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PGE wins Chartwell's Best Practices Award for Metering & Data Management
PGE wins Chartwell’s Best Practices Award for Metering & Data Management
ATLANTA – April 26, 2008 – The Chartwell Best Practices Award for Advanced Metering and Data Management was awarded Thursday to Portland General Electric (PGE) (NYSE:POR) at Chartwell’s Advanced Metering and Data Management Summit.
The award honors a forward-thinking utility for an advanced metering or data management initiative, based on innovation, depth of business case and achieved goals, among entrants to the contest.
PGE earned the award as a result of its ongoing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) initiative, which culminated in September 2007 when it contracted with Sensus Metering Systems for more than 850,000 FlexNet meters. PGE plans to roll out AMI to approximately 820,000 residential and commercial customer meters between 2008 and 2010, subject to regulatory approval.
As characterized in its award entry, which was submitted by Enspiria Solutions, a Denver-based consulting firm that has done work on the project, PGE closely monitored and tested AMI for more than a decade.
During that time, PGE has carefully developed a positive business case. PGE also was one of the first utilities in North America to realize a centralized meter data management system (MDMS) was needed before AMI. As a result of this strategy, the utility implemented an MDMS several years before it contracted for AMI, and has been building its system in preparation for the influx of customer data. Today, this practice is a trend in the industry.
PGE has a well-defined approach to its AMI installation, while ensuring reliability during the meter exchange process. Its integrated strategy to expand its AMI to reach broader Smart Grid goals within the next several years — including distribution asset utilization, demand side management and outage management — was another factor in its award-winning entry.
“Portland General Electric’s initiative is the result of careful planning, internal and external communication and patience. We chose PGE based on its realization of where the industry is at and where it is headed,” said Mark Hall, Chartwell’s metering research analyst.
“From the outset, our approach was to begin with the end in mind,” said Bruce Carpenter, general manager, PGE revenue operations. “We have spent more than 10 years thinking about, testing and ultimately implementing our MDMS and automated metering systems. We want to thank Chartwell for recognizing the efforts of many who have helped us achieve our business and customer focus objectives.”
A full case study of Portland General Electric’s AMI initiative is forthcoming and will be published in future Chartwell publications.
Based in Atlanta, Chartwell is a leading best practices research and information firm focused on customer service and customer-facing operations in the utility industry. Through its published research and hosted events, Chartwell facilitates knowledge exchange among utility and energy professionals responsible for management practices and technology solutions. Chartwell Best Practice Awards focus on residential customer service, utility marketing, and other areas of utility operations.
PGE, headquartered in Portland, is a fully integrated electric utility that serves more than 804,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in northwest Oregon. Visit PGE on the Web at www.PortlandGeneral.com.
For more information on the awards, summits or metering research, contact Mark Hall, Research Analyst, at mhall@chartwellinc.com or 404-237-9099.
