98-3 Steps towards reality
The first product ...
During the 6th International Congress on Electricity Billing and Metering (CIFACES), held on 14 and 15 May 1998 in Strasbourg/France, the "blue book", the COSEM Interface Objects, and the "green book", the COSEM Communication Profile, have been presented. The booth of the DLMS User Association was built for discussions and presentations on a large monitor of the demo stand. The logos of all member companies were displayed on the wall, already 14 flags of important organisations were shown.
The interest on the two presented books was quite remarkable. The books have the "look and feel" of standards, but they are still reserved for "members only", and as such, they were symbolically chained to the booth of the DLMS User Association. A strong wish was expressed to "go public", to open the content, e.g. to standards bodies.
... and more to come:
The presentation at the DLMS UA booth at DA/DSM in London is now in the planning phase. Some members have reacted to the call for contribution. There will be meters on the wall, either pre-released final products or prototypes in a final stage. And there will be master stations, accessing the devices and presenting DLMS and COSEM object features.
DA/DSM DistribuTECH Europe is part of a series of global events (Asia and Americas) and organised for the fifth time in Europe. This year, it will take place in London, at the Wembley Conference & Exhibition Centre, from 27 to 29 October 1998. Deregulation in the energy market is one of the hot items of this conference, and the DLMS UA is offering help in this matter.
A special event will take place on 26 October. Metering International organises a pre-conference seminar titled "Metering: A deregulation survival kit". The DLMS UA will be present, of course.
The 2nd General Meeting
The General Meeting of the DLMS UA will take place on 28 October, 1998, of course in the close neighbourhood of the DA/DSM in London. Main points of discussion will be the elections (Management Committee and auditor), acceptance of the annual report and accounts, decisions on the budget and membership fees for 1999. Of course, there will also be a discussion on more strategic items. There is a number of working groups which were proposed but not yet activated, etc...
The Working Group "Value Added Services"
is about to be launched. This WG VAS will probably be active in creating objects for
- Alarms for different purposes
- Remote controls/commands
- Gateway to Home Automation
- Networkmanagement
Hopefully I can give you more precise information in the next issue.