If a vendor is telling you that their smart meters will work with other systems or service providers without you having to visit the meter, run. We refer to it as interoperability, and there are a ton of smart people working on this, but it is still very much a work in progress.
Cut through all the hype, empty promises, and buzzwords and ask your smart meter vendors this simple question.
“If I want to transfer the management of my meters and meter data from your solution to someone else’s, describe how I do this without having to physically touch any of the smart meters and network devices that I have already installed.”
If a vendor says they can do this, proceed with caution. Get your security experts to crawl all over their system as I would imagine it is using legacy metering architecture. One that relies on simple passwords to manage access to meters as opposed to more advanced encryption, not something recommended in today’s connected world.
Don’t worry about not having this feature; it’s a good thing. If the system allowed it, it would mean there would be a path for unauthorised third parties to try and remotely take over the ownership of your smart meters.
Make sure you do not base your business strategy on an expectation that you can move the management of your smart meters to a new solution or service provider without the cost of having to replace every smart meter or at the very least the network card within that smart meter.
Good quality smart meters should last over 15 years. Be sure you do your due diligence when selecting a smart metering solution. You are going to be with that partner for a very long time.
Contact me to find out how we can help you select the right smart metering or demand response solution.