2009 Aclara Client Conference Dates Set

Aclara™ Offers Cradle-to-Grave Meter and Device Management

Intelligent Demand Response Device Curbs Electricity Use

New Technology Remotely Monitors Capacitor Banks

PPL Electric Utilities Reduce Revenue Losses

Aclara TWACS OC Phase 2 Is Now Available

PSE Goes Live with Customer Moves Center

Aclara Wins!

New Aclara TWACS Software Patches and Updates Available

Eddie Patton //
Sales Director

Aclara Offers Cradle-to-Grave Meter and Device Management

To meet regulatory requirements, utilities must be able to manage and track metering devices and their configurations during and after AMI deployments. Aclara Software’s AMI Device Management (ADM) solution simplifies compliance with innovative, cradle-to-grave device tracking and management of device testing processes.

Aclara Software’s ADM solution is the industry’s most complete solution for meter device management. Its advantage over general asset-management systems is that it provides a system of record for meter-related test, repair, and certification data. It also ensures that meter management and testing business rules are enforced to guarantee that processes are properly followed when handling meters throughout their lifecycles.

Information such as location, device configuration, and certifications are easily transferred to the ADM system though a unique Device Wizard that automatically captures meter-related manufacturing data. The solution manages meter populations through statistical analysis and sample management, providing a record of periodic maintenance and a source of commission reporting.

More importantly, once the meter is decommissioned and the device is scrapped the ADM system continues to maintain data related to the meter. This capability allows utilities to meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Major features of the Aclara ADM solution include:

Inventory Management that adds value by proactively capturing information about meters and related devices in the meter shop, district locations, or in the field, thus providing total asset visibility.

Device Testing and Population Management that supports the entire in-service performance testing process, from sample selection to reporting, and uses integrated testing applications to streamline meter-shop processes.

Device Configuration Management that provides a central repository of all metering device configuration data. A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Microsoft .NET technology allows you to use web services to share accurate configuration data with other systems, such as MDMS or CIS.

For more information about the Aclara ADM solution please contact Eddie Patton at epatton@aclarasoft.com or download the Aclara ADM brochure here.

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Luis Pizano //
Sr. Product Manager

Intelligent Demand Response Device Curbs Electricity Use

Aclara now offers a new approach that takes demand response to the next level, providing more real-time information to utilities about electricity use in the field than previous devices.  It also offers customers who participate in demand-response programs more control over when appliances are shut on and off.

The Aclara DRU’s unique Intelligent Comfort™ system revolutionizes the method for controlling load on individual electrical devices and equipment. The Intelligent Comfort system includes a patent-pending adaptive load-control algorithm that continuously builds a profile characterizing the equipment’s energy use over 24 hours. Utilities create a custom demand-response plan using the profiles that cycles equipment on a schedule to curb peak demand and protect against under-voltage and under-frequency conditions.

The Intelligent Comfort system also considers the time of day, seasonal changes, and changes in household occupancy to automatically adjust the profile associated with the controlled device. In addition, the Aclara DRU accommodates residential and commercial equipment. Today, the Aclara DRU works with Aclara’s TWACS® technology, although it is designed to work with other solutions, such as the STAR® Network system. For more information, call Luis Pizano at 314-895-6437 or visit the Aclara website at www.aclara.com.

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Luis Pizano //
Sr. Product Manager

New Technology Remotely Monitors Capacitor Banks

Utilities always have a difficult time knowing whether the capacitor banks that regulate voltage in the distribution system are operating properly at the substation level. These devices, which improve electrical-system efficiency and stability, are usually not monitored from the utility office but are switched on and off manually or by using timed devices. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to know whether they are operating properly without actually visiting capacitor-bank locations.

The Aclara TWACS® CST (Capacitor Switching Transponder), which operates with Aclara TWACS Master Station software, allows utilities to actively manage grid reliability and efficiency. The two-way solution monitors circuit voltage, neutral currents, and contact closure of the capacitor bank, thereby allowing remote management of capacitance. This capability helps utilities reduce losses due to reactive power flow and avoid power-purchase penalties.

Central administration of capacitor banks also helps dispatchers make better distribution decisions and reduces costly on-site maintenance. Aclara’s TWACS CST delivers on-demand status information, providing troubleshooting, alarms, voltage profiles, and bank status. In addition, the CST reduces overhead related to capacitor bank controls and line loss, synchronizes daily and seasonal requirements, and provides real-time voltage, status, and error reports. For more information, please contact Luis Pizano at 314-895-6437, or visit the Aclara website at www.aclara.com.

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Bernie Molchany //
Manager of Revenue Assurance // PPL Electric Utilities

Michele Pierzga //
Lead Business Systems Analyst // PPL Electric Utilities

Jackie Lemmerhirt //
Director of Product Management // Aclara Software

PPL Electric Utilities Reduces Revenue Losses

Revenue loss from energy theft, meter tampering, and equipment error is generally believed to be substantial – estimates range from one to four percent of total revenues for most utilities. In the past, utilities relied on meter readers, or “feet on the street,” to mitigate this problem by observing meters that were tampered with or out of order.

Today, utility companies such as PPL Electric Utilities, Allentown, PA, that have implemented AMI systems no longer have meter readers physically checking equipment. These utilities must devise new ways of detecting theft or equipment problems. By creatively using the rich data set provided by AMI systems regarding meter reads and meter status, utilities can outsmart thieves and remotely identify damaged meters.

Using reverse rotation flags, outage-count indicators, interval data, and meter usage on previously cut meters, AMI data can help utilities pinpoint candidates for further field investigations. AMI indicators are often corroborated by on-site investigations that indicate theft is occurring at a specific premise.

