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Electric meter
Electric meter
Electric meter
Electric meter
Electric meter

KCP&L, Westar Expand Advanced Metering

Jan. 11, 2019
Landis+Gyr has announced a series of project and contract updates involving advanced metering deployments at Evergy Inc. subsidiaries

Landis+Gyr has announced a series of project and contract updates involving advanced metering deployments at Evergy Inc. subsidiaries, Kansas City Power & Light Co. and Westar Energy Inc.

Westar recently completed installation of Landis+Gyr's Gridstream AMI solution, deploying an RF mesh network and meters for 700,000 electric services in the eastern third of Kansas, thereby upgrading and replacing their first-generation smart meter deployment. Meanwhile, KCP&L is continuing work that supports an expansion of their managed services contract with Landis+Gyr, signed earlier this year. That contract extends the service agreement to 2034 and includes the addition of 180,000 advanced meters.

The Westar advanced meter deployment, which started in 2014, was completed ahead of schedule. Landis+Gyr is providing both the network and related software as services to the Evergy utilities, including dedicated onsite personnel.

Under terms of the new services contract, which includes a 16-year extension to the utility's managed services contract, KCP&L will expand advanced metering beyond the Kansas City metro area beginning in 2019, and cover more rural areas of the utility's service territory in Missouri and Kansas.

"The value of advanced metering data has proven itself for improving reliability and efficiency for both utilities," said Jeff Beasley, vice president of Customer Operations at Evergy. "The expanded metering coverage planned for KCP&L will help us improve customer service throughout our service territory, while reducing truck rolls and operational costs."

Landis+Gyr will complete installation of network components at KCP&L early in 2019 to provide coverage for the new FOCUS AX-SD and S4x meters. The meter deployment will take place over a two-year period.

"KCP&L was one of our first advanced metering customers and the latest service agreement extends our working relationship to 40 years," said Eric Seiter, Vice President and Regional General Manager at Landis+Gyr. "We look forward to helping both KCP&L and Westar identify new ways their technology investments can improve operations and customer service."

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