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Open AMI

REI Cameroon: Jude Numfor (CEO), Michel Fripiat

IEEE Smart Village: Akash Borde, Adam Sauer

Energy IoT Open Source: Arila Barnes

EnAccess: Daniel Mohns, Vivien Barnier

September 30, 2025

2025

Open Advanced-Metering-Infrastructure

Enabling Minigrids in Africa

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OpenAMI

Open Advanced Metering Infrastructure

Enabling Minigrids in Africa

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What OpenAMI is

OpenAMI: Open Source + Advanced Metering Infrastructure

Solution to the metering problem using a collaboration of projects designed for interoperability

Open-Source Software for Metering Infrastructure and Data Collection
Open-Source Hardware for Metering
Open-Source Payments Platform

Decentralized by design

Community-owned
Not locked to vendors
Transparent costs

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Problem with Energy Distribution

Problem:

Energy production for this market is straightforward.

(Solar, power conversion, and battery solutions)

Energy distribution in this market is hard.

(Load management, metering, and vending solutions)

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Problem with Energy Distribution

Problem:

Energy production for this market is straightforward.

(Solar, power conversion, and battery solutions)

Energy distribution in this market is hard.

(Load management, metering, and vending solutions)

Reasons:

Few meter vendors willing to address this market, exposing new developments to supply-chain shocks and volatility.
No service agreements from existing vendors to fix issues. There is no support when meters fail.
Poor regional support: solutions are not designed for Africa, causing issues such as connectivity loss.
Expensive SaaS fees relative to revenue models for running the solution.

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Consequences:

Power provider cannot reliably deliver
Customers and investors lose trust in the power provider
Paying customers lose money

Problem with Energy Distribution

Problem:

Energy production for this market is straightforward.

(Solar, power conversion, and battery solutions)

Energy distribution in this market is hard.

(Load management, metering, and vending solutions)

Reasons:

Few meter vendors willing to address this market, exposing new developments to supply-chain shocks and volatility.
No service agreements from existing vendors to fix issues. There is no support when meters fail.
Poor regional support: solutions are not designed for Africa, causing issues such as connectivity loss.
Expensive SaaS fees relative to revenue models for running the solution.

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Global Open-Source Project

Collaboration between

REI (Yaounde, Cameroon) - Field Operations and Testing
EnAccess (Berlin, Germany) - Open-Source Payments Platform
Energy IoT Open Source (Oakland, USA) - Open-Source Gateway
IEEE Smart Village (Global) - Coordination, Technical Support, Fundraising

Milestones:

Technical Roadmap Completion
Test Lab Set Up in Cameroon
Sample Kits from 3 OEMs acquired

Up next: Integration and Testing

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OpenAMI Solution Explained

Power Meter

Meter-DCU Comms�G3 (RF or PLC)

DCU-Local�Comms

Data

Concentrator

Unit

Local �Server Command Station

Main Server

Power Source

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OpenAMI Solution Explained

Sparkmeters

NOVA / DA-1000

Koios / Thundercloud

Sparkmeter

(Closed-Source)

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OpenAMI Solution Explained

Proprietary DLMS

New DLMS Replacement (MQTT/OpenAMI)

Koios / Thundercloud

Sparkmeter

(Closed-Source)

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OpenAMI Solution Explained

EnAccess MPM

Streetpole EMS

Mesh EMS +

Utility DCU

Mesh EMS

Work-in-progress

OpenAMI

HW Proposal

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Edge Meter Prototype: Streetpole EMS, MeshEMS

Built at 2025 San Francisco Climate Week Hackathon

Features:

Live Metering, Diagnostics
Reading and Publishing to the SunSpec Standard
Temperature and Leakage Sensor
Uses the SunSpec Standard

Benefits:

Standard based telemetry abstracts OEM Modbus Map
Light protocol - MQTT and human readable JSON format
Support for both set and read commands
Runs on ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1

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Sparkmeter Situation

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SparkMeter Situation

SparkMeter - Popular vendor for edge metering and cloud

Used by several minigrid developers in AMDA

Has suddenly exited the market within past month
Risk of waste: >10k meters, proprietary SparkMeters, risk being thrown away
Impact:

