Electricity Metering Village of Springville, N.Y., Springs Forward With Automated Metering Reading For years, meter readers in the Village of Springville, N.Y., were pained by walking routes armed with route books, hoping to catch people at home in order to read meters. Read how ChoiceConnect™, the industry's leading meter data collection solution from Itron, is alleviating this pain. click here for more information White Paper: Developing a Business Case for Automating Meter Reading While the cost avoidance associated with automatic meter reading is apparent, there are many other revenue enhancements that can be realized from automation. Here's a white paper that has helped numerous utilities in developing their business case for investing in AMR. click here for more information Illinois Energy and Water Provider Sparks Productivity While Drowning Costs The spirit of innovation and progress that characterizes Princeton, Ill., is leading the city's electric utility to engage in major expansion and upgrades, including automation of its electric and water meters. click here for more information A Century of Refining Energy Management Technologies From its first electromechanical meter shipment in 1899 as the Sangamo Electric Company to its current high-technology, solid-state electronics operations, the Oconee Manufacturing Facility has evolved with changing markets and industry. click here for more information

Village of Springville, N.Y., Springs Forward With Automated Metering Reading
		For years, meter readers in the Village of Springville, N.Y., walked their meter reading routes armed with route books, hoping to catch people at home in order to collect electric consumption data. In the early days, electric meters were generally on the inside of houses, and the ones that were on the outside were often covered by piles of waist deep snow in the winter. In some cases, household electricity consumption was estimated due to the hard-to-reach meters.
A bedroom community, Springville is located about 35 miles south of Buffalo, offering a blend of suburban and rural life in the western region of New York state. The Springville Public Works Department provides electric and water services for the Village. In previous years, Springville had 12 meter routes, split up among a crew of four, all of whom had to be pulled off other duties to read meters for four days. With a population of about 4,500, the Village was forced to use the skilled linemen to perform the entry-level job of meter reading, at the same pay level of skilled linemen. The Village also reads about 1,650 water meters, most of which were generally located in home basements, causing all types of problems gaining access. "We had a difficult time scheduling appointments," said Karl Lux, Superintendent of Public Works. "We would be there and no one showed up. We would reschedule and reschedule and finally estimate the reading. If there was a leak between real and estimated readings, the customer would be unhappy when they saw the actual bill. With remote reading, we could have flagged potential leaks before they became a problem." Three years ago, the Village of Springville, a longtime customer of Itron, switched to Itron's ChoiceConnect™ suite of AMR products—the industry's leading meter data collection solution. The Village selected Itron's CENTRON® R300 electricity meters, FC200 handheld computers and 50W ERTs (on water meters) to collect energy and water usage remotely. The Village also purchased Itron's Mobile Collector Lite, an easy-to-use, portable drive-by automated meter reading (AMR) solution that uses the Itron FC200 handheld, combined with a powerful radio transceiver to gather data. A single Mobile Collector Lite can read up to 10,000 meters on a single route. "Our goal is to have everything read remotely," said Lux, who has been the Public Works Superintendent since 1992. "We want to eliminate the errors, the problems with access to the property, the amount to time our meter readers are in the field—with Mobile Collector Lite, we accomplish all of that." The CENTRON electricity meter allows utilities to collect meter data automatically, helping to save time, improve reliability, increase accuracy and ensure data security. With the deployment of CENTRON R300 and FC200 handhelds, the city needs only one meter reader to gather data remotely, taking one day to perform all the reads. The higher-skilled linesmen were able to get back to the types of jobs they were trained for, and repair work that was taking three months due to delays now only takes three days. Errors from hand-written or manually-keyed computer inputting have been eliminated, improving business operations and reducing customer service complaints. Further simplifying the water meter reading process was the use of Itron 50W ERTs on meters already deployed. The meter reading process was cut from 11 to five days and eliminated numerous appointments to enter the home, which often required personnel to make more than one trip. "Our customers are happy not to reorganize their day for a meter reading appointment, our workers don't have to plow through mounds of snow or yards with a dog protecting it, and the Village saves money and time, allowing our staff to work on other more worthwhile projects," said Lux. "Everyone has more accurate bills without any inconvenience." By using Itron ChoiceConnect solutions, the Village of Springville has greater consistency in its billing process and is able to rely on solid figures as opposed to guessing budget numbers in the public works department. Lux serves on the Executive Board of the Municipal Electric Utilities Association where he represents 40 different municipalities throughout New York state. He said switching to AMR and remote reading is something small municipalities are interested in, but cautious about, due to the costs. These smaller municipals need to realize a savings in a very short time to make this economic commitment cost effective to their ratepayers. "We are confident that we will get back everything we put into this system within five years," said Lux. "In addition, we are working better, more efficiently and more economically. It encourages better use of our workforce and our natural resources."

