HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 03/24/2015 - ADVANCED METERING INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATEDATE:
STAFF:
March 24, 2015
Kraig Bader, Standards Engineering Manager
Kevin Gertig, Utilities Executive Director
Dennis Sumner, Senior Electrical Engineer
WORK SESSION ITEM
City Council
SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION
Advanced Metering Infrastructure Update.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this item is to provide Council with an update on the Advanced Meter Fort Collins Project. The
installation of advanced metering technology has and will provide a foundation that will enable Fort Collins Light &
Power to support, inform and empower our community by providing energy choices while maintaining the same
level of quality service and high reliability provided to customers today. This update will share lessons learned and
how the some expected benefits of the project are already being realized.
GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED
Utilities has completed the majority of the advanced meter project with a few elements left to be deployed by the
end of the Department of Energy’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Smart Grid Investment
Grant (SGIG) with a Period of Performance end date of September 30, 2015 funding period. This presentation is
intended to provide council with an understanding of the benefits that the advanced metering infrastructure has
provided and will continue to support in the future.
BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION
In 2008, the City adopted the Climate Action Plan. One of the strategies identified in the Plan included the
installation of Advanced Meters to provide customers with information on their energy usage. In 2009 Utilities
developed a project proposal that was moved through the Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) process, and was
approved. At approximately the same time, the availability of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
funding through the DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Gant (SGIG) program Funding Opportunity Announcement
(FOA) for grid modernization projects was announced. In October 2009, Utilities was notified it had been awarded
a matching grant of $15.7 million from DOE.
In April and May of 2010, Council approved both the appropriation and the sale of bonds in order to providing
matching funds for the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) awarded to the City from the Department of Energy
and for the installation of the AMI system. In July 2010, Council approved the appropriation of funds to bring water
meters into the advanced metering infrastructure. The Advanced Meter Fort Collins program (AMFC) included
citywide deployment of AMI, which now provides two-way communication between the Utility and both electrical
and water meters and can support communication between electric meters and customers. The information is
shared with customer via a Web Portal that allows them to make informed decisions on how they use electricity
and water.
This discussion will surround three major themes, intended to address some specific questions that council and
City leadership have requested be addressed:
Investment and Implementation
Benefits
Next actions and opportunities
March 24, 2015 Page 2
Investment and Implementation
The Fort Collins AMI system has several components. Specifically, the system includes the meter devices, the
communication systems, Information Technology (IT) components and the collection software, which is referred to
as the Head End System (HES), called the Energy Axis Management System (EAMS) by the manufacturer. The
AMI system vendor that we have selected is Elster Inc. Elster is a well-established and experienced vendor in
both the metering and AMI space. Elster has been providing metering to utilities for over 170 years.
The AMI meters are a solid-state meter with a two way radio communication card, a remote connect / disconnect
device, and a Home Area Network (HAN) communication card within the meter. The Home Area Network
communication card is capable of communicating with in-home displays, smart thermostats or other consumer
devices that can give customers near-real-time access to their energy usage data. All connections with the in-
home devices are initiated by the customer and will be the customer’s choice.
In order to bring information back to the utility, the meters communicate via a mesh network with a device called a
Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper serves as the communications link for the Neighborhood Local Area Network
(NLAN) by controlling the network interconnection efficiency and collecting the metering data from the individual
meters. A Gatekeeper can communicate with over 2000 meters. Typically, the Gatekeepers have been mounted
on existing street light poles.
The Gatekeeper communicates with the Distribution Wide Area Network (DWAN) router. The DWAN router then
passes the information via a second mesh network to optical-fiber-network-connected routers that will send the
information back to the utility. A diagram that shows the general architecture of the system is shown below.
To assure billing accuracy and provide a way to use the data for operational efficiencies and other benefits, this
project included a Meter Data Management System (MDMS). The Utility has selected Siemens to supply of the
MDMS. Siemens has collaborated with eMeter to supply and configure the system. With the installation of the AMI
system, the volume of data that the utility has been receiving has increased significantly, and the MDMS allows
these data to be more effectively managed and processed for billing, storage, and to support additional benefits
that will come from the system. We now receive 15-minute interval data from most of our residential customers
and all of our customers in the commercial and industrial classes.
