Elster (www.elster.com), Trilliant (www.trilliantinc.com) and Itron Inc. (www.itron.com) have joined forces in support of C12.22, the newly published standard from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The open standard is fundamental to advanced metering, allowing for interoperability between smart devices and networks.

In a joint statement, Elster, Trilliant and Itron said: “Interoperability allows utilities to use multiple communication networks or change communications technologies without touching the meter. In this way, we believe that open standards in general, and ANSI C12.22 in particular, help protect the investment that utilities, ratepayers and shareholders make in advanced metering.”

The ANSI C12.22 open standard defines how to transmit standardized tables of meter data across wired or wireless networks using various transports such as Internet protocol. This open standard can play a vital role in unifying the information collected from advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) projects and smart grid initiatives, while allowing utilities to select the communication technologies that make the most sense for their budgets, objectives and service territories, including:

• Itron's AMI offering, OpenWay by Itron, and its components, including the OpenWay CENTRON meter, OpenWay Collection Engine and OpenWay Cell Relay

• Elster's EnergyAxis AMI System and smart metering systems and solutions

• SecureMesh by Trilliant.

These products employ the ANSI C12.22 standard to support communications within their networks and with AMI-enabled meters, in-home displays, programmable communicating thermostats, load-control switches and other devices to and from the headend.

The contents and scope of ANSI C12.22 may be viewed online at http://www.nema.org/stds/c12-22.cfm.