Meter tampering and equipment problems, such as broken meters that result in lost revenue, are significant issues for PPL.  The Revenue Protection team has previously used various strategies to identify specific target accounts for investigation. Most of these strategies involved manual analysis of large quantities of data, a labor intensive exercise.

The team began looking at meter data management (MDM) software as the means to help them simplify the process for identifying possible cases of theft, meter tampering, or equipment problems. An optimum solution would automatically notify team members of anomalies around usage patterns. It would also allow users to create rules and logic, manage the list of outputs, tweak logic for better results, and group the results by geographic location to make it easier to assign work to field investigators.

PPL chose the Aclara Software™ Revenue Vision application, one of Aclara Software’s Revenue Management solutions, to improve analyses of large volumes of interval and daily meter data collected by its AMI system. By combining various meter, premise, and account data, Revenue Vision made it easier to identify problem meters. PPL is committed to the Aclara utility applications as well as Aclara Software’s customer-service applications.

The revenue protection software identifies suspicious consumption patterns by applying specific, utility-defined screening tests to a targeted population of accounts, meters, or other entities. At PPL the goal was to define tests narrowly enough so that the data combination would yield a true “hot list” of manageably sized accounts for investigation.

This article was abstracted from the article, PPL Electric Utilities Reduces Revenue Losses with AMI, which appeared in the September 2008 issue of Metering International. To read the entire article, click here.

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Aclara TWACS OC Phase 2
Is Now Available

Aclara is pleased to announce the Phase 2 release of the Aclara TWACS™ Operations Center (TWACS OC).  It is available for download from the Software Patches and Updates section of the Aclara TWACS technology portal. 

The Aclara TWACS OC Phase 2 performs the following functions:

• AMR Job Management – Provides an overview of all AMR jobs, summaries of each job, the details of any specific job, and user-requested retries.
• Demand Reset Management – Enables viewing of detailed status of demand resets and user-requested retries.
• Substation Information – Shows all substation log messages and substation command status summaries.
• Additional Reports – Meter counts, substation notifications, group addressing assessment, meter discovery exceptions, and communications issues.
• User-configurable Data Grids – Allows specification of the fields displayed on the listing windows.
• Automatic workstation upgrades.*

The new version also includes all Phase 1 functionality, including meter maintenance, system status, substation maintenance, AMR job scheduler, and security.  You do not need to install Phase 1, if you have not done so already, to install and operate Phase 2.

The Release Notes (included in the download folder) contain an “Is/Was” table that cross-references the functionality of the Aclara TWACS OC with the TNS forms.  The Release Notes also include the TWACS OC installation/upgrade procedure.  Aclara recommends that you print these documents and follow the steps to assist you with the installation.

You must be running TNS 2.6, Oracle 9 or 10, and Windows 2003 Server with Service Pack 2 before installing TWACS OC. 

Please contact the Aclara Customer Care department if you have any questions:  Email care@aclara.com or call 1-800-892-9008.

Note:  This version requires you to visit the workstations one more time to install this version.  All future updates will occur at the server and the workstations will automatically update from the server with the next login.

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PSE Goes Live with
Customer Moves Center

Washington State’s oldest and largest energy utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), recently went live with the Aclara Software™ Customer Moves Center, a program that allows residential customers to start, stop, and transfer electric service on the Internet. PSE also can use its Moves Center to promote services such as e-billing and enroll customers in these programs on-line. A subsidiary of Puget Energy (NYSE:PSD), PSE serves more than one million electric customers and 737,000 natural gas customers.

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Aclara Wins!

Aclara’s recent contract wins and pilots highlight our proven and reliable technologies and our suite of solutions for every application.

• Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), has selected the Aclara Software™ meter data management (MDM) solution to manage its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) operation.
• Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) selected the Aclara STAR® Network for a pilot to support its Smart Energy Savers Program. Once BGE selects a technology, BGE will implement an AMI system serving 1.2 million gas and electric customers beginning in 2009.
• Aclara TWACS® technology has been chosen by Idaho Power and will outfit southern Idaho and eastern Oregon with approximately 500,000 metered endpoints for its advanced AMI project.
• National Grid has signed an amendment with Aclara Software to extend the Home and Business Energy Centers throughout their upstate NY service territory.
• New Brunswick Power has selected Aclara Software to provide Home
  Energy Center to their customers in both English and French.
• New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection has selected the Aclara STAR Network to handle water meter data collection from 875,000 meters serving approximately eight million customers.
• West Florida Electric Cooperative (WFEC) has chosen a hassle-free turnkey system using TWACS technology to change out its 28,000 meters and meet its AMI requirements.
• Other wins to note for Aclara STAR Network include Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Hollywood, FL; Rock Hill, SC; and Seguin, TX
• Recent Aclara TWACS technology wins are Allegheny Electric Cooperative; Charles Mix Electric; Coastal EMC, GA; Daviess-Martin County REMC; Southern Illinois Electric Co-op
  
• Umatilla, OR signed an agreement with Aclara Software for MDM and Load presentment.

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New Aclara TWACS Software Patches and Updates Available

Aclara is pleased to announce the availability of the new Software Patches & Updates area on the TWACS® technology customer portal. This dynamic approach does away with the need to print, burn, and ship CDs, and makes software available the instant it is released. It is an added value to our already popular download service for printed documentation.

All software releases and updates will be made available through the portal, enabling you to download what you need when you need it.   All downloads are in self-extracting zip file format (.exe).  You will only see folders for which you have permission (e.g. you will only see a PROasys™ folder if you purchased PROasys software).  By default, notifications are turned on so you receive an email each time a new file is posted.

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