The Aclara Client Conference, one of the leading industry client conferences, enjoys a year-after-year growth in scope and attendance, highly unusual in these times.

"The Aclara Client Conference is a terrific event where you can meet different people with common goals and interests," said Barry Maginity of Great Lakes Energy in Boyne City, MI.
"New clients can share thoughts and ideas with others to gain an edge on their business. The educational content of the conference is always top class and the food and events are very memorable!"

2011 Conference Receives High Marks
The conference will be held again in Nashville this year, April 23-26. Last year, the first year the conference was held in Nashville, a client attendance record was set (over 500 clients), and the satisfaction scores showed the event to be quite popular, with more than 92% evaluating the conference as "Excellent" or "Very Good."

"Everyone that uses the Aclara applications will benefit from going to the conference," said Valerie Remick of Carbon Power in Saratoga, WY. "The networking that goes on at the conference is a great experience and getting the chance to meet the people that help you when you really need it is a priceless experience. I personally go to learn more tricks to the trade," she added.

What If?
The theme of the 2012 conference is "What If? Mike Rayburn will deliver the key note "What If?" presentation. Mike has been called "the World's Funniest Guitar Virtuoso." He will use his astounding guitar creations, uproarious songs, and veteran presentation skills to encourage, challenge, and inspire us to leap beyond our perceived limitations. He draws from a wealth of life experience as an adventurer, business owner, comedian, world-class guitarist, author, philanthropist, husband, and father, to deliver a presentation that we will find "motivational, hilarious, and musically amazing," according to dozens of previous conference planners.

When you ask the question "What If?" you open up possibilities for yourself and your company –

"What if we could do that?"

"How would that happen?"

and,

"I know I can't, but what if we could?"

The minute you ask that question, you are no longer looking for reasons you can't, but for reasons you can – No Limits.

Packed Agenda, Developed Together With Our Clients
The conference this year will feature more than 50 interactive sessions with best-in-class clients, Aclara, and industry presenters showcasing new applications, successful deployments, and technical briefings that will provide key knowledge and takeaways. Click here to see the latest agenda.

Making Connections
"My favorite aspect of the conference is the opportunity to network with people who are my exact counterparts in other utilities, along with the Aclara staff," said Jason Kupser of DTE Energy in Detroit. "Making these connections and building these relationships in the conference meetings, at meals and in break-out sessions have been very rewarding and fulfilling."

Getting the Benefit of Others' Experience
"I attend the conference because I am very interested in learning how other utilities are using the STAR system for more of a benefit than the original design – ways we can better our internal processes to the greater benefit of our customers," said Brady A. Piontek at Wisconsin Public Service in Green Bay, WI. Piontek strongly encourages new clients to attend:

"The conference is your chance to network with other utilities that have made the same AMI vendor choice as your utility selected – sustaining these relationships long after the conference and having them as great subject matter experts to bounce any questions you might have throughout the AMI journey."

Remick agreed:
"It is exceptionally important if you are a new user, because it gives you the chance to meet people who do what you do, and to find the different ways of handling the system – they may be able to help you out just by saying, "that happened to me too and this is what we done to fix it."

Save Money with Early Bird Registration
Attending the 2012 Aclara Client Conference is critical to continue successful development of your Aclara applications, so please mark your calendar and register today. Register before February 23, 2012, and save $50.00 per registration with the early bird discount.

The Aclara Special Event Night
Our ever-famous Tuesday Night Social Event will be held a brand new venue, still under construction, which promises to be the place to be in Nashville. Aclara clients will be the only guests there that night, and will be treated to a delicious traditional Southern Dinner and live music from three lands – one on each floor – three stages, three different types of music! The Aclara Special Event Night is free to all paid attendees.
Nashville's recording artist, Liz Longley, was nominated as XM Radio's singer/songwriter discovery of the year will appear at the 2012 Aclara Client Conference.

to the top

Calico Energy Services (www.calicoenergy.com), the market leader in interoperable energy-management solutions and analytics, and Aclara®, a leader in Intelligent Infrastructure technologies for utilities and part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE), have formed a strategic partnership to provide an integrated set of advanced load control, analytics, and demand response (DR) solutions to municipals, cooperative utilities, wholesale power cooperatives, and IOU customers.

Relying on standards-based integration and technical design, the two companies are offering a comprehensive demand-response solution to Aclara's more than 500 utility customers, as well as new customers. 

"Calico's demand response capability complements our solution set," said Brad Kitterman, president, Aclara. "This solution enables utilities to review all demand response analytics and potential events through a single dashboard, and to execute those demand response events when needed. Adding Calico's technology to our existing functionality allows Aclara to provide a more comprehensive solution that will enable our existing customers – as well as new ones – to extend their load-control capability and expand consumer-initiated demand response functionality."

"Aclara has a long-standing reputation for providing powerful AMI solutions utilities need to connect with their customers and manage loads effectively," said Cliff Monlux, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Calico Energy Services. "We are pleased to be teaming with Aclara to help utilities meet load reduction goals, comply with regulations, and improve service reliability."

Through this partnership, Aclara will utilize Calico's software systems to create Aclara's Demand Response Management System (DRMS), which will provide Aclara customers with the ability to perform forecasting, base lining, and settlement. The Aclara DRMS will offer the unique integration capabilities provided by Calico's Enterprise Service Bus to help utility customers mine information from and interact with a broad range of data sources, devices, and applications throughout an energy ecosystem.

