The Hidden Cost of a Broken Distribution Model: How AMI Data Reveals the Grid You Actually Operate
November 5, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM ET | 1:00 PM CT | 11:00 AM PT
Duration: 60 minutes
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Summary
Storms, switching, and years of undocumented field changes pull your connectivity model away from reality. Every downstream system inherits the error: crews are deployed to the wrong location, outage predictions miss customers, transformer loads look lighter or heavier than they are, and capital plans fund the wrong designs. Reliability suffers, and costs compound.
The solution starts with data already flowing from your meters. Aclara360 uses AMI voltage patterns to infer how the grid is actually connected. Meters sharing a transformer tend to rise and fall together; differences in those patterns help distinguish transformer and feeder relationships. By comparing these electrical signatures with your existing model, topology estimation identifies misplaced meters, checks phase assignments, and flags connectivity mismatches for review. Utilities can focus field verification on suspected errors instead of inspecting the entire network, using the findings to guide model corrections. The approach works with existing AMI interval data, putting your metering investment to work beyond billing. Corrected connectivity provides a stronger foundation for outage response, transformer loading, phase balancing, and planning for solar and EV growth.
Speakers
Jeff Little
Director of Software Product Management
Aclara360