Secure End-to-End Communication for the Housing Industry

PPC and BTC offer a proven solution for submetering via a certified smart meter gateway, which opens up a new, investment-safe business opportunity for municipal utilities.

Together with BTC Business Technology Consulting AG (BTC), we are introducing a ready-to-use solution for submetering featuring a certified smart meter gateway (SMGW). In initial projects, heat cost allocators and other sensors from Qundis were connected to an SMGW from PPC. The heat cost allocators transmit the data they collect via radio to data loggers installed centrally within the building. Using a CLS adapter, the measurement data is transferred via the SMGW to BTC’s CLS management system. The BTC I AMM Control Manager used for this purpose acts as the active external market participant (aEMT) system. By connecting the data logger to the backend system via the SMGW WAN infrastructure, the submetering data is made available for further data processing, visualization, and (self-)billing.

CLS Management

In addition, this infrastructure can be used to remotely perform the annually required functional test of smoke detectors, as well as to implement other use cases. For example, the smoke alarm transmits its status information via radio to the data logger, which forwards the information to the CLS management system via the SMGW’s CLS channel. This ensures end-to-end digitization of the process workflow as well as the rapid provision of high-resolution measurement data. In addition, the system handles the entire administration and monitoring of the connected CLS components and the secure communication channels as part of a functionally robust aEMT system in a certified environment. The BTC | AMM Control Manager also interacts with the GWA system responsible for the SMGW—for example, to initiate channel setup—and, as the process continues, transfers the measured values recorded by the submeters to the target systems.

A Business Sector with Secure Investment Prospects

Ingo Schönberg, CEO of PPC, is convinced of the potential that the SMGW offers for a property: “Installing a smart meter gateway creates a highly secure communications infrastructure within the building that can then be used for a wide variety of applications—submetering is just one of them. The EU Energy Efficiency Directive, which took effect in December 2018, mandates that meters be remotely readable for consumption-based billing starting in 2020. It is clear that the SMGW can be used synergistically in this context.” For municipal utilities, submetering opens up a promising new business opportunity. Linking energy supply with submetering services makes it possible to strengthen customer loyalty and establish new service models.

Cross-Sector Value Creation

Ingo Stolley, Senior Account Manager at BTC, states quite clearly: “Even at this early stage, it makes sense—and is often necessary—to explore the potential of sector coupling and to integrate submetering directly alongside multi-metering. In this way, housing industry or neighborhood solutions can improve the overall cost-effectiveness of the metering system and provide metering point operators with access to new business models, including those in the housing sector.”