Who’s Fault…

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AMI AT GROTON ELECTRIC LIGHT: PRESENT & FUTURE…

DAN HACK - MUELLER SYSTEMSCUSTOMER CONNECTIONS CONFERENCECOLORADO SPRINGS10/27/09

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Who’s Fault…

I called a Selectmen after his high usage appeared on our variance report…

• I gave him the specific hours with high use• First - Blamed us

• Second - Blamed the kids

• Third - Blamed the wife

• After the first snow of the year, I called him and told him that his use had remained low that night.

Oops - He realized that it was his engine block heaters from trucks that had previously been garaged at another location.

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Who & Where is Groton Electric Light

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Who & Where is Groton Electric Light

• 100 year old Massachusetts Muni

• 4,400 connected customers• Area of 33 sq miles• 153 miles of service

connections• $9M in annual revenue• $.13 per KWh

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Groton Past

Situation…Year 2005• Manual reading• Dated meter population• Goals

• Eliminate manual meter reading• Redeploy readers & reduce vehicle

exp’s• Maintain or improve customer service

• Began looking at AMR & AMI

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Selected and Deployed Mi.Net

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Selected and Deployed Mi.Net

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4 Major Components

Mi.Node-EElectric Meter & Communication Module

Mi.Node-WWater Communication Module

Mi.Gate: Central Communication Module (Collector)

Mi.Host: Host Server and User Interface

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Groton Present - Functionality

Full deployment of Mi.Net• Monthly reads for billing• Load Profile (hourly data across

system)• On-Demand reads• Time Of Use Rates implemented ‘09• Outage Management System• Consumer Web Access

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Groton Present - Benefits

Full deployment of Mi.Net• No more manual reads• Moved readers to new job functions• Eliminated need for reading vehicles

• Maintain or Improve customer service…

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Multiple High Bill Complaints

274 Main Street Apt A

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9/1/2008 10/1/2008 10/31/2008 11/30/2008 12/30/2008 1/29/2009

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ture

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eit)

Consumption Temperature

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Customer walks in complaining…

Last month my bill was too high!You must have made a mistake!

Customer Service reps checks account history and asks, “what did you begin doing at about 10AM on January 20th?”

You could see by the look on his face that he knew what the problem was.

He left, then called back a few hours later to see if his use had returned to normal.

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December 12, 2008

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December 12, 2008 – New England

• Severe Ice Storm Hit – worst in 10 years

• State(s) of Emergency Declared• Millions without power

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December 12, 2008 – In Groton…

• Mutual Aid was called for early

• 23 linemen at work by noon

During the ice storm that blanketed the region on December 11th, 2008, Mi.Net helped me to realize the extent of the damage to our system before the sun rose.  This helped me to set priorities, take corrective action, and gave us a significant edge in the restoration process.  - Kevin Kelly, Manager, Groton Electric Light

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December 12, 2008 – In Groton…

• 3,648 of 4,400 customers were affected by the ice storm

• Only 1,650 customers were without power for more than 10 hours

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User Interface

Easy Navigation

ALL Meters

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User Interface – By accountIntegrated CIS

Data

On-demand

Reads “to the Meter”

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User Interface – Reports

Numerous Report

Formats

On Line Graphs or Export to

Excel

2020

• GIS Tool - Outage Management • If you click on the outage tab in the upper left corner• Full Outage list is then shown for sorting and prioritizing work

2121

• Click on an icon and you can see address detail

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Consumer Home Page

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Linked from Utility

Consumer Alerts, Also

Emailed

Weather Data

Message from Utility

Easy Navigation

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Consumer Settings Page

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Consumer Managed Email List

Consumer Selected

Units

Consumer Managed

Thresholds

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Consumer Daily Consumption

Consumer Threshold

Year, Month or Hourly

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Consumer Hourly Consumption

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Groton Present – Additional Benefits• Detect meter tampering/theft• Monitor customer and system loading• Detect customer generation backfeed• Enable logging of power quality data• Correlate load demand with ambient

weather conditions

“It’s like getting free SCADA – the system was justified on reading costs alone…”- Kevin Kelly, Mgr

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Groton Future

• Home Area Network• Remote Disconnect• Transformer Profiling• Support Water Dept

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Home Area Network Plans

• Lower Cost• Utility incurs ZigBee costs

only when Customer “Ops In”

• Longer Range• Minimize install issues

with Apt’s, Large homes, homes w/meters installed at curb

• Choice• Utility & customer free to

choose ZigBee accessories

AMI Connected HAN Gateway

Internet

900MHz RF

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Who is Mueller Systems

• Subsidiary of Fortune 1000 Company - MWP• $2B Annual Revenues• 7,000 Employees• Over 150 Years in the Utility Business• Leading Mfg of Water Infrastructure

Products/Services

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Questions? - Groton Experience - Mi.Net AMI System

*Remember to back-up