Landis+Gyr on track to complete its 280,000-meter project

The company began deploying its Gridstream two-way smart grid communications network at electric utility Austin Energy last year.

Landis+Gyr is on schedule to complete the 280,000-meter project, currently undergoing at Austin Energy, in August this year.

More than 165,000 two-way meters have been installed so far, and integration with the utility’s meter data management system is underway. The two companies are testing access to interval usage and metering data, and will soon begin testing other advanced features, such as remote disconnect and load management.

Landis+Gyr is providing support services for the deployment of advanced meters and turn-key network hardware upgrade as part of its managed services agreement with Austin Energy, a utility which serves nearly 400,000 electricity customers in and around Austin, Texas.

The company began deploying the Gridstream two-way RF mesh network as part of an expanded management contract with Austin Energy that was signed last year. The deployment will enable the utility to leverage its network for smart grid and demand response applications, including in-home networking, and distributed generation and automation.

Gridstream focuses on maximising the effectiveness of energy management assets through the seamless integration and flow of technology and information.

Pepco Holdings opts for GE’s smart meters

Electric utility Pepco Holdings, Inc., (PHI) has chosen GE’s smart meters for use in the deployment of its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in the state of Delaware.

Installation of the GE meters is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009 in Delaware.

PHI has chosen to work with GE at a stage when the utility is working on its vision of changing the relationship with its customers.

Joseph M. Rigby, president and chief executive officer of PHI, said with new digital smart meters and the smart grid, PHI’s utilities will be able to provide up-to-date energy information and tools that will help its customers manage their energy use and costs.

Communications technologies within GE’s smart meters will also help PHI detect and better respond to power outages, further improving the energy experience for PHI consumers.

Related links: Utilities, Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Smart Meters

Getting a quick response during utility infrastructure outages

SkyBitz has worked on a solution for disaster recovery teams to get a quick response during utility infrastructure outages.

The solution, based on SkyBitz’s Smart Sensor Tracking management solution, allows utility companies to leverage real-time information about the location, status and environmental conditions of their assets. This includes the deployment of teams to remote locations during network outages, as well as efficient selection, retrieval and redirection of assets.

The disaster recovery solution provides an active communication channel between critical mission command and control systems and teams and assets in the field through bi-directional messaging capabilities. The SkyBitz satellite-based solution has a ubiquitous coverage and operates in remote areas that lack terrestrial coverage.

The solution can be used to comply with FEMA cost recovery requirements.

According to the company, the SkyBitz solution is available and compliant with the objectives of the recently signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Title XIII funding for smart grid and improvements for reliability and recovery from disruptions and integration of renewable generation.

The company believes that initiatives like smart grid, automated metering infrastructure and demand response can all benefit substantially from investments in remote asset management, condition monitoring and metering.

Related links: Utilities, Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Smart Meters

Consumers Energy set to deploy AMI

Consumers Energy is to invest $500 million in advanced metering infrastructure that will allow its customers to take advantage of the latest smart meter technology.

The system will integrate smart appliances into the system so that customers have complete control over their energy consumption. Customers will have the option to manage their own energy consumption or can allow Consumers Energy to do it for them. Participating customers can expect to save up to 10 percent off their energy bill.

Consumers Energy will begin installing the new system over the next few months. "We want to give customers choices," Maureen Trumble, director of Consumers Energy's AMI programme told mlive.com.

Beginning in February, Consumers Energy will install around 6,000 smart meters in Jackson County, Michigan in a project lasting until June. Customers destined to receive the devices will be notified of the scheduled installation by mail. Next year the devices will undergo testing and in 2011 smart meters will be deployed throughout the state.

To educate the public on how the new system will function, the company has dedicated a Smart Services Learning Centre at its Jackson County office. The centre has been designed to depict a typical apartment complete with living room, kitchen, utility room, and appliances but with smart technology installed.

In November last year, IBM had signed a service agreement with Consumers Energy to help plan, deploy and test an AMI and smart grid field pilot network. The project plan called for testing the AMI network's ability to support minimum smart grid functions, collect interval energy usage data for demand response analysis and capture operational metrics for full deployment planning.

Finnish utilities focus on deploying AMM solutions

Landis+Gyr has signed Advanced Metering Management (AMM) contracts with five Finnish utilities for installation of smart meter solutions, enabling 145,000 new consumers to manage energy better. The contracts were signed last year.

