Cyan Technology provides smart meter communication platform for energy utilities

“Cyan works with energy utilities, meter manufacturers and system integrators to provide a complete end-to-end solution” says John Cronin, Executive Chairman, Cyan Technology
Cambridge, UK located Cyan, which delivers mesh-based flexible wireless solutions for utility metering and lighting control, is aggressively increasing its footprint in the Indian market. In an interview with Subhajit Roy, John Cronin explains why smart meters are becoming increasingly important for a developing country like India where power loss or leakage is equivalent to $32 billion per annum. With 10 years of experience working in India, John was instrumental in merging a British Telecom company, Azure, with the Bangalore based company Subex.
Could you explain to us about your roadmap for India?We have been working in India for 5 years and have established key partnerships with energy utilities, leading meter manufacturers and system integrators as well as working with the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) and other Indian smart grid experts.
Cyan has 6 fully qualified India meter manufacturer partners who are ready to deliver Cyan’s integrated solution for smart metering deployments, CyLec. 
CyLec solutions provide a migration path through Automated Meter Reading (AMR) to full Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). In addition, we are delighted to announce the launch of the CyLec Retrofit solution for the Indian market. The retrofit technology is a small piece of hardware and associated software that converts a static meter which has already been installed into a fully functional smart meter and we have already seen a lot of interest in this. Looking at the roadmap, as we move forward from pilot projects to commercial deployment of smart meters, there is a requirement to create an interoperable ‘open system’. Meter manufacturers could adopt a standard Open Meter Protocol that allows utilities to interface between meters from different manufacturers through Cyan’s wireless mesh networking platform. This would address the need of every utility to procure meters from various manufacturers to ensure they have a reliable supply chain and are able to negotiate competitive pricing.
As the smart metering projects in India move from pilot stage to large scale deployment, Cyan could initiate a new licensing model which would allow utilities, meter manufacturers and system integrators to buy wireless modules from multiple vendors in order to secure the best commercial arrangements and reliable supply.
This licensing model would allow semiconductor device companies to provide meter manufacturers with a single chip solution that includes all the functions required to build smart meters. The meter manufacturers would then be able to source chips from any one of these licensees rather than just Cyan.
I hope these two initiatives will accelerate India’s deployment of smart metering solutions.    
Are the Indian utilities prepared for smart metering?In the last 5 years, we have deployed several low-power smart metering pilots that demonstrate our technology in rapidly growing, high-density urban areas across India.  Despite successful evaluation of Cyan’s CyLec technology, the advance to large scale deployments has been delayed.  In August 2013, the Indian Government, under the Ministry of Power, released the ‘Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India’ and I am confident this will help to accelerate the roll out.
Furthermore, the energy market in India today is much more aware of the benefits of smart metering technologies to manage consumption through functionality, such as demand forecasting and demand side management.
What are the major challenges the industry is facing?Today, India incurs power loss or leakage equivalent to $32 billion per annum. We can help utilities to reduce this loss significantly using smart metering technology. When someone tampers with the meter, an alert will immediately be sent to the utility so that they can take action, e.g. disconnect the meter. This enables utilities to stop the electricity flow in cases where the meter tampering is resulting in electricity theft. Smart metering technology also allows utilities to shift the load between industrial and domestic consumers during peak hours through tools such as real-time Time of Use tariffs and incentives. In addition, it reduces meter reading and billing costs, as well as the cost of correcting many of the errors that occur due to faulty meter reading.
Could you highlight the benefits of CyLec? Why people should go for it?The adoption of smart metering technology improves peak demand management, meter reading accuracy and fraud detection. CyLec provides a communication platform to and from the meter, enabling functions such as remote tamper detection and reporting.
Cyan works with energy utilities, meter manufacturers and system integrators to provide a complete end-to-end solution. It offers intelligent information to the utilities which enable them take action on their distribution networks.
In partnership with the Indian energy market, Cyan has developed solutions that help to address the specific challenges that the utilities face. The most pressing requirement is to reduce losses due to tampering and theft. The first step is to collect data from millions of meters in rapidly growing and typically unplanned urban areas, then issue accurate bills and collect the cash.

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