgo in Spain, LINZ STROM in Austria, as well as Oxxio and Nuon in the Netherlands.

1 Electricity, gas and district heating distribution in Europe
1.1 Energy industry players
1.2 Electricity distribution market
1.3 Gas distribution market
1.4 District heating market

2 AMM – Automated meter management
2.1 AMM applications
2.1.1 Remote meter reading
2.1.2 Customer relationship management
2.1.3 Demand-side management
2.1.4 Value added services
2.2 Advanced metering infrastructure
2.2.1 Smart meters
2.2.2 Collection system
2.2.3 MDMS
2.3 Communication technology options
2.3.1 PLC point-to-multipoint
2.3.2 Wireless Mesh point-to-multipoint
2.3.3 GPRS point-to-point
2.4 AMM value chain
2.5 AMM rollout strategies
2.5.1 C&I segment
2.5.2 Residential customer segment
2.5.3 Rollout strategies and choice of communication technologies

3 Key industry players
3.1 Landis+Gyr
3.1.1 Landis+Gyr Europe
3.1.2 Enermet
3.1.3 Hunt Technologies
3.1.4 Ampy Metering
3.2 I38
3.2.1 Itron North America
3.2.2 Actaris
3.3 Echelon
3.3.1 NES – Networked Energy Services
3.3.2 VAR program
3.4 Metering system vendors
3.4.1 ADD Grup
3.4.2 Aidon
3.4.3 EDMI
3.4.4 Elster
3.4.5 Enel
3.4.6 Iskraemeco
3.4.7 Kamstrup
3.4.8 PRI
3.4.9 Sagem Communications
3.5 MDMS and middleware vendors
3.5.1 EnergyICT
3.5.2 Netinium
3.5.3 Oracle
3.5.4 Powel
3.6 End-to-end solution providers
3.6.1 Bglobal
3.6.2 IBM
3.6.3 Metrima
3.6.4 Policom
3.6.5 Telenor Cinclus

4 Market forecasts and trends
4.1 Market drivers and barriers
4.1.1 Macroeconomic factors
4.1.2 Regulatory environment
4.1.3 Competitive environment
4.1.4 Technology development
4.2 AMM market forecast
4.2.1 Market value
4.2.2 Geographical distribution
4.3 Impacts of AMM on the European wireless M2M market
4.3.1 GPRS technology market
4.3.2 Wireless Mesh technology market

5 Market profiles: Northern Europe
5.1 Sweden
5.1.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
5.1.2 Metering regulatory environment
5.1.3 AMM market developments
5.2 Norway
5.2.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
5.2.2 Metering regulatory environment
5.2.3 AMM market developments
5.3 Finland
5.3.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
5.3.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments
5.4 Denmark
5.4.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
5.4.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments

6 Market profiles: Western Europe
6.1 Austria
6.1.1 Electricity and gas distribution industry structure
6.1.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments
6.2 Ireland
6.2.1 Electricity and gas distribution industry structure
6.2.2 Metering regulatory environment
6.2.3 Plans for a nationwide smart metering pilot
6.3 Italy
6.3.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
6.3.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments
6.4 The Netherlands
6.4.1 Electricity and gas distribution industry structure
6.4.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments
6.5 Spain
6.5.1 Electricity distribution industry structure
6.5.2 Metering regulatory environment and AMM market developments
6.6 United Kingdom
6.6.1 Electricity and gas distribution industry structure
6.6.2 Metering regulatory environment
6.6.3 Nationwide smart metering and energy information pilot
6.6.4 Industry smart metering standardisation initiative

7 Case studies: European and international AMM projects
7.1 E.ON Group
7.1.1 E.ON Nordic
7.1.2 E.ON@future project
7.1.3 E.ON UK
7.1.4 E.ON US
7.2 Centrica
7.2.1 British Gas
7.2.2 Oxxio
7.3 Endesa
7.3.1 Defining multi-supplier interoperability for residential smart metering
7.3.2 Pilot installations and full-scale implementation plans
7.4 Vattenfall
7.4.1 Group smart metering initiatives
7.4.2 AMM projects in Sweden and Finland
7.5 Nuon
7.5.1 Infostroom project
7.5.2 Initial pilots and full-scale deployment plans
7.6 Fortum
7.6.1 Point-to-point GPRS smart metering solution from Telenor Cinclus
7.6.2 Status for AMM in Finland and Norway
7.7 Rhein Energie
7.8 Skagerak Energi
7.9 AMM deployments in the US and Canada
7.9.1 Pacific Gas & Electric
7.9.2 PPL Electric
7.9.3 Salt River Project
7.9.4 TXU
7.9.5 Hydro One
Glossary