Power providers will not be able to operate anymore
Cannot do vending, service loans, etc

OpenAMI has the potential to be a long-term solution

Continue operating the hardware with new software
Have a few months of cloud funding for existing cloud hosting

Looking ahead: Serve more power providers than REI Cameroon

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Open AMI Plan

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Timeline and Proposal

Phase 1 - Q3/Q4 2025

OEM-Agnostic Integration, focus on software
Meter Backend Development
Optional custom hardware

Phase 2 - Early 2026

Internet-independent Operation, focus on local control and resilience
Local AMI server at each mini-grid site
Periodic synchronization with remote servers

Phase 3 - Late 2026

Modernizing OpenAMI with new technology and reducing cost
Replacing G3 and DLMS with MQTT

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The objective of this phase is to develop the OpenAMI software solution that can integrate more than one meter band (OEM supplier), achieving OEM-agnostic capability. If direct communication is not feasible with the OEM DCU, an ESP32 gateway, called StreetPole EMS/MeshEMS gateway, will be designed (drawing on the existing StreetPole EMS/MeshEMS project) to enable communication between the cloud and edge meters through bidirectional interaction with the OEM DCU.

�The second phase is dedicated to achieving fully decentralized operations, including resilience during periods of internet unavailability. A local AMI server will be implemented at each mini-grid site, featuring advanced intelligence for overseeing energy distribution and local vending activities. When connectivity permits, the local server will synchronize with a cloud-based instance to facilitate remote oversight and management. This approach ensures continuity of service and strong autonomy at the local level.

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Appendix

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OpenAMI Schema w/Open Questions for Standardization

Featured at LF Energy Summit Europe 2025

Adapted from SunSpec:

Meter Telemetry and measurements - Hz, AphA/B/C, PhVphA/B/C, PFphA/B/C, WphA/B/C, VarphA/B/C, VAphA/B/C,TotWhImport/Export, TotVarhImport/Export, TotAh, PF, Hz
Simplified harmonics ( fixed 15 harmonic orders)
Models for subpanel_3Ph, meters, subpanel_ENV,subpanel_MFR

Proposed Additions:

Bandwidth telemetry model (subpanel_BWPubOut, subpanel_BWCmdIn)
RCM Leak Detection model (subpanel_RCMleaks)
Add door sensors and GPIO timestamps

Prepare for LF Energy Standards and Specifications OpenAMI Working Group

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Minigrid Diagram

See next slide for component breakdown

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Component

Breakdown

- Energy Production

- Edge Meters

- Data Concentrator (DCU)

- On-Site Management

- Remote Management

- Local Vending

Edge Meter

DCU

Protocols

on-site

Management

platform

Remote Management platform

Energy production

Local Vending

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Edge Meter Prototype

OpenAMI Portions

Edge Meter

DCU

Protocols

on-site

Management

platform

Remote Management platform

Energy production

Local Vending

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Background - Minigrids for Rural Electrification

600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity [1].

Most of these people live in rural areas, >10km from the national grid [2].

Solar mini-grids can address the electrification problem by electrifying communities where the utility grid has not reached. Often these can be deployed up to 2x-3x cheaper than extending the main grid.

Minigrids deployment can reach ~265 million people by 2030 [3]

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Minigrid Solution: Closed AMIs (1-3) vs OpenAMI (4)

Sparkmeters

Nimbus AMI

OEM meters

Utility AMI

Utility smart metering solutions

OpenAMI

EnAccess MPM

NOVA / DA-1000

Koios / Thundercloud

Streetpole EMS

Mesh EMS +

Utility DCU

OEM DCU

Mesh EMS

Work-in-progress

(2) Steamaco

(1) Spark

(3) Utility

(4) OpenAMI

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Minigrid Solution: Closed AMIs (1-3) vs OpenAMI (4)

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Background: REI Cameroon

Power Provider in Cameroon since 2006

Building Solar Minigrids for Rural Village Electrification

Challenge: Energy Metering

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