Meter data management systems: The hot new application for utilities considering AMI
A growing debate exists in the U.S. over the need for, and timing of, meter data management systems used to manage the large volumes of meter data generated from advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. While some utilities are rushing to implement AMI, others are thinking first about the need for an application to collect, store and process the data for billing and other uses.
A utility manager recently called me with a question that’s being asked much more frequently these days: “We’re planning to implement AMI soon and are concerned about managing the data. What do you suggest we do to handle all of that data?”
I responded by first asking three basic questions:
- Will you be implementing more than one AMI technology solution?
- Are you planning to implement demand response and time-of-use rates? and
- Will you be integrating your AMI system with other applications such as outage management, enterprise asset management and distribution planning?
Upon hearing yes to each of these questions, I replied by saying, “my friend, you need a meter data management system.”
Increasingly, utilities have come to realize that generating and collecting AMI data is only half the battle. Managing large quantities of interval data and incoming alarms for delivery to several different systems and applications in a seamless manner has become a significant challenge. Many utilities involved in AMI projects now believe that support for time differentiated rates, outage and demand response systems, and an ability to provide these applications with clean, reliable meter data, are best achieved through use of a meter data management (MDM) system.
In addition to cleaning, parsing and exporting data to other systems, MDM systems serve as a repository for large volumes of historical data used for network monitoring, load research and other purposes. MDM systems also perform validating, estimating and editing (VEE) functions to ensure that data is clean and bills are accurately rendered.
TIMING OF MDM IMPLEMENTATION
As MDM systems continue to gain more prominence, a difference of opinion has emerged among industry experts concerning the preferred timing and installation sequence for MDM implementation. The MDM system’s role as central meter data repository places it at the core of the AMI installation process, yet many applications requiring MDM-supplied source data are implemented in the later stages of AMI deployment.
I advised my utility friend that important benefits can be derived from implementing MDM at the front end of an AMI project, and can actually produce implementation savings down the line as meter installations ramp up and customer/meter data synchronization becomes more critical and problematic. As the volume of AMI-related meter change-outs increases, timely synchronization of meter changes with customer account data becomes essential to help a utility avoid large numbers of billing system rejections caused by incorrect meter assignments. MDM will therefore help to minimize the number of incorrect and estimated bills that result from the change out process. And meter reader routing changes can be accomplished more efficiently by utility staff through timely installation updates as growing numbers of utility meters become AMI ready and are then removed from the manual meter reading routes.
MULTI-PHASE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
Using a flexible design and implementation model, I generally recommend that utilities should take a phased approach to MDM implementation. Phase I implementation should target a limited set of functional requirements that include the initial installation of the MDM software and operating platform, establish connectivity with current mission critical systems that require meter data, build internal familiarity with the system design logic and prepare critical systems for AMI implementation.
Once the initial phase I implementation has been completed and AMI deployment is underway, a utility can proceed with phase II – after it has reached a certain comfort level that initial AMI device installations are being read properly and data is being stored and transmitted to destination processes in a reliable manner. In many cases, utilities have already installed pilot AMI networks or are reading advanced meters through dial-up systems and MV-90. These situations provide good opportunities for utilities to test MDM interfaces using operational AMI data and to validate new MDM functionality against existing processes before new data streams are brought on line. Then, as new AMI technologies are deployed, a suitable test environment will already exist, and overall MDM performance can be monitored as the number of AMI applications and associated data volume increases.
For optimum performance of AMI-supported applications such as tamper or leak detection and processing of on demand and off cycle reads, utilities should integrate MDM with utility functions carried out in CIS, billing and other systems such as load control. In the later stages of AMI deployment, utilities can begin to more fully integrate their MDM with other systems such as outage management and GIS, so that information provided through AMI can be used to improve outage response and manage utility assets. More sophisticated applications such as enterprise resource planning and distribution automation can eventually be supported with MDM stored data to address specific utility operational metrics and equipment life cycle planning functions.
MDM ADDS SIGNIFICANT VALUE AT MODEST INCREMENTAL COST
In the larger scheme of things, MDM cost should remain a relatively minor cost of AMI implementation. By some estimates, MDM adds little marginal implementation cost when installed in connection with an AMI project. When one considers that MDM functions can streamline the handling of meter change data and produce significant installation savings through reduced data processing errors and fewer repeat site visits, it is apparent that the additional cost of MDM can be partially offset by even a modest reduction in AMI installation costs.
Analysis of three large project estimates developed by consulting firm Gestalt LLC for AMI installation shows that average MDM cost for these projects is predicted at a relatively modest 6% of total project expenditures. AMI hardware continues to be the largest expenditure category, while MDM software is estimated to average less than 8% of the cost of the AMI hardware and network communications. For this added cost, a utility receives important long term implementation and operational assistance, and full life cycle support for its time-of-use rates, billing data validation functions, demand response programs, asset management and outage response systems. When analysed from this viewpoint, MDM becomes the enabling system that helps utilities capture the full potential of the benefits presented in their business case.