Index
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Top 25 energy companies, by turnover (EU23+2 2006)
Figure 1.2: Electricity market statistics (EU23+2 2007)
Figure 1.3: Top 25 electricity DSOs (EU23+2 2006)
Figure 1.4: Gas market statistics (EU23+2 2006)
Figure 1.5: Top 10 gas DSOs (EU23+2 2006)
Figure 1.6: District heating market statistics (EU23+2 2006)
Figure 2.1: Advanced metering infrastructure
Figure 2.2: PLC point-to-multipoint communication infrastructure for AMM
Figure 2.3: Examples of PLC technology developers
Figure 2.4: Wireless Mesh point-to-multipoint communication infrastructure for AMM
Figure 2.5: Examples of wireless mesh technology developers
Figure 2.6: GPRS point-to-point communication infrastructure for AMM
Figure 2.7: Examples of GPRS data module vendors
Figure 2.8: Overview of the AMM value chain
Figure 2.9: AMM communication technology recommendations, by scenario
Figure 3.1: Landis+Gyr AMM product portfolio
Figure 3.2: Examples of communication terminals for Landis+Gyr meters
Figure 3.3: Enermet AMM product portfolio
Figure 3.4: Actaris AMM product portfolio
Figure 3.5: Echelon NES product portfolio
Figure 3.6: Echelon NES VAR partners
Figure 4.1: Household power consumption and retail prices (EU23+2 2007)
Figure 4.2: AMM shipments and penetration rate (EU23+2 2006–2012)
Figure 4.3: AMM market value by activity (EU23+2 2006–2012)
Figure 4.4: AMM market value by country (EU23+2 2006–2012)
Figure 4.5: GPRS module shipments and active metering SIM-cards (EU23, 2006–2012)
Figure 5.1: AMM contracts by country (Northern Europe 2007)
Figure 5.2: AMM-contracts in the Nordic region by meter supplier and contractor (2007)
Figure 5.3: Top 10 electricity DSOs (Sweden, 2007)
Figure 5.4: AMM contracts awarded by top 10 DSOs in Sweden
Figure 5.5: AMM-contracts in Sweden by meter supplier and contractor (August 2007)
Figure 5.6: AMM vendor selection of medium sized DSOs in Sweden (August 2007)
Figure 5.7: AMM vendor selection of small sized DSOs in Sweden (August 2007)
Figure 5.8: Top 10 electricity DSOs (Norway, 2007)
Figure 5.9: Socioeconomic cost benefit analysis of AMM in Norway (MP per year)
Figure 5.10: Major AMM projects in Norway (August 2007)
Figure 5.11: Top 10 electricity DSOs (Finland, 2007)
Figure 5.12: Major AMM projects in Finland (August 2007)
Figure 5.13: Top 10 electricity DSOs (Denmark, 2007)
Figure 5.14: Major AMM projects in Denmark (August 2007)
Figure 6.1: Major AMM projects in Western Europe (August 2007)
Figure 6.2: Electricity and gas DSOs (Austria, 2007)
Figure 6.3: Projected cost savings from smart metering in Ireland
Figure 6.4: Top 5 electricity DSOs and AMM providers (Italy, 2007)
Figure 6.5: Electricity and gas DSOs (Netherlands, 2007)
Figure 6.6: Top 5 electricity DSOs (Spain, 2007)
Figure 6.7: Electricity DSOs (UK, 2007)
Figure 6.8: Gas DSOs (UK, 2007)
Figure 7.1: E.ON electricity and gas distribution markets overview (2007)
Figure 7.2: AMM contracts awarded by E.ON Sweden (2005–2007)
Figure 7.3: Comparison of monthly metering tariffs in the Netherlands (August 2007)
Figure 7.4: Vattenfall electricity distribution markets overview (2007)
Figure 7.5: AMM systems in Vattenfall Nordic Distribution Business Unit (2007)
Figure 7.6: AMM contracts awarded by Vattenfall Nordic (2002–2007)
Figure 7.7: Advanced metering penetration by state (USA 2006)