Illinois Energy and Water Provider Sparks Productivity While Drowning Costs
		An Opportunity and a Solution The spirit of innovation and progress that characterizes Princeton, Ill., is leading the city's electric utility to engage in major expansion and upgrades. The City of Princeton, a public electric and water utility located just 90 minutes outside Chicago, is experiencing an increase in population size, strong economic development and changing demographics. While the pace of the community is relaxed, the local government is taking aggressive action to grow
the quality of life for the city, increase above standard community projects and attract new business. Electric superintendent Jason Bird said, "The area in and around Princeton is well prepared for growth. More people are migrating to the area and customers need a more efficient infrastructure. At the City of Princeton, providing superior levels of service reliability to our electric and water customers is our priority. We recognize a great need to upgrade technologies to better utilize our utility service team here, and to better serve our customers." Improving quality of life, promoting economic development, encouraging broadband competition, retaining customer base and enhancing responses to power outages were all strong business drivers for Princeton. Princeton's goal was to maximize on services being offered to customers. Bird said, "We always had 2 employees for all of metering. Most of the work at the time was being done by the reader directly accessing each meter per location and recording that bill information on paper. In some cases, we did perform estimated reads, but it was not an efficient method for gathering information. Estimated reads are also difficult to explain to customers and often the outcomes of those reads cause customers to question the integrity of the read. We knew we wanted to dissolve this issue." Hiring any new resources was definitely not an option for Princeton. They began researching automated meter reading (AMR) solutions and realized that many options were available for them to create a strong business case to adopt solid-state meters and AMR technology. Increasing population lent to an increased sense of urgency; Princeton decided to do some preliminary meter testing to acquire actual numbers on how accurately the electromechanical meters were performing. "Princeton tested one of every five of our electromechanical meters. We found that on average, at least 3 percent of our meters were running very slow. We took an average of all reads and came up with a very conservative estimation that we were losing $70,000 annually in unmeasured energy usage." Application Immediately, Princeton knew the first step required a complete change-out from electromechanical to solid-state meters. The anticipated regain in revenue, even with omission of the cost of the new meters, showed a project payoff just over three years time. Their projected cost savings did not include the additional conservative average of $70,000 in estimated lost revenue that would be immediately gained with the reliability and accuracy of the new solid-state meters. The business case was based on this conservative estimation of cost savings without considering upgrades to the water side of their business. Upgrading to AMR on the water side was an obvious return on investment, and labor costs, operations efficiency and maintenance costs were also not factored into projected savings. With the business case built solely on the proven accuracy of solid-state technology, the council found the decision to approve the change-out an easy one to make. Benefits Princeton initiated a long-term deployment strategy that allowed them to easily upgrade to Itron's patented R300 technology, utilizing both CENTRON® and SENTINEL® meters, and eliminate inaccurate reads. The deployment involved 360,000 Itron electronic solid-state meters and 400,000 water meters equipped with Itron ERT modules. The AMR deployment included Itron handheld computers and Itron mobile units with MV-RS® software and was completed in just over 5 years. Princeton implemented a new billing cycle, reading three cycles in two days rather than reading two cycles per month. Now all cycles and reads are done in an average of seven days versus 14 days with only one meter reader. Other meter readers on staff were transitioned where resources were greatly needed. Princeton now has more time to spend on delinquency and other areas that help the utility stay competitive. The flexibility helps Princeton address other important issues affecting savings and revenue gain. For example, the linemen were previously utilized on a weekly basis to help supplement service areas-they are now free to focus on their desired roles. Princeton is much more efficient and in a position to influence policy and procedural change in the electric and water business. At least 10 percent of their customer base that previously ended up on a shutoff list is reduced to less than 5 percent with a projected revenue gain of $150,000 per month. Bird said, "Meter reading devices and AMR technology has delivered a lot of value without affecting manpower." Princeton also experienced a reduction in meter tampering. Princeton received Diamond-level status recognition through the American Public Power Association's Reliable Public Power Provider Program. In addition, the City of Princeton was presented with an Illinois Municipal Utilities Association's Member Community of the Year Award.

