Public Power - November/December 2007 - (Page 20)

Connecting with the Customer through Automation The road test—As Holland BPW’s experience shows, a pilot test can provide useful lessons. PPL ran a small-scale test to make sure the technology worked as expected. And JEA, based in Jacksonville, Fla., plans to launch a pilot this year for a new two- AMI system operator. In addition, the system provides Georgetown with time-of-use information. “That’s the biggest plus for us,” said Arnold. Like Georgetown, PPL Electric Utilities is using its AMI system to obtain hourly in- “If we thought we needed a two-way system for special applications, we could surgically insert a meter that would provide that function.” way fixed system. Because two-way meters are still a new technology, the pilot will give the utility a chance to conduct a field test and follow the progress of what may become available in the marketplace over the next year, said O. Wayne Young, director of meter reading, billing and collection. While not all utilities put an AMR system through its paces in a pilot test, many of them have installed their systems in stages. JEA, for example, deployed its current one-way, fixed AMR system in phases. Doing more with AMR—An AMR system, whether mobile or fixed, does a lot more than just read meters, said KCP&L’s Herdegen. The utility uses its system for soft disconnects and connects, saving 150,000 trips to the field every year. Numerous utilities, including PECO, have integrated AMR data into their outage management systems. Reliability is an important component of customer satisfaction, said the utility’s Glenwright. When there’s an outage, the meter sends what he calls a “last gasp.” The AMR system allows PECO to determine when and where power has been restored after an outage. And it can tell the utility if the loss of power was the result of an outage or a problem with the customer’s breaker box. PECO also uses the information to determine the utility’s load profile and identify the equipment that is heavily loaded. Georgetown Utility Systems in Texas, too, uses its AMR system for load profiling, said the utility’s Sandra Arnold, 20 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007 formation on usage. Through its Web site, the company has begun sharing daily information with residential and small commercial customers, Hill said. “This can help our customers better understand how they use electricity and how they can save energy,” said PPL’s Hill. The company also plans to use its metering technology to support additional rate options for customers and to make a timeof-use rate option available to all of its 1.2 million residential customers in 2010, he said. Most utilities are only scratching the surface when it comes to helping customers control energy usage and costs, said KCP&L’s Herdegen. “We can upgrade the KCP&L system to allow two-way communication with the customer.” That would enable the utility to do a hard disconnect instead of a soft disconnect. “To me, that is critical for where we want to get to—timesensitive pricing,” said Herdegen. For some utilities, getting there will require changes to their existing system. Clark PUD had the future in mind when it chose its AMR system. “We’re using a technology that allows us to overlay a network,” said Dyer. “If we thought we needed a two-way system for special applications, we could surgically insert a meter that would provide that function.” Similarly, PPL Electric Utilities knew its system had capabilities that it could develop. The company already uses its system to support outage restoration efforts and pinpoint problems. Future applications will leverage the company’s metering technol- ogy to plan reliability improvements. In some cases, the only option is a whole new system—software and hardware. “Our Fixnet system is outdated,” said Georgetown’s Arnold. She noted that much better technology is now available, especially for two-way communication. North Attleborough will be in the market for a new system soon, said Chris Mitchell, the electric department’s information systems manager. “We’re coming to the end of life for our handheld mobile system. It’s better to have the capability for real-time pricing with two-way communication, even if we’re not using it yet.” That’s the operative word—yet. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires state and local regulators to “consider and determine” what, if anything, the utilities in their jurisdictions must do to comply with the law’s metering objectives. Those objectives: to offer utility customers peak-sensitive and time-sensitive pricing, and to implement demand reduction techniques and so-called smart metering. The law has prompted utilities to look more closely at advanced metering technologies. North Attleborough’s Mitchell said the act’s requirements are certain to be factored into the utility’s three-year strategic plan. Clark Public Utilities is evaluating compliance with the act’s requirements, said Dyer. “We’re looking at smart metering requirements, and we’re looking at tiered rate requirements.” Mobile AMR systems are generally not practical for residential time-of-use pricing and demand-response applications. Hence, the growing interest in automated metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. These systems record customer electricity usage hourly, and provide for the transmission of that data on a daily basis to a central collection point. They create a network between advanced meters and utility business systems that can be used to implement time-of-use and peak pricing by engaging the customer in a two-way dialog. Moving toward AMI—Not all utilities will consider an AMI system for regulatory reasons, however. Seattle City Light is installing advanced metering because it is economically justified, said Lockwood. “It makes good business sense.” PUBLIC POWER

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November/December 2007

Public Power - November/December 2007 Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Connecting with the Customer Through Automation AMR or AMI? The High Court’s Antitrust Thunderbolts California’s Push for Demand-Response Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In Wiring Up for Double-Digit Growth For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards DEED Customer Service Hometown Connections Index to Advertisers Parting shot

Public Power - November/December 2007

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