Ecologic Analytics (formerly known as WACS) has opened the Ecologic Integration Lab and has completed integration of its MDMS with the STAR Network system version 7.0 for electric meters from Aclara (formerly Hexagram) and with Cellnet+Hunt’s UtiliNet Solution Center system version 2.1. These are added to the 13 existing integration gateways in use by nearly 11 million meters managed with the Ecologic Meter Data Management System (MDMS) in production at various clients.

The Ecologic Integration Lab is a comprehensive testing platform and environment that scales to match its partners’ testing environments. The lab allows Ecologic Analytics and participating partners to interactively collaborate to create interfaces and services that allow seamless integration while performing thorough testing to ensure Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) interfaces are ready for production environments of utility clients.

According to research by Datamonitor, the percentage of North American households with a smart meter will grow from six percent today to 89 percent by 2012. The expansion of AMI meter deployments will bring about rapid changes in how meter data is provisioned, stored and used, which will force utilities to adopt strategies to quickly take advantage of the AMI data.

“In addition to the rapid pace of change, utilities are deploying multiple types of AMI technologies simultaneously to provide quality electric, natural gas and water services to diverse service territories,” said David Hubbard, co-founder and chief technology officer for Ecologic Analytics. “Our goal is to put our customers in a position to work seamlessly with any AMI solution provider, now and as the their business needs change and grow.”

The integration protocols and interfaces tested in the lab are analyzed to ensure proper bidirectional data flow between the utility and the AMI technology systems and that anomalous situations are handled according to a customer’s specification. Collaborative testing prior to deployment:

• Reduces risk
• Shortens implementation timelines
• Takes advantage of new AMI features as they become available

The Ecologic MDMS currently offers operational two-way, AMI interfaces for batch and near-real-time data transfers. Ecologic Analytics now provides integrated gateways for the latest versions of STAR and UtiliNet Solution Center. The Ecologic MDMS unifies data from any AMI system or manual source within a utility’s service territory sending alerts, notifications and outage event data and automatically analyzes and applies the business rules for better operational efficiency.

“Having a working test lab, to ensure our integration with the MDMS works as designed, is a key to providing quality solutions to our clients,” said Frank Russell, senior project manager with Aclara. “Interactive testing of the integration of our new electric solution in advance of implementation ensures that we are ready to ‘plug and play’ at client sites.”

As an independent entity within the Bayard Group of companies, Ecologic Analytics is committed to aligning its MDMS with companies dedicated to the overall advancement and adoption of AMI technologies within the marketplace.