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The Dutch distribution system operators coordinated by Netbeheer Nederland, the association whose members include Liander, Stedin, Enexis, TenneT and Gasunie Transport Services, announced on 20 October 2026 in Amsterdam that Trilliant won the gateway contract for DSMR6, the sixth version of the Dutch Smart Metering Requirements, after a competitive tender that drew 25 applicants. The award is the first supplier selection in NextGen, the joint programme to replace the generation of smart meters installed between 2012 and 2020, which T&D World described as a foundation for multi-million gateways and metering endpoints designed for an investment horizon of more than 20 years.
The buyers are the regional grid operators themselves. The procurement was published on 3 May 2024 under TED notice 265518-2024 as the DSMR6 gateway and operating system tender, with Alliander N.V., the parent of Liander, Stedin Netbeheer B.V., Enexis Netbeheer B.V. and N.V. Juva listed as contracting authorities and a bid deadline of 3 July 2024, according to a third-party tender listing.
Why About 4 Million Meters Need Replacing Before 2029
The Dutch operators had installed just over 7.1 million smart meters by the end of 2020, about 84% of the 8.4 million small-consumer connections, according to a Netbeheer Nederland special on the smart meter. Many of those meters communicate over GPRS, a mobile standard scheduled to be switched off in 2029, and the same publication gives the replacement of about 4 million meters before that date as the practical driver of NextGen.
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Benaissa el Hammadi of Stedin chairs the programme’s steering group, and the operators have said they intend to drop functions that are rarely used while adding support for demand response, grid monitoring and data services. At the peak of the first rollout, 1,000 to 1,200 fitters were on the road every day, a workforce figure that frames the scale of a second replacement cycle.
A Gateway That Can Be Replaced Without Replacing The Meter
A June 2025 presentation to market parties split NextGen into five parallel tracks: the gateway and operating system, the electricity meter and application layer, the public key infrastructure, and the gas meter. It gives the electricity meter a service life of more than 25 years and the gateway a lifecycle of 12 to 15 years, which means a gateway swap is planned part-way through the life of each meter.
The reasoning, set out in a presentation by Paul Bierman of Alliander, the product owner for the gateway, is that telecom modules and smart functions age quickly while the metrology in the meter ages slowly. The same presentation lists electrification, which increases the number of grid connection upgrades, rising privacy and security requirements and the new Dutch energy act among the reasons for a modular design.
DSMR6 also specifies the X1 interface, an Ethernet-based port that replaces the P1 port and allows apps and home energy systems to request real-time data, with a basic X1 portal in the gateway for customer transparency and control.
What The Supplier Brings To The Gateway Layer
Trilliant, a smart grid communications company with Canadian ownership and principal operations in the United Kingdom, will supply its UnitySuite platform for fleet and device management over a hybrid communications architecture and plans to open a principal office in Amsterdam. Paul Bierman, Product Owner Gateway for the operators, attributed the selection in the announcement to a combination of technical innovation and flexible architecture, and the supplier says its design rests on standardisation and interoperability to limit vendor lock-in.
The company frames the programme as the second generation of advanced metering infrastructure in Western Europe. Jim Madej, president and chief executive officer of Trilliant, said in the announcement of 20 October 2026: “The future of AMI moves away from locking utilities into today’s technology.”
Parallel Tracks And The Next Gateway Tender
According to the June 2025 presentation, the electricity meter and application layer tender was published in the second quarter of 2024, the public key infrastructure tender in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the gas meter tender in the first quarter of 2025, with all five tracks described as on schedule. A second gateway tender, labelled Gateway and OS-II, is due to start in 2026.
That second tender will show how the operators divide gateway volume between suppliers, and the first replacement of a gateway inside its 12 to 15 year lifecycle will be the test of whether the modular split between gateway and meter holds up in service, with the 2029 GPRS switch-off setting the deadline against which the 4 million replacements will be measured.
