In response to Directive 2006/32/EC on energy end-use efficiency and energy services of the European Union (in particular Article 13 of the Directive), several German multi-utility-companies (public utility offering more than only one type of supply like electricity, gas, water and district heating) joined and asked international manufacturers of meters intended for billing to create a common standard.
For data visualization (consumer display), the connection of the building automation at the end customer, and for future services (e.g. tariff or load management) devices are used that work according to the popular KNX standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3 = EN 50090).
On the basis of Mandate M/441 of the European Commission, smart metering should function with an open architecture including communication protocols that enable interoperability.
This gives an overview how energy savings and efficiency goals can be implemented in practice under local legislation and network operator policies.
Energy consumption and savings are also important part of today's home automation integration which are able to visualize statistics in user interfaces.