Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or Advanced Metering Management (AMM) refers to systems that measure, collect and analyse energy usage, from advanced devices such as water meters, electricity meters and gas meters, through various communication media on request or on a pre-defined schedule. This infrastructure includes hardware, software, communications, customer associated systems and data management software. A typical residential water meter A water meter is used to measure water usage. ... Typical US domestic electricity meter An electric meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical energy supplied to a residence or business. ... A residential gas meter of the usual diaphragm style A gas meter is used to measure the flow of fuel gases such as natural gas and propane. ... Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource. ...

The network between the measurement devices and business systems allows collection and distribution of information to customers, suppliers, utility companies and service providers. This enables these businesses to either participate in, or provide, demand response solutions, products and services. By providing information to customers, the system assists a changes in energy usage from their normal consumption patterns, either in response to changes in price or as incentives designed to encourage lower energy usage use at times of peak-demand periods or higher wholesale prices or during periods of low operational systems reliability. A public utility is a company that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. ... Explanation of demand response effects on a quantity (Q) - price (P) graph. ...

Sources

• Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition. Definitions.
• Department of Infrastructure, Victoria, Australia.