Building on early success in 2008 with Finnish utilities Jyväskylän Energia, Tampereen Sähkölaitos and Vaasan Sähköverkko Oy, Landis+Gyr has also signed contracts with two additional utilities Satapirkan Sähkö and Kemin Sähkö.

There are three million households in Finland and one in five is currently equipped with smart meters.

The Finnish government regulation that is planned to become effective at the beginning of February calls on utilities to deploy smart meters in 80 percent of homes by end 2013. The mandate is similar to laws being enacted in other Nordic countries.

"Finland is in the execution phase of smart meter deployment, as utilities move quickly to meet government mandates," said Ad van der Meys, Landis+Gyr's Executive VP EMEA region.

Satapirkan Sähkö, a consortium of nine different utility companies, will invest in smart meter solutions for eight of their members. Landis+Gyr is working with other manufacturers to tailor a solution to meet the specific demands of Satapirkan Sähkö.

The firm highlighted a report from VaasaETT (in October last year), as per which energy savings via use of smart meters and in-house displays show average savings of 10.3 percent. Another 2008 paper, from the European Commission, estimates seven percent energy savings for households and 10 percent for businesses.

Echelon extends its project winning spree in Europe

Sustaining its project winning spree, Echelon Corporation has bagged a smart metering project in France. The development follows recent contracts in Germany and Denmark.

The company shared that the Group of Electricity Distributors in France (GAELD), a consortium of electricity distributors, has chosen Echelon's Networked Energy Services (NES) System for up to 90,000 homes.

The project, awarded to Echelon partner Alter Way, is expected to begin within the next few months and to be completed by 2013.

One of the utilities in the GAELD consortium, Régie d'électricité de Loos, is allowing homeowners to sell back solar produced electricity to the utility. They are doing so using the ability of NES meters to measure the amount of electricity produced separately from the energy consumed, as opposed to simple "net metering" in which the details of production versus consumption are lost, making this the first instance of Echelon's meter to be used in an alternative energy application in France.

Echelon's NES advanced metering infrastructure consists of advanced electronic electricity meters, accessed via a web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure. Multiple NES meters can share a single IP connection through the use of Echelon's power line networking technology.

According to the company, this decreases the per-point connection cost, enabling the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system.

Echelon ready for full-scale roll-out of its NES System in Germany

Echelon Corporation is ready for the first full-scale roll-out of its Networked Energy Services (NES) System in Germany.

The public utility of Hassfurt awarded the contract to Echelon’s NES value-added reseller partner EVB Energie AG to provide all of its approximately 10,000 customers with an advanced metering infrastructure over the next three years.

Germany recently proposed a new energy law requiring all new and remodeled homes to be equipped with smart meters by 2010 to promote energy conservation and efficiency.

EVB Energie AG highlighted that for the public utility of Hassfurt, smart metering is not only a digital metering system, but an instrument for process optimisation and customer relationship management.

“The management of Stadtwerk Hassfurt sees this instrument as an enabler of a new business segment. Only by using innovative technologies will medium-sized utility companies be able to survive in the German energy market,” said Johannes Alte-Teigeler, chairman, EVB Energie AG.

The NES advanced metering infrastructure from Echelon comprises integrated, advanced electronic electricity meters accessed via a web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure.

Multiple NES meters can share a single IP connection through the use of Echelon’s power line networking technology. This drives down the per-point connection cost and enables the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system.

The system’s open interfaces allow the system to be cost-effectively expanded, adapted, and customised in ways unlike any competing system, shared the company.

Genesis Energy signs contract with NGC Metering in New Zealand

Genesis Energy is set to introduce latest metering services in New Zealand, marking an end of 60-year old technology. The company has signed a contract with Vector’s NGC Metering for the same.

With this initiative, Genesis Energy’s 500,000 residential and business customer accounts will have their existing analogue meter replaced with a new digital meter, which will be connected wirelessly to Genesis Energy’s Customer Information Systems. This process will get over in five years. The company says its investment in back-office technology has given it the ability to take immediate advantage of new advanced metering technology.

Genesis Energy’s chief executive Murray Jackson said, “Not only are advanced meters less intrusive, in time they will give customers the ability to see their daily consumption in graphical formats. They will begin to get a much better understanding of how much energy they are consuming and when they are consuming it. This is a powerful new tool for the people of New Zealand to manage their personal energy use.”