March 24, 2015 Page 3
Installation began in the spring 2012 with an initial deployment area intended to help with system configuration,
operation, and system validation. After the configuration and validation phase was completed in the initial
deployment area, the majority of the meters were installed from September 2012, through July 2013. Following
that deployment phase, work to implement complex rates allowed for the installation of most of the meters that
serve commercial accounts. At this point, 29 large commercial electric meters remain to be installed as soon as a
software update from Elster brings the necessary data back to the MDMS for billing purposes. There are also 127
large commercial compound water meter modules that will be installed starting this month.
Below is a chart that depicts the project budget versus expenditures for the City of Fort Collins and the City of
Fountain, the recipients of the Smart Grid Investment Grant.
Since Fort Collins was the primary recipient on the grant and paid grant funds to Fountain, the funds to support
the Fountain project were also appropriated by Fort Collins City Council on 18 May, 2010, so they are included in
this budget chart. Fountain was reimbursed $2,151,569 of the $2,151,583 budgeted for Fountain’s portion of the
project. Thus far, Fort Collins has spent $30,065,733 of the $32,738,544 allocated for the Fort Collins portion of
the project, with the remaining $2,672,825 of the project budget composed of future payments to support the
project goals mentioned above.
Benefits
As described above, the MDMS is designed to help manage the information the AMI meters will provide with the
following benefits:
Effectively manage the AMI provisioning/commissioning process
Track key infrastructure assets: meters, communication modules, and compound meters
Validation, estimating, and Editing (VEE) of the 15-minute, hourly and/or daily usage allowing for variable
pricing options through time-of-use (TOU) metering
Reduce revenue loss through use of real-time validation algorithms and reporting that:
o Detect unauthorized consumption
o Detect leaks/tamper events
o Identify failed or failing meters
Systematically monitor and manage events and issue work orders based on information and alerts from
the metering system (i.e., on voltage variance, continuous water flows when predetermined maximum
limits are exceeded, tamper alerts, etc.)
March 24, 2015 Page 4
Support a systematic repair-and-replace program that extends infrastructure life and optimizes leak
control programs through precise tracking
Support electric distribution maintenance programs that will continue to support the high reliability to
which our customers have become accustomed.
The capabilities mentioned above leverage the MDM to realize savings and efficiencies, and there many more
means by which the AMI system can support the recovery of the purchase and installation costs for this project,
some of which we will describe in this document.
As electromechanical meters age, the bearing points and other parts of the meter wear out, resulting in a loss in
accuracy as the meter falls out of calibration. Solid state meters do not suffer from mechanical wear, and thus
remain more accurate over the life of the meter. Accuracy improvements resulting from the replacement all of our
electromechanical meters with solid-state (electronic) meters have been conservatively estimated as a one-time
benefit of $400,000.
The most obvious benefits are related to the reduction in vehicle miles for meter reading, meter read requests
from Billing (called Priority Read Service Orders), customer-requested checks on meter reads, electric service
connects and disconnects that occur when customers move into and out of residences in Fort Collins, and water
turn-off request for move-out service orders. Prior to the installation of the AMI system, all of these service
request types required a vehicle trip to the premise to accomplish the work. Now that the AMI system is
operational, the work for each type of service order has either been reduced drastically, or related vehicle trips
have been eliminated. As we build more data on this, it will support a new time and cost study that will determine
new reconnection fee costs.
To illustrate this point, the following chart that indicates the reduction in priority-read service orders as advanced
meters were installed. This reduction in priority read service orders translates directly into a reduction in vehicle
trips required to support our billing processes. Based on analysis of the priority read service orders from 2001
through 2012, the estimated time savings from avoidance of priority read service orders in 2014 saved worker-
hours equivalent to between 90% and 110% of a full time employee (FTE).