Ed Finamore will be chairing the 'Doing it: MDM and analytics' track at Metering, Billing/CIS America from May 7-11, 2007 in San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.
By Edmund P. Finamore, P.E.
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He has worked on a huge transmission lines up to 500 kV, and set steel towers with helicopters.
He has worked in the swamps in Louisiana and the mountains and deserts of New Mexico and Colorado, in hurricane ravaged East Texas, and on distrubution cutovers in Michigan.
Chick, who has recently recorded his first CD, will be the guest artist at the 8th annual Metering, Billing/CIS America Conference Network reception sponsored by, Elster.
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AMI booms! News from Metering International magazine...
While interest in AMI is growing across the globe, the rapid developments taking place in the U.S.A. would appear to put it in a boom phase. According to a recent review of announcements of large AMI deployments (greater than 100,000 endpoints) in electricity, water and gas there was a more than 200 percent increase in 2006 over 2005 levels.
And for 2007 a further increase of 25 percent over 2006 levels is projected, driven by large utilities such as Southern California Edison (SCE), which plans to rollout some 5 million meters, DTE Energy with 4 million meters and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) with 2.3 million meters, among others.
At the same time, and as a consequence of these activities, significant changes are also taking place in the meter market place. Within the next few months the appearance of a new generation of meters is expected from the major meter manufacturers as well as new entrants, with 'advanced'
features such as an integrated remote connect and disconnect service switch, remote upgradeability, and more memory. And developments are ongoing on enhanced network communication capabilities, including two-way communications to premise devices.
This is according to SCE, whose AMI initiative is noteworthy for its extensive involvement of the industry to refine the future vision and to develop the products to meet future requirements. In a feature in the latest edition of Metering International AMI program director Paul de Martini and program lead architect Jeff Gooding describe how by focussing on the customer and supporting an open innovation approach, SCE's AMI business case could be developed positively.
"By taking the customer's perspective it is possible to focus on the innovations that are believed to yield the right blend of customer benefit, utility efficiency and technologies necessary to optimise customer value," write De Martini and Gooding.
Furthermore, SCE's AMI Final Feasibility Report (released January 2007) comments that the Phase 1 process to confirm the technical and financial feasibility of the solution, projected to take 18 months, was completed in 13 months, and that prototype 'new generation' AMI residential and commercial meters are already in hand.
AMI is clearly at an exciting stage of development and over the next decade the utility industry will be making significant investments into it. And thus the imperative to "do it right," as De Martini and Gooding write in the case of SCE, must be recognised by all the participants.
With such rapid evolution, what are my options? What is the business case for AMI strategies? How is the CIS going to manage and leverage the data? What is the role of AMI in the smart grid of the future? And how should large-scale rollout be managed? Answers to these and other questions from the pioneers of AMI will be offered at the 8th Metering, Billing/CIS America in San Antonio, Texas from May 7-11, which seeks to provide the integrated smart metering, billing and CIS toolkit for the NOW utility.
For additional information visit www.meteringamerica.com, email:
jimina@spintelligent.com or call 888 559 8017.
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TXU Corporation to give utility professionals unique insights
TXU Corporation, which has one of the largest energy infrastructures in the U.S. with over 160,000 km of distribution lines and provides power to over 3 million electric delivery points, will host a utility briefing and field visit to a metering installation as well an overview of their new and exciting customer contact center at the AMI, Smart Metering and Customer Management Technical Study Tour.
The tour will visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio from May 6 – 11, 2007, with other electricity, gas and water utilities participating and showcasing their projects including Dallas Water Utilities, CenterPoint Energy, CPS Energy and Bryan Texas Utilities. These utilities from across Texas will give tour attendees priceless, first-hand knowledge of best practices in the industry. On site the utilities will also demonstrate the extended services beyond the meter such as customer billing, appliance monitoring, energy management and home security monitoring
Throughout the tour consultants, vendors and regulators will give briefings and demonstrations on the fundamentals of advanced/smart metering and AMI projects. The tour ends in San Antonio where it will join up with delegates at the 8th annual Metering, Billing/CIS America conference and exhibition and enable participants to meet and network with additional industry experts and technology providers.
For hands-on training experience that will draw on a wealth of proven industry experience from utilities, vendors, consultants and regulators involved in the many aspects of appraising, attaining and implementing technologies, the AMI, Smart Metering and Customer Management Technical Study Tour is a unique, not to be missed opportunity.
Space on the tour is limited to 15 participants, who are being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information and to register, visit www.metering.com/tour