The commercial arrangement between Genesis Energy and NGC Metering also meets the long term policy requirements of the New Zealand Energy Strategy, which promotes demand side response and the efficient use of energy. The Electricity Commission (EC) has provided an advanced metering policy in line with the Government strategy outlining key drivers for an advanced metering infrastructure after consultation with the industry. Genesis Energy’s contract with NGC Metering is consistent with the EC policy.

The new meters will be owned by NGC Metering, a part of New Zealand energy infrastructure group Vector. Vector will provide the information services in association with Advanced Metering Services (AMS), a 50:50 JV with Siemens (NZ). In October 2007, Vector had formed this JV with Siemens to deliver advanced metering technology and operational services to customers throughout New Zealand.

PG&E tipped to sign $1.7 billion contract for smart meter roll-out

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) is being tipped to sign a contract with General Electric and Landis+Gyr, a provider of integrated energy management solutions, for a $1.7 billion smart meter roll-out.

According to metering.com, the programme will include both gas and electric meters. The value of the metering portion of the programme is estimated to be around $450 million.

The report, attributing the development to an “inside source”, shared that the contract is yet to be signed but it may happen before the end of August. As per the information available, the roll-out programme has been approved by California’s Public Utilities Commission to the value of $1.7 billion, but the utility has apparently gone back to the Commission for an additional $500 million in funding.

“It makes a lot of sense to have more than one supplier...( especially when) we’re going to be deploying something on the order of 10,000 to 12,000 meters per day,” reportedly said PG&E senior director of the smart energy web programme, Andrew Tang.

In the same report, Paul Moreno, PG&E Corp. spokesperson, said the installation of smart meters will reduce peak demand by approximately 400 MW.

Harnessing the power of wireless technology for AMI transport

AT&T Inc. and Itron have come up with a solution that will enable utilities to use proven standards-based cellular technology for their Smart Grid AMI initiatives to transport device data and control messaging more efficiently.

Itron’s advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) solution will be delivered over a cellular network. The communications holding company’s cellular data network will be integrated with Itron’s OpenWay local-area networking to give utilities two-way communications for access to data from meters throughout their systems.

According to the companies, this combination allows utilities to quickly collect, measure and manage energy usage and provide a more reliable and affordable supply of power without having to build and operate costly, proprietary communications networks.

The solution will help utility companies to streamline operations while gathering the critical information required to serve their customers, said Regina Egea, senior vice president, Business Marketing, AT&T Global Business Services.

The two companies will jointly market Itron’s OpenWay AMI solution to utility companies in the US.

The benefits for utility companies would include ubiquitous coverage required for AMI data transmission; timely data needed to promote energy management, demand response, detect outages and deliver more accurate billings statements to customers; time-based pricing, prepaid power options and the ability to remotely switch service on or off; allowing utilities to self-manage the deployment of AMI and Smart Grid devices through AT&T’s ordering, activation and management systems for high-volume customers.

Advanced metering technology being tested in the District of Columbia

A group of selected residential electricity consumers in the District of Columbia have been chosen for a pilot programme, PowerCentsDC, described as the first in the electric utility industry to test the response of residential customers to three different innovative pricing options under one programme.

Via this initiative, an advanced metering technology is being tested. Plus, the consumer are also checking out pricing options that could assist them in curbing their monthly bills by better controlling their power consumption.

From this pilot, organisations involved hope to get an insight into how consumers react to pricing information. They also want to learn whether consumers alter their usage habits, potentially resulting in lower energy costs, achieving energy efficiency gains and a reduction in the amount of kilowatts needed to supply the District of Columbia’s demand, thereby benefiting all consumers.

The two-year pilot project, funded by $2 million from Pepco through a settlement agreement, will include about 1,200 randomly selected District residents representing all eight city wards.

A “smart meter” will be installed at each participant’s residence to measure electricity use at hourly intervals and transmit usage data to Pepco each day through a wireless communications network.

The three pricing options are Hourly Pricing, Critical Peak Pricing and Critical Peak Rebate. The participants can save on their bills by reducing electricity usage during designated hours when wholesale electricity prices are high. Participating Pepco customers will be notified of forthcoming high prices on the previous day.

Pepco Holdings, Inc., the corporate parent of Pepco, anticipates that the implementation of this technology widely will help in controlling of the regional electricity prices during peak demand periods.

The District’s utility regulators approved the programme that was filed by Pepco on behalf of Smart Meter Pilot Program, Inc., a nonprofit company.