As a result of the reduced need for day-to-day manual meter reading trips, Fort Collins Utilities has reduced the
fleet of twelve vehicles previously used for routine meter reading and service order requests to only two vehicles.
According to fuel usage data from Fort Collins Fleet Services, the reduction in trips for the vehicles that were used
in meter reading activities amounts to about 36 metric tons of CO2e (CO2 equivalent) yearly. Avoided costs
associated with vehicle maintenance, repair, fuel, and operating costs when comparing 2014 to prior years
suggests an annual savings of about $46,870. The vehicle reduction benefit reflects not only cost savings, but
improvement in air quality, and progress towards the goals of the Climate Action Plan.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
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March 24, 2015 Page 5
The construction of the AMI system and the direct savings yielded through metering accuracy and the reduction of
vehicle miles traveled are only the beginnings of the benefits that the system can provide. The data collected by
the system, when manipulated or combined with other data to become information, has actionable engineering
and operations value for both the water and electric distribution systems. The ability to take in actual electric and
water consumption data to more accurately model distribution systems allows for more efficient design criteria for
current operations and future construction.
Electric meters also monitor service voltage and will send an alert through the system if the voltage is too high or
too low. This has the potential to inform us of connection problems, and even possible transformer failures. By
recognizing and correctly interpreting the alerts we receive, we are now able to find problems before they degrade
into a failure. Similarly, consumption data can be monitored in aggregate to identify when the load on a
transformer is growing to the point where a larger transformer will be required, allowing us to replace transformers
before there is an overload-related outage for the customers served by the transformer, essentially moving from a
reactive maintenance model to a proactive maintenance model.
An example of this came to light almost immediately after staff started installing meters in the initial deployment
area in March 2012. The receipt of more than 80 low voltage alarms from the system at first seemed like a
significant problem, but as staff reviewed the voltage alarms for location by associating the meters that the alarms
came from to their locations and the time of the alarms, staff ascertained that they came from only 11 meters
surrounding a single transformer. To address the problem and avoid an outage, the transformer was replaced the
following day.
Analysis of water consumption patterns has also enabled Fort Collins Utilities to alert homeowners of potential
leaks before they can cause excessive damage to their homes. Below is a message received from a Fort Collins
Utilities customer on this topic on January 7, 2015:
“I experienced the value of the Advanced Metering project firsthand when I received a call from
FC Utilities while on holiday vacation out of state. I was informed of a water leak in time to take
action and stop it before coming home to an even more devastating flood. I'm so appreciative of
the fact that our Utility monitored my use and acted on the information. GREAT service! Thank
you!!!”
Quality control and reliability was a significant part of the process Fort Collins Utilities used to select the best
vendor for our advanced metering system and, as such, the choice Fort Collins made is also a benefit to our
customers. There have been meter and meter socket fires reported in other states and in Canada related to a
particular meter designed and manufactured by a vendor that was not chosen by Fort Collins. A number of the
fires have been attributed directly to the design of the meter selected by the utilities in those other jurisdictions.
Some of the fires in those jurisdictions were also the result of connection and wiring problems in the meter
sockets, and some due to the integrity of the meter socket enclosure.
As a result of the quality and design of the Elster meters chosen by Fort Collins, there have been no meter socket
fires in Fort Collins related to the Elster meters used in our AMI system. During deployment, Fort Collins Utilities
and their installers proactively inspected every meter socket prior to installing a new meter, to identify the wiring
problems and other risks described above. Installers did find some installations that were deficient and replaced
or repaired those to assure that the meter installation was safe.
March 24, 2015 Page 6
Lessons Learned
This project followed a rigorous project management methodology that included regular risk review and planned
mitigation actions for each risk. The value of this became very evident as the seasonal portion of a tiered electric
rate took effect for the first time in June of 2012, exactly when the largest part of the deployment was planned.
