Tucson Electric Power (TEP), which serves nearly 400,000 customers in Southern Arizona, has signed an agreement to deploy Itron Enterprise Edition (IEE) Meter Data Management (MDM) to support its advanced metering initiatives by centralizing the management of its meter data and enhancing its billing and other critical business processes.
IEE MDM supports TEP’s gradual deployment of Itron advanced metering solutions - which includes over 100,000 CENTRON meters and Itron’s ChoiceConnect Fixed Network - while maintaining current business practices and minimizing the impact on upstream systems.
“We have been working to develop a long-term strategic approach that allows for gradual deployment of different new metering technologies and software applications, utilizing our existing installed advanced metering equipment and gradually phasing in new, more advanced tools and capabilities,” said Jim Taylor, engineering superintendent of metering for TEP. “We have developed a strategy that requires use of an MDM system as the core mechanism to allow for such an implementation and hedge us to the future of adopting emerging concepts.”
Additionally, in conjunction with its regulatory body, the Arizona Corp. Commission, TEP will use IEE MDM to support programs that could be used to shift energy demand to off-peak hours, thus deferring the cost of new generation. The software allows TEP to expand the number of commercial and industrial (C&I) customers who could use time-based rates. It also will help TEP enhance its time-of-use offerings for residential customers in early 2009.
