Tech Talk | How electricity and water smart metering is improving the customer experience

Washington state utility Tacoma Public Utilities is close to completing a 300,000 smart electricity and water metering project.

The smart metering upgrade, which began five years ago, is focussed on putting in place a future-proof electricity and water metering infrastructure for the city’s growing number of residents.

Currently with more than 300,000 water and power customers, city officials anticipate nearly 130,000 new residents by 2040.

The technologies being deployed include the Sensus (now Xylem) Stratus IQ residential electricity meters and the accuSTREAM and ally water meters along with the FlexNet communication network.

Have you read?
User acceptance testing for AMI implementation: A perspective
Canada is poised for smart grid evolution

“With the goal to install 300,000 advanced meters across the power and water sectors by the end of 2024, TPU knows this technology improvement will be a benefit for both our customers and the utility,” comments Sally Mohr, TPU’s AMI programme delivery director, in a case study report.

Together these new systems – about two-thirds of them electricity meters and one-third water meters – are providing an average of 6.5 million registered reads daily.

With the near real time data from the electricity meters, TPU reports now having visibility into meter interferences and power meter fails that normally would take up to two months to identify.

The enhanced network also allows TPU to minimise safety issues and revenue loss by limiting truck rolls and providing accurate data for billing purposes and storm recovery.

For example, as of December 2023, more than 87,000 customers had been converted from the previous bimonthly billing to the monthly cycles enabled by the smart meters.

And following a severe January storm with high winds and heavy rainfall, which left thousands in the area without power, TPU reports being able to restore power within hours.

On the water side water with the pressure-reducing valve stations also equipped with near real-time pressure sensors and implementation of the Sensus smart gateway sensor interface, TPU is able to proactively address pressure issues before customers can notice a difference.

As an example, during routine maintenance, a detected pressure fluctuation enabled the TPU crew to address a lodged rock in a valve within hours and avert potential water customer impacts.

Mohr highlights the direct visibility into near real-time data as a key benefit.

“This level of transparency ultimately empowers our customers to take control of their bills and become active participants in managing their water and electricity usage.”

With the influx of information, TPU opted to invest in the Snowflake data warehouse, with support from its in-house team of data scientists.

Advanced analytics

Integrating advanced analytics was pivotal in utilising the AMI data alongside other key statistical assets, TPU found.

For example, following integration of its power outage management system, outage response times were reduced by 15-20 minutes.

Similarly, to manage its water department more effectively, TPU is leveraging AMI data to validate and improve the accuracy of the hydraulic model.

This approach has facilitated precise analysis based on actual usage, rather than projected figures, and is helping the utility to refine its system.

With the smart metering and the availability of so much data, TPU states that its innovation journey is just getting started.

Looking ahead, the focus should shift towards implementing advanced applications.

For example, adopting an advanced distribution management system (ADMS) promises enhanced outage management capabilities, bolstered by seamless integration with supervisory control and data acquisition systems and real-time analytics.

“These developments highlight our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to optimise operations, improve service delivery and ultimately enhance the overall utility experience,” concludes Mohr.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on LinkedIn