OPEN meter project provided recommendations for changes or extensions to existing data communication standards (suited for AMI) adopted by standardisation organisations. It filled up the existing knowledge gaps in order to have definitions and specifications of new communication standards and technologies for those communication channels and/or new technologies where standards did not yet exist, or did not meet AMI needs.

The OPEN METER project was launched on 1 January 2009. It was aligned with the strategic energy technology (SET) plan objectives and the 20-20-20 targets, as it has been an very relevant initiative in the area of smart metering (smarter and more intelligent electricity networks are a key component in the SET plan and the achievement of the 20-20-20 targets).

The main objective of the OPEN METER project has been to specify a comprehensive set of open and public standards for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) supporting multi commodities (electricity, gas, water and heat), based on the agreement of the most relevant stakeholders in the area.

The OPEN METER acronym summarizes the project philosophy:

1. Open: Project based on open standards and non-proprietary solutions, resulting is a set of open standards
2. Public: results to be made freely available to all stakeholders
3. Extended: goes beyond utility metering and allows for providing new energy services
4. Network: metering devices become nodes of telecom networks.

In order to achieve these objectives, the OPEN METER project has taken a holistic approach starting from analysing the market requirements and regulatory issues, evaluating current and emerging technologies and standards, identifying and filling knowledge gaps, testing the solutions developed and drafting and proposing the necessary standards to the relevant standardisation bodies. The project has thereby enabled the relevant industries to agree, implement and embrace a new set of international standards that have been proposed