Advanced Metering Infrastructure (Smart Metering) provides utility companies the opportunity to enhance customer service and improve operational efficiency. The opportunity brings with it a set of inherent security risks that need to be mitigated for ensuring the success of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program.
The driving forces for an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program have been:
- Empower utilities to get information in real time of consumption patterns and use this data to plan for demand thereby increasing efficiency
- Automate the aggregation of meter data
- Remote management of meters to detect outages and prevent theft
- Provide consumers time-based pricing options and therefore effectively manage demand
All of these factors contribute towards creating security risks as the 'open' nature of this infrastructure makes it far more vulnerable as opposed to traditional metering systems. If the risks are not mitigated these systems could be subject to cyber attacks of catastrophic consequences where the utility could lose control. Loss of customer sensitive data, system reliability, and integrity of information are some other areas which warrant examination and Wipro provides this through a Security Framework for AMI.