The City of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, has selected MeterSense to provide meter data management (MDM) for its electricity, water and gas delivery services.
The utility company—a wholly owned entity of the City of Medicine Hat—will implement MeterSense as part of a larger advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) smart meter project. MeterSense’s AMI and MDM capabilities will help the utility improve the way it serves the Medicine Hat population of 61,000.
Specifically, MeterSense will enable the City of Medicine Hat to:
- Automate meter reading and eliminate the need for regular access to customers’ properties for meter checks
- Deliver timely and accurate bills that are based on customers’ exact usage data rather than estimates
- Develop future conservation initiatives that are targeted precisely to the gas, water and electricity use habits of community residents
- Provide customers with comprehensive analyses of their consumption patterns
MeterSense is supported by automated validation routines to ensure AMI data meets high quality standards. The solution also monitors AMI system operations to identify and correct problems quickly. As a result, MeterSense will enable the City of Medicine Hat to optimize performance on its water, gas and electricity grids, and serve customers faster and with more accurate and comprehensive data than ever before.
Thanks in part to MeterSense, the City of Medicine Hat expects that its smart-meter program will pay for itself in approximately seven years.
“Our partnership with the City of Medicine Hat marks the first time in Canada that smart metering will be used to manage gas, water and electricity operations concurrently,” says Rob DiMurro, president, Harris Utilities. “Although it’s already well-established in the electricity sector, smart meter technology is becoming much more prominent in the water and gas sectors. Designed from the outset to integrate with business processes, MeterSense enables utilities to contain costs and improve customer satisfaction.”
From billing data to outage and restoration events, from performance monitoring to revenue protection, MeterSense collects, manages, stores and delivers smart grid information intelligently. About Medicine Hat Located nearly 300 kilometers southeast of Calgary, Medicine Hat is home to more than 61,000 people. Its immediate proximity to a number of large natural gas fields earned the city the nickname “The Gas City”, and has enabled the city to develop a strong energy-production business. Through its energy division, Medicine Hat generates electricity and distributes resources such as gas and electricity to local residents and surrounding communities.
