ZIV: Grid automation, utility meters and metering communications

Overview

ZIV develops equipment for power grids, spanning protection, control, communication and metering. Its company overview groups those activities into substation automation, communications, distribution automation, metering and services. The metering portfolio therefore sits within a wider utility-network business rather than a collection of stand-alone building sensors.

The metering catalogue separates meters from data concentrators, gateways and management tools. This is useful when defining the system boundary: a meter measures and records consumption, while the communications and management layers collect and administer a population of instruments. ZIV offers both cellular and power-line metering approaches, allowing the physical communication network to influence the product choice.

Offering

The 5CTA is a single- and three-phase LTE smart-meter platform. It records electrical energy, load profiles, time-of-use information and events, and also provides interfaces for customer readings and non-electrical meters. The product page distinguishes the remote P3 path, customer P1 path and P2 collection interface.

The newer 5CTH uses a different interface vocabulary: H3 for LTE remote access, H2 for wireless M-Bus, H1 for an Other Service Module and H0 for optical service access. Its time-of-use module lists six tariff rates, compared with two on the reviewed 5CTA page. These are concrete configuration differences for a utility specification.

Technology

Both 5CTA and 5CTH use DLMS/COSEM application data, but their physical interfaces serve different participants in the metering system. A non-electrical meter can supply water, heat or gas readings through the appropriate collection interface, while the remote utility path delivers meter data to the central system. The customer-facing interface is a separate access route.

The 5CTB-1/3 family instead includes dual-stack PRIME 1.3 and 1.4 power-line communications. PRIME describes the communications technology; it does not replace the meter's measurement and application-data definitions. For 5CTH, ZIV explicitly identifies the MEP serial port as intended for future purposes, so it is not counted here as an available integration feature.

Customers

Markets

ZIV's 5CTA application list includes per-phase voltage, current and power factor, network frequency, energy profiles and non-electrical meter readings. This supports utility collection where billing periods, time synchronisation and event records matter alongside the latest instantaneous value. Combining electricity and other metered services can reduce the number of separate collection paths at a premises.

The 5CTH also documents supply-control-switch operation, end-of-billing records and remote firmware upgrades. Those capabilities fit an administered utility estate. A project should define who owns metering, collection and control responsibilities when designing access; the same instrument can expose customer information while retaining separately managed operational functions.

Company

ZIV's official history dates its establishment to 1993. The current company page identifies its headquarters at Parque Tecnológico 210 in Zamudio, Bizkaia, Spain, and lists additional sites including Madrid, Barcelona, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and India. These locations are part of the ZIV organisation rather than evidence that every product is manufactured at each site.

The legal notice explicitly identifies Alfanar as the parent of the ZIV group, while the company overview describes Alfanar's strategic and shareholder role. This profile concerns ZIV's documented grid technology and products, keeping that operating identity distinct from the wider parent company's electrical-industry portfolio.