A Century of Refining Energy Management Technologies
		The Itron Oconee Manufacturing Facility is nestled in the foothills of the tri-state mountains of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It represents a world-class manufacturing facility with its commitment to ISO-9000 quality processes, leading-edge technology and the expertise of its dedicated, well-trained force. From its first electromechanical meter shipment in 1899 as the Sangamo Electric Company (located in Springfield, Ill.) to its current
high-technology, solid-state electronics operations, the Oconee Manufacturing Facility has evolved with changing markets and industry. For the past 100 years, it has been instrumental in developing and refining milestone energy management technologies. In the last 20 years alone, the facility was the first to use a microcomputer in metering, offer PC programming of meters and provide site diagnostics for advanced meters. The original 165,000 square-foot facility was constructed in 1961. Today, it is 317,000 square-feet; this represents additional manufacturing and office space in 1978, electronics expansion in 1991, and research/development and marketing growth in 1995. The facility invests an average 10 percent of its revenue in the latest state-of-the-art equipment with average upgrades every three to five years. Meter quality measures, accelerated life testing, field test data and independent verification of our products have all contributed to the successful shipment of more than 70 million meters, including 26 million solid-state residential meters, within the last eight years. Of the facility's many notable achievements, the following milestones show a proven history and reliable reputation that truly sets Itron meters apart from other North American meter vendors: > 1998 First electricity meter manufacturer to develop breakthrough solid-state advanced electricity metering technology for the residential market > 2005 The Oconee Metering Manufacturing facility was the first electronic meter manufacturer in North America to be granted an extended initial seal period of 10 years by Measurement Canada. > 2006 20 Million CENTRON® meters sold and shipped > 2007 Progress Energy and Itron complete fastest AMR deployment in North America; 1 Million SENTINEL® commercial and industrial meters sold and shipped; Frost and Sullivan name Itron the North American Market Leader in solid-state metering and AMI technology development with an established 45 percent market share. The facility uses two manufacturing science techniques—lean manufacturing and focus factories. These techniques are the underlying strength in executing Itron's processes. The technique used to build electromechanical meters was a manual process. With the introduction of electronic meters, more automation was needed. Then with the introduction of CENTRON technology, those processes became almost totally automated. In addition to the automation, the sequence of building meters changed. Now, the base meter is built and then the customer specific requirements are added at the end of the process. This change allows for high-volume production of the base meter by minimizing set-up change outs. The Oconee facility has been involved in surface mount processes for over 20 years. This experience provides Oconee with an edge over other manufacturing facilities. All CENTRON and SENTINEL meter boards are built on-site. Printed circuit boards are assembled using leading-edge technology. Automating the surface mount technology process allows for high volume production with the best possible accuracy. This organization has the ability to provide meters that are flexible in both form and function, satisfying the requirements of different types of service installations as well as a wide range of meter reading technologies. Rapid introduction of new products is achieved through simultaneous engineering using a phase process model supported by state-of-the-art rapid prototyping. A strong emphasis on continuous improvement and the application of lean manufacturing principles has yielded significant improvements in productivity, quality and safety.