Pictures of the Future      Spring 2008

Personalized Programs

Flexible IT solutions from Siemens are changing the way people live and work. They range from secure border crossings and simplified tax returns to real-time electricity billing in the smart grid.

As of June 2009, new passports issued to citizens of the European Union and Switzerland will include a machine-readable radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that will store a coded digital version of the owner’s face and fingerprint. The RFID chip is concealed in the cover of the new ePassports and can be read contact-free.

The Biometrics Center of Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) has developed tailored solutions for many countries. In Switzerland and the Czech Republic, for example, hundreds of registration centers have been equipped with cameras. "We create individualized solutions for each country," says Gerd Hribernig, head of the SIS Center in Graz, Austria.

The basis of SIS’s ePassport solutions is the Siemens Homeland Security Suite, which can read biometric travel documents and check facial images and fingerprints. Face recognition software is one of the modules. In this process, the camera system orients itself on facial features such as eye position. "The software corrects for eyeglasses or hairstyle," notes Hribernig. The check is completed in 10 to 30 seconds. "This software makes it possible for the first time to automatically determine at a border crossing whether the passport belongs to the bearer or not."

Other hardware, such as fingerprint scanners and reading devices, can also be integrated into the Homeland Security Suite. Unauthorized persons can’t access sensitive biometric data, because the chip automatically checks whether the reading device incorporates the required authorization certificates.

In Switzerland, Siemens has also installed checking stations for the public, where people can check their own stored data. "That’s important, because we want to gain public trust," says Hribernig. In Croatia, a border control system is used to check the validity of visas and other documents, and at the Bajakovo border crossing, cameras automatically recognize license plates and vehicle types.

Net for Tax Evaders. For Turkey’s Ministry of Finance, SIS is implementing a tailor-made solution designed to handle tax returns more efficiently. Says Kemal Güven, project manager at SIS in Turkey: "We are equipping 448 tax offices in 81 cities and more than 500 smaller offices with new computers, integrating them into a powerful infrastructure with up to one megabit per second. We are also installing our Web-based software solution."

This solution will make it possible to exchange tax data among all offices in the country. The system also provides encoded links to 25 banks and other government offices. Three new computer centers ensure round-the-clock operation.

"At peak times, about 200 employees are engaged in activities ranging from software development to training tax officials," says Güven. To consolidate all information, Siemens is establishing an IT center. In addition to catching more tax evaders, the Ministry of Finance also expects the Siemens solution to increase efficiency, cut costs, and improve service for the taxpayers. For example, new legal regulations can be fed into the system online, and will then be immediately available for the calculation process.

Siemens also delivers tailored solutions for the energy industry. One example is the Smart Meter, which enables precisely timed metering of power consumption. Customers can use the resulting data to monitor and adjust their consumption and thus reduce their bills. Electric utility companies, on the other hand, can offer their customers lower-priced electricity at specific times of the day, thus providing an incentive to consume power outside of peak-load periods.

That is also the aim of a new European Union directive concerning energy efficiency and energy services.

"Smart Metering requires much more than the replacement of existing meters by a new generation of electronic residential meters," says Josef Kapp, SIS executive in charge of Business Development and Strategy in the Utilities business area. "You also need technologies for managing the data from the meters plus upgrades at different network levels of the utility companies."

Siemens’ AMIS System includes all of these elements. In addition to offering electronic multifunction meters for individual households, it includes load switching devices that communicate with data concentrators at transformer stations. These collate the data from up to 1,000 meters and load switching devices. The data is then transmitted to the utility company’s data center. Moreover, AMIS provides interfaces to sophisticated billing systems and network control systems. "The system thus makes it possible to derive billing information that is accurate to the second and reflects actual consumption from residential electricity usage," says Kapp.

Tomorrow’s Electricity Meters. Take for example Energie AG in Austria. Currently about 1,000 households in its service area have been equipped with AMIS meters, and the upstream network levels have been fitted with AMIS components. The meters communicate directly with a higher-level system via the electric grid. "Our Powerline process is the result of many years of research," says Alexander Schenk, business segment manager for AMIS System at Siemens’ Power Distribution Division .

In Powerline, the data is transferred through the electricity grid within the frequency band from nine to 95 kHz. "As a result of this, remote meter reading becomes highly accessible, secure, and economical," says Schenk.

The meter readouts in other existing pilot projects in Europe are often subject to failures due to the high error susceptibility of communications in the electric power environment. What’s more, Schenk adds, readouts via a GSM wireless network cost more and make utility companies dependent on telecommunication companies, which want to take over the readout process and provide it as a service. Nevertheless, AMIS offers wireless interfaces and can integrate all types of electronic meters.

Energie AG is slated to install 100,000 innovative meters in households by the end of 2009 and about 400,000 by 2014, while upgrading its real-time billing network. Such investments open up opportunities for the future. "For instance," says Schenk, "electric utility companies will be able to integrate decentralized energy suppliers into their distribution network." Known as the "smart grid," this concept is based on the premise that households too can generate energy, for example by means of fuel cells or photovoltaics, which can be fed into the grid. "Solutions for this approach may not exist for another eight to 15 years, but the basis is already being established for intelligent, optimized power grid operation," adds Schenk.
                                                                                                             Nikola Wohllaib