Risk review considered the possibility that critics and some customers would confuse the higher rate for metering
inaccuracy, as had happened in California. The mitigation plan that was put into place was to delay the bulk
deployment until the summer rate had passed, which would avoid confusion related to the coincidence of the new
rate and the meter deployment. As it turned out, the summer of 2012 was not only a hot summer, but Northern
Colorado and Fort Collins was plagued by smoke from nearby wildfires, which led to more customers than normal
closing their windows and running air conditioning. Increased energy consumption coupled with a new seasonal
rate could have been very problematic for the project, so the value of the project management approach became
extremely evident.
Fort Collins Utilities found great value in starting with a smaller initial deployment area using our own workforce to
test installation practices and configure the AMI system. This yielded numerous procedural practices that we
passed on to our installation contractor to use on the bulk deployment to help make the installation much
smoother for the utility and our customers.
This project also reinforced that it is a useful practice to communicate often with customers. Many customers
have busy lives, and don’t always see every communication we send them, so attempting to touch base with them
multiple times before the deployment reached their neighborhoods gave us a much better chance that they would
be comfortable and aware when our contractor began working in their area.
Next Actions and Opportunities
The advanced metering system is a foundation for many more opportunities to improve the customer experience
as well as operational efficiencies. The opportunities mentioned in this document are certainly not the last
innovation and improvements that will build upon the capabilities that we have developed to date.
The near future holds the opportunity for customers to perform move-in and move-out operations themselves
online. The move-out functionality has already been completed, and the ability to perform the move-in request is
currently in testing and is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2015.
As the City of Fort Collins works to win a 2-year competition hosted by Georgetown University, community
engagement will be a significant part of the contest. As Fort Collins has branded it, the Lose-A-Watt Energy Prize
could benefit from finding ways to provide customers with their energy consumption data such that it will
encourage their participation in the goals of the competition. The Lose-A-Watt website already encourages
customers to sign onto Monitor My Use, Fort Collins Utilities’ Web portal, a tool that displays energy and water
use for Fort Collins Utilities customers.
Also in the future are opportunities to analyze and use consumption data to better integrate plug-in electric
vehicles (PEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and even renewable resources at higher concentrations
in our electric distribution system. As we move forward, we will realize that the greater value of the AMI
investment may very well be the future opportunities that it supports for the community.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Powerpoint presentation (PDF)
Advanced Meter Fort Collins (AMFC)
Update
City Council
March 24, 2015
Kraig Bader
1
ATTACHMENT 1
Topics
• AMFC Investment and Implementation
• Benefits
• Safety Issue: Question about Meter Fires
• Next Actions
• Near-term and Future Opportunities for
Improvement (OFI)
2
Investment:
AMFC Elements
3
Information
Technology
Infrastructure
&
Integrations
Information
Technology
Infrastructure
&
Integrations
Customer-
enabling Features
Customer-
enabling Features
Field Assets
• 65 million advanced meters will be deployed by 2015
• 50% of households by 2050
4
* Source: http://www.edisonfoundation.net/iee/Documents/IEE_SmartMeterRollouts_0512.pdf
Investment:
National Perspective*
Investment:
Long-term Perspective
AMFC: A key foundation
to transform our ability to
support, inform, inspire
and empower our
community.
5
Industry R&D will
create OFIs to
Longer term OFIs shape the future.
are being identified
for enhanced
benefits.
Current focus is on near-
term Opportunities for
Improvement (OFI) to
solidify benefits.
AMFC foundation is
99%+ complete and
providing quantifiable
benefits.
$-
$5,000,000
$10,000,000
$15,000,000
$20,000,000
$25,000,000
$30,000,000
$35,000,000
Appropriation
Ord. No. 43,2010
Budget Expenditures
Fort Collins, $34,890,127 Fort Collins, $32,738,544 Fort Collins, $30,065,733
Fountain, $2,151,583
Fountain, $2,151,569
Remaining, $2,672,825
6
Investment:
Budget Lifetime to Date (LTD)
Implementation:
Project to Enhanced Operations
The AMFC project is virtually complete and we
have moved into operations with the AMI in place.
