Landis+Gyr, Arizona Utility SRP Expanding Adaptive Energy Program

Sept. 10, 2008
Landis+Gyr has announced a three-year advanced metering contract with Arizona utility Salt River Project.

Landis+Gyr has announced a three-year advanced metering contract with Arizona utility Salt River Project (SRP). The contract, valued at US$52 million, expands SRP’s M-Power prepay program with the delivery of 300,000 Landis+Gyr AMPY Pay-Smart meters and related proprietary communications solutions. SRP ranks as the third-largest public power utility in the United States.

AMPY Pay-Smart meters represent a global trend toward Adaptive Energy Models, which promise to transform energy from a commodity to a personalized service.

At the core of Landis+Gyr’s AMPY Pay-Smart solution is adaptive control technology, which enables utilities to create or modify service programs to meet usage and payment needs of individual consumers – without the need for additional technology. The AMPY Pay-Smart metering system can be configured to operate in one of four different modes –credit, credit with in-home display, wireless prepayment or critical peak pricing/demand response.

Landis+Gyr AMPY Pay-Smart meters deliver real-time information and bidirectional intelligence to both the utility and the customer resulting in lower service costs. Broadcast messages and pricing signals also can be delivered to every customer on the system through the Landis+Gyr EcoMeter In-Home Display.

“Real-time information in the hands of a consumer is the key to a positive behavior change,” said SRP Customer Service Executive Mike Lowe. “When the consumer can, in the moment, adjust their usage by turning on or off appliances and other devices, they get an immediate understanding of how their behavior impacts their energy costs. Furthermore, it has always been our goal to work with consumers as they adjust to the tools and information they now have to optimize communications and other program elements so it works best for each individual. Landis+Gyr delivers a greater ability to interact with our customers the way we want to.”

SRP’s flexible prepayment program, M-Power, was originally built on the AMPY Pay-As-You-Go system. An in-home display plugged into an ordinary electrical socket communicates in real-time directly with the electric meter, tracking how much energy an M-Power customer is using in simple dollars and cents and signaling when it's time to make a new purchase. This real-time information in the hands of consumers provides them with more control and allows them to make more informed decisions about their individual energy use. By expanding the M-Power program with AMPY Pay-Smart technology, SRP bring consumers additional payment options and SRP can design additional service programs that meet individual consumer needs.

SRP M-Power customers, on average, experience an annual reduction in household energy consumption of about 12 percent, or 1,750 kilowatt-hours (kWh). More than 59,000 SRP customers currently use M-Power, and another 10,000 customers per year are expected to be added during each of the next five years. Eighty-four percent of M-Power customers report being very satisfied with the program and more than 90 percent believe they use energy more wisely as a result of participating in the program.

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