December 6, 2006—To promote a more efficient electricity distribution system, the utility industry, as well as the 2005 Energy Policy Act, have called for consideration of advanced meters that measure electric usage on an hourly basis for all customers.
PPL Electric Utilities (PPL), based in Pennsylvania, recently became the nation’s first utility to obtain hourly usage from its entire customer base – nearly 1.4 million homes and businesses, according to the utility.
PPL’s Meter Data Management System (MDMS), developed and installed by Nexus Energy Software, is providing data validation, process management, storage, and analysis of hourly meter readings which are reported throughout the day by signals sent over power lines from all customers’ meters, primarily utilizing TWACS’ by DCSI meter communications technology.
With successful live operation of the Nexus MDMS, PPL has the largest operational system in North America in terms of hourly read data volume, and will be the most comprehensive in terms of applications that leverage the data, according to PPL.
The Nexus MDMS is the centralized storage and control system for data operations for the hourly meter reads, and provides the platform for integrated applications for enhanced revenue protection, complex billing, forecasting, distribution management, load research, settlement, and customer energy management services, which will be rolled out over the next several months.
For more information, see the Nexus Web site.