7
Project
Time
Today
March 2015
Began Meter Installation
March 2012
SGIG Funding Awarded
June 2010
8
Initial Annual Benefits
• These benefits alone will
recover $1.27M annually
• Grey items will come
online in near future
• System is still in final stages
of implementation, so not all
benefits have been realized
yet.
• Ongoing System Expenses
(Maintenance & Labor):
• $ 458,000
Meter
Reading
Labor,
$623,000
Direct Load
Control,
Service $300,000
Switch Labor,
$217,839
Avoided
Transformer
Overloads,
$51,856
Meter
Reading
Vehicles,
$46,870
Load
Research,
$26,500
Handheld
Savings,
$10,630
Annual Benefits
Benefits:
Operational Savings
Benefits:
Major Operational Elements
• Meter Installation 99.9%+ Complete
• Meter-to-Cash/Billing Operational
• Web Portal – “Monitor My Use”
• Demand Response – “Peak Partners”
9
2065
376
1441
30
0
1
0
1
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Thermostats
Water Heaters
3/18/2015
Peak Partners Deployment Progress
(New and Legacy Customers)
Installations Enrollments Goal Thermostat Goal Water Heater
Updated on
Thermostat Goal
Water Heater Goal
Benefits:
Improved Metering Accuracy
• Old electro-mechanical meters are less accurate over time
• New electronic meters - no moving parts, improved accuracy
• Highly accurate, automated data collection
• Increased meter reading and billing accuracy
• One-time benefit $400,000
10
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
201104
201106
201108
201110
201112
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201210
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201302
201304
201306
201308
201310
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201410
201412
Priority Read Service Orders
Benefits:
Reduced Truck Rolls
• Highly reliable meter reading
• Remote reading capability
• Remote connect/disconnect
• Greatly reduced trips to field
11
AMFC Deployed
Benefits:
Air Quality – Meter Reading
• Eliminated Need for Monthly
On-site Meter Reading
• By 2014 – Eliminated 10 Meter
Reading Vehicles and Travel
12
Ø CO2 Reduced by
36 Metric Tons per Year
13
Benefits:
Saving Customers Money
• Early Detection of
Transformer Overload
• Transformer Replaced
Before Outage
Benefits:
Helping Protect Customers
• Continuous Consumption
Detection & Notification
14
“I experienced the value of the Advanced
Metering project firsthand when I received a
call from FC Utilities while on holiday vacation
out of state. I was informed of a water leak
in time to take action and stop it before coming home to an even more
devastating flood. I'm so appreciative of the fact that our Utility monitored my
use and acted on the information. GREAT service! Thank you!!!”
- Customer Message January 7, 2015
Benefit:
Improved Safety
• Meter and Meter Socket Fires Reported in Other States
• Related to a particular meter designed and
manufactured by a vendor not used in Fort Collins
• No meter socket fires in Fort Collins related to the
Elster meters used
• Customer Equipment
• Various causes for fires including failures of
customer/building wiring and service entrance
equipment (meter socket or enclosure)
• Utilities proactively inspected every meter socket,
found some that were deficient and replaced or
repaired those
15
Next Actions:
Near-term Opportunities for Improvement
• Online Move-in/Move-out
• Seasonal Water Irrigation
• Turn-offs/-ons
• Enhanced Distribution Modeling
• Supports Climate Action Plan
• Data to Enable Higher Customer Engagement
• Lose-A-Watt
16
Next Actions:
Future Opportunities for Improvement
AMI Enables More Advanced
Services
• Integration of PHEV
• Integration of PV
• Ability to support efficiency
and conservation goals
17
Next Actions:
Opportunities for Improvement
18
The greater value of the
AMI investment may very
well be the future
opportunities that it
supports for the
community.
AMFC Supports City Vision/Mission
19
AMFC is a foundation to support the City mission:
“Exceptional service for an exceptional community.”
201404
201406
201408
201410
201412
Priority Read Service Orders
AMFC Deployed