Utilities will be able to explore what-if scenarios and adjust variables incrementally to identify new opportunities for optimizing energy throughout their grid. Based on these insights, dispatchers can then implement a broad range of demand side management strategies and operational improvements that leverage Aclara's AMI networks.
The Aclara solutions powered by Calico will provide a number of key benefits to utilities, such as:

• Significant cost savings – Utilities can lower demand charges and rates through enhanced forecasting and reduced peak load. Unified analytics and control minimizes administrative time, while new base lining and settlement capabilities enable true pay-for-performance incentive payments.
• Valuable insight – Aclara's utilities will gain access to an interactive visual display that allows staff across operational groups to layer and compare diverse data sets in a configurable dashboard. This extensive data collection and analytics capability provides valuable insights, such as when to call events, how to better manage load, and the ability to isolate and manage problems.
• Improved consumer management and experience – With a single cohesive view of customers, devices and programs, utilities can improve and expand customer services.
• Consumer empowerment – Improved notification and opt-out services will also further enhance consumer satisfaction.

Aclara and Calico intend to deliver an integrated solution that will provide a low-risk, affordable option with fast rollout capabilities for demand response and load control programs. Power providers will gain a single, flexible platform for a broad portfolio of load-reduction programs as well as the ability to expand control devices and support future needs.

to the top

Aclara announces that in April it will turn on support for the Green Button initiative at 21 major utilities in 22 states. Green Button is a voluntary effort by utilities across the country, celebrated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House, to provide energy use data to customers in a standard format. Aclara is a leading provider of consumer-engagement portals and advanced meter-reading systems to utilities and is part of the Utilities Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE)

When Aclara turns on Green Button in April, usage data in a standard format will be available to eight million utility customers.

"Aclara is committed to helping utilities and their customers maximize the benefits of energy-use data to make electricity consumption more efficient – both through our proprietary applications and those developed to take advantage of standardized usage data," said Brad Kitterman, president of Aclara. "Our support of the Green Button initiative underscores this commitment."

Typically, one million customers interact with their usage data through Aclara online portals on a monthly, or more frequent, basis. Green Button will have immediate impact on consumer's ability to make better decisions on their energy usage, and sets the stage for more impactful innovation in the future. Having Green Button data available will provide utility customers even more flexibility to use applications that will give them insight into energy use and provide ways to derive value from smart grid data.

Aclara has been active in developing the concept of the Green Button from its inception. Xtensible Solutions, a subsidiary of Aclara, participated in the development of the Energy Services Provider Interface, an open data exchange protocol that is the basis for the Green Button initiative.

to the top

Lost water from leaking distribution mains is lost revenue to a water utility. A loss of 10-20 percent from leaks is considered normal, but can be as high as 50 percent in areas with aging infrastructure. While everyone is familiar with the catastrophic water-main failures resulting in water gushing out of manholes, many leaks are not visible, but continue below the surface for from water distribution systems costs the nation $1-2 billion annually in wasted treatment and pumping costs; this does not include property damage and replacement costs.

Timely leak detection and repair provides several benefits:

• Small leaks can be identified and repaired before catastrophic pipe failure, reducing emergency repair/replace costs.
• Improved delivery efficiency reduces operating costs, diminishes draw from water sources, and can delay treatment-plant expansion.
• More efficient delivery helps keep rates low.
• Fewer/less extensive emergency repairs reduce customer inconvenience.

Aclara's STAR® ZoneScan leak-detection system is the industry's only remotely correlated acoustic leak-detection system that cost-effectively identifies small leaks before they become major problems.

The system combines acoustic data loggers from Gutermann International with Aclara STAR Network technology to provide fully integrated leak detection through fixed-network advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Time-synchronized sound recordings are initiated through the STAR ZoneScan meter transmission unit (MTU), which sends the resulting data back through fixed-network infrastructure to the utility for presentation. Web-based application software cross-correlates the data between loggers and provides visual identification of high probability leak locations so water utilities can dispatch repair crews with confidence.

For more information on how STAR ZoneScan can reduce non-revenue water, check out STAR ZoneScan on our web site or contact your Aclara sales representative.

to the top

• NRECA's TechAdvantage 2012
  San Diego, CA - 3/6/12 | Electric Market
  
  
• UTC 2012
  Orlando, FL - 5/20/12 | Electric, Gas and Water Markets
  
  
• AWWA ACE 2012
  Dallas, TX - 6/10/12 | Water Market
  
  

• Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) of Japan has selected Aclara's TWACS software, on-site technical support, and services to perform custom-code development for a government-sanctioned national trial of solar system control and monitoring.
  
  
• Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative has chosen Aclara's DRUs and software to replace its existing load control system.
  
  
• City of Lambertville, NJ, working with United Water has chosen the Aclara STAR Network AMI system. United Water has only deployed mobile/drive-by and manual meter reading.
  
  
• Emcali, a municipal utility for the city of Cali, Columbia with 565,000 meters has chosen Aclara to provide additional substation equipment to complete their TWACS network. The new purchase includes 2,000 polyphase meters and 368 pole-mount meter boxes.
  
  
• edeest, one of three government owned distribution utilities in the Dominican Republic, has chosen additional TWACS substation equipment to service 6,300 endpoints.
  
  
• JEA of Jacksonville, FL has chosen the complete Aclara Consumer Engagement solution and behavior report program for residential and business customers. Aclara has also partnered with iFactor to provide usage and outage alert capabilities through email and text to JEA customers.