Another applicatin for AMI and your meter

The Problem: Currently each CAP location is physically inspected yearly. This data is used to make work orders for repair crews. Inspections are time consuming and expensive, in addition after repairs are made the unit can fail or work improperly. When the banks fail, they are not saving money. They actually cost more money.

The Solution: The Capacitor Monitor utilizes a current transformer between the CAP's and the system neutral to monitor the amps on the ground wire. The AMI meter is used to transmit the data back to the database to store a daily reading. Readings tell if the CAP bank is online and working properly or off line. The Benefits: We believe there are significant benefits for the North America utility market · Cost reductions · Ability to use the AMI · Process improvement · Simplification and operational efficiency improvements · Distribution applications · Transmission applications The Capacitor Monitor Is In Production United States Patent Trade Mark Office Provisional Patent

AMI - considering what we don't know

I had the opportunity to meet with some of my friends at one of the local coops this past week. We got into the discussion about AMI and some of the benefits of having a system in place. This past month the manager of finance was looking at usage by substation and decided to put together a Excel spreadsheet and graph showing line loss by substation. Finance had always looked at system line losses but those losses were inconsistent month to month. The reason for the inconsistency was due to the fact the meter readings at the substations was not coincidental to the field readings and the individual customer readings occurred throughout the month. Now with the AMI system deployed they read all of the meters on the same day each month, giving them consistent information.

Putting the readings together by substation along with the substation usage the finance manager could quickly see how each substation was performing in terms of line loss. What jumped out to her was that two substations in particular had significantly higher losses than the others. She presented her report to the General Manager who in turn shared the report with the board of directors. This prompted the organization to begin to look at those two substations more closely to see if they can determine what is at the root of those losses.

As utilities go into an AMI project they typically have some very specific ideas about what information they want to use and how they intend to use it. What is exciting about AMI today is that it is constantly evolving and what we thought we knew about what we wanted to gain from having a system in place may be different than what we ultimately use the system for as we progress. It's kinda like Donald Rumsfeld once said; "what we don't know is what we don't know", or in other words, we will have a lot to learn about the possibilities AMI will provide us and who in the utility (including customers) might have access to the information and how they might use it.

Northwest Power "to cheap to meter"

I recall when I went to work in the electric industry in the late 1970's there was plenty of discussion about cheap electricity. Even as utilities were investing money in the new nuclear plants in the Northwest, WPPSS (whoops) (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,955183,00.html & http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5482) the industry thought that power would be so cheap that there may be no need to meter energy used at the home for billing however meters might be used for engineering information.

Today the story is much different, not only is measuring the energy use at the home important to the utility in terms of recovering cost of power we are also headed into the whole new world of "smart grid" technology. As I travel around the Northwest visiting with my good friends and colleagues in the industry I'll be talking about the possibilities and the probabilities of implementing smart systems. The meter is an integral part of the equation that can't be overlooked and decisions being made today may not take into account changes in the future. The good news for utility customers is that flexibility and expandability are being built into the meter platform.

It truly is an exciting time to be in the industry!