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AMI & AMR


Fire Safety & Smart Meters

New study shows metering devices are electrically safe BY LEN GARIS, Fire Chief of the City of Surrey A new study by a Canadian university may help mitigate any lingering concerns about the fire safety of smart meters. “Revisiting the Safety of Smart Meter Installations in British Columbia”,...

Smart Meters for Outage Management

Reviewing the benefits and addressing the obstacles BY RON CLANTON & MARK HOLLIDAY, KPMG LLP The outage management process has undergone remarkable changes over the last several decades. The need to respond to power outages when they occur has been around since the first lines were run from...

Demand Response


FERC Complaint Targets Duke, PJM Transmission Planning

A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...

The End of the Road for Transmission Incentives

In a significant shift, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has decided to abandon its transmission incentives policy, particularly the construction work in progress (CWIP) incentives. This decision marks a pivotal change in how transmission projects are financed and regulated,...

Customer Billing


Sales Order Automation for Electric Utilities

In today’s technology driven society, the pace of business is faster than ever. With access to new tools and innovations, electrical distributors are continuously expected to improve efficiency and customer service, delivering more with less and in increasingly rapid ordering cycles. Faced with...

Customer Billing Service Options

As competition among electric utilities heats up and additional retailers enter the market with electricity offerings, a noticeable trend has emerged: a heightened focus on the customer experience. Larger conglomerates and smaller providers alike have made service and communication objectives a top...

Smart Metering

Neighborhood Area Networks

Standardizing communication to achieve plug-and-play interoperability

BY RYAN MALEY, ZigBee Alliance

All over the world, there is increasing demand for standardizing communication in the Smart Grid. Electric utilities and their regulators are increasingly concerned with upgrading all aspects of the Smart Grid. Utilities are taking actions to improve reliability and efficiency by upgrading infrastructure and adding communication throughout the entire grid. One particular area of focus is the so-called “utility last mile”, the neighborhood area...

Smart Metering Articles