Power providers as different as North Star Electric Cooperative, Salt River Project and Colorado Springs Utilities are adopting automated meter reading technology for reasons that are very much the same.

AMR allows utilities to reduce operating costs, improve customer service and manage loads more effectively. "It's not just for reading meters," said North Star Finance Manager Ann Ellis. "The system can detect outages, connect and disconnect service remotely and monitor off-peak accounts."

According to DOE's Federal Energy Management Program, advanced metering also provides energy managers with the information they need to save energy and money as part of effective operation and maintenance.

Converting meters takes time

The northern Minnesota utility is working toward converting all 6,200 of its accounts—10,000 meters—to automated Cannon Technologies units by the end of the year. North Star's customers self-report their meter readings monthly, except for about 1,400 seasonal residents. The utility reads those meters and bills the seasonal customers annually. AMR meters will eliminate the need for customers or North Star to take manual readings and make the billing more consistent.

With more than 850,000 customers in the Phoenix area, SRP is in its third year of phasing in the EnergyAxis System for residential, commercial and industrial electricity and water metering. By the end of April 2006, about 75,000 customers had REX meters with an internal power service connect/disconnect switch.

Closer to SRP in size with about 600,000 meters, Colorado Springs will be deploying AMR units through 2010. The municipal utility chose wireless technology by Datasplice LLC, noting that it would increase billing accuracy, speed complaint resolution and reduce employee injuries caused by restricted access to meters.

Increasing operational efficiency

Cutting down on field trips is one of the great advantages of AMR technology. SRP's most recent system expansion included 25,000 meters on new homes on the outskirts of Phoenix and 25,000 meters in apartment complexes.

In a press release, SRP Revenue Cycle Services Manager John Soethe observed that the benefits of conversion included reduction in fuel costs, vehicle maintenance and insurance. “Projected savings from automated meter reading and automated field services have exceeded our expectations," he said. "We’re also beginning to realize the operational benefits in the back office.”

AMR makes line inspections more efficient and helps with restoring power. “After a storm, for example, a customer may not be home to report an individual outage,” said Ellis. "We can 'ping' the meters when we think everyone has power to see if there are any unreported outages still out there," she said. "Also, if only one person reports an outage, we can check that meter remotely, without the cost of sending a truck with linemen to see if it is our problem or theirs."

Load management savings

For North Star, however, load management was the strongest motivation for switching to AMR. The co-op offers its customers a special off-peak rate of 3.6 cents per kWh for electric heating systems in exchange for interrupting those loads during system peaks. North Star's power wholesaler, Minnkota Power Cooperative, administers the load control switching.

"The AMR system will help us monitor off-peak accounts to make sure they really are off during those critical times," explained Member Services Manager Wayne Haukaas. "We will be able to shed them from the system during peak demand hours, and that will save substantial wholesale demand charges."

The savings from detecting and correcting uncontrolled off-peak load before billing peaks are measured will provide a large part of the seven-to-10-year payback, said Ellis. Another beauty of the AMR system is that it finds those needles in the haystack, so a service representative is sent only to locations with problems.

North Star paid for the project with general funds and a USDA RUS loan. In addition to the meters, the co-op installed a computer control center in its Baudette office and is using its existing two-way radio system to communicate with the AMR meters with special relay equipment in each of the nine substations.

The investment will be worth it, not only in the near term but in the future. Detailed, accurate knowledge is power and utilities undoubtedly will find creative ways to use that knowledge to benefit both consumers and the bottom line. Some day, there will be as many reasons for adopting AMR as there are utilities.