Perennial Starts AMI Deployment
by Brandon Lehman Manager of Engineering
On December 18th, 2007 the Perennial Board of Directors approved the purchase
of an AMI system. AMI is an acronym for Advanced Metering Infrastructure.
There are three components which make up the infrastructure. Servers at
the office, injection equipment at the substations, and the meter at your
residence, business, or irrigation well. Perennial’s goal is to have the
system completely installed in two years. There are approximately 7500
meters that will be change and 15 substations which will need to be retrofitted.
Once the system is installed Perennial will be able to “read” your meter
from our office. There are many expected benefits this system will bring
to our District. A few of these include, no self-reads for customers, minimized
outage restoration times, and a reduced number of estimated bills.
How Our AMI works
To start the process of a simple meter reading a command is sent from the server at the office. The command travels through our radio communication link from the office to the substation. At the substation a signal is injected onto the power lines. The signal travels to every meter connected to that particular substation. The signal is received and decoded by the meter. The meter replies with the information that was requested from the server and sends a signal back to the substation. The substation injection equipment relays the information back to the server at the office via the radio. It takes approximately 3 to 6 seconds for the process to be completed.
Current Project Status as of March 2010
Crews have been working from north to south across our service area and the AMI system is about 90% complete.
Meters are just part of the new AMI system. Each meter has a built-in radio transmitter that sends the meter data through the power lines to the nearest substation. The data is gathered at the substation and relayed to a computer at Perennial’s headquarters. Generally meters are read in groups during certain times of the day, but they can also be read anytime it becomes necessary. The data from each meter is archived and can be retrieved at any time for review. The information has already proven to be useful in addressing some customer concerns about high usage. “Real-time” data is a great tool for helping customers understand how much electricity they are using and when it is being used. Even though we are able to communicate with most of the installed AMI meters, we are currently only using readings from certain groups for actual billing purposes. According to Jim Winchell, Manager of Customer Services, all of the district’s irrigation meters were read in 2009 using the AMI system and the readings were used for billing purposes. Likewise, he said that we are doing the same with most of the town meters in York and Fillmore counties. If you have always read your own meter and sent a reading with your bill, you will need to continue to do so. When our AMI installation is complete, we will make a formal announcement. If everything goes as planned, that may be late spring of 2010.
Reading the new meters
One of the many benefits of having AMI meters is that soon customers won't have to make that monthly trip out to the pole to read their meter. We realize though that some customers will still want to continue reading their meters for their own purposes. For that reason we have provided these pictures to show you How to read your new meter. Remember, if you are currently sending us monthly readings, please continue to do so until we notify you otherwise.
Leading the way in building a ‘smart grid’
The federal stimulus package and various U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives
are promoting development of “smart grid” to help solve America’s energy crisis.
In addition, DOE Secretary Steven Chu declared our nation’s electricity transmission
and distribution system a national priority this spring.
But what does any of this mean for electric co-op and public power district
members?
The electric grid that covers our nation–quite literally the largest machine
ever built–includes millions of miles of transmission and distribution lines
that deliver power from generating stations to your front door.
Contrary to popular belief, the grid isn’t unintelligent; it has sustained us
for almost a century, keeping electricity safe, reliable, and affordable. But
the grid is similar to a high school graduate who heads off for college. There’s
a lot of room for learning, in this case in the areas of energy efficiency and
reliability.
The first step toward building a smarter grid involves installing a strong foundation
of smart meters at homes and businesses that can talk back and forth to utilities
about outages and electric use.
Electric cooperatives and public power districts lead other industry sectors
in deploying smart meters and related automation devices, creating an advanced
meter infrastructure
inside
the grid. Seventy percent of the nation’s co-ops and ppd's have installed
some form of a smart meter, and another 11 percent will join them in the
next
year.
This is
important when you consider co-ops and ppd's own and maintain 2.5 million
miles of distribution lines, delivering power to 12 percent of American homes.
In
comparison, a recent
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report showed only 2.7 percent
of investor-owned utility customers have smart meters.
Perennial Public Power District
began adding smart meters in 2008, and already has 3,318 members connected
with this technology. By Early 2010, all of our members will have smart meters.
These meters cut down on operating costs and help co-ops and ppd's effectively
manage outages. For example, a smart meter can tell us when the power is
out instead
of relying
on you to call the outage in, and they can help reroute power around problems.
Down the road they might be able to help you manage energy use, showing you
what power costs at different times of the day to help you make smart energy
choices
when using appliances.
At Perennial Public Power District we’re committed to building a smarter
grid, making it faster, more efficient, and smart enough to handle challenges
this
century
promises to bring. An intelligent, strong grid will help consumers save money
and may minimize future government mandated increases resulting from climate
change and other policy goals. It’s a critical part of the way we focus on
supporting innovative technologies that make economic sense, allowing us
to continue providing
you with safe, reliable, and affordable power in years to come. Leading the
way in building a smart grid was produced in part by NRECA.