The long-awaited go-ahead for the smart meter rollout in Germany has officially been given with the recent “market declaration”. There is broad acknowledgement of the benefits and importance of smart metering in the urgently needed digitization of our energy supply. Yet the path to realizing widespread grid upgrades, to include intelligent endpoints for digital business models and future markets such as submetering, is by no means predetermined or free from obstacles. The rollout will be a significant feat in financial, technical and personnel terms, particularly for small and midsize municipal utilities.

The energy industry is in a phase of unprecedented disruption with decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation, the 3Ds, as key drivers. At Landis+Gyr, we’re excited to participate in this transformation and to introduce new technologies to manage energy better.

Landis+Gyr has undertaken research to understand the value of Managed Services for their utility customers. The results provide key insights into the expectations, benefits and, last but not least, how to select the right partner.

As our customers strive for efficiency and security in a dynamic and constantly changing environment, they need to consider new operational models. This explains a growing interest in Managed Services, delivered by specialist external partners to manage utility’s AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) operations and processes – like AMI software and IT system hosting known as “Software as a Service” (SaaS).

 I recently had the opportunity to review the “Electric Grid Managed Services Report – 2018” published by IHS Markit. There is no question that the report is excellent reading for anyone interested in service business in the energy industry. In their report, IHS Markit describes the key steps of AMI evolution, which inspired me to discuss the steps from the service business perspective.

When joining the Landis+Gyr EMEA organization years ago, I was joining a famous energy meter manufacturer known mainly for its high-quality smart meters and advanced software for collecting metering data. At the time, the term ‘service business’ was not a key word in the organization or in our industry in Europe, except in the Nordic countries where smart metering has been offered as a service since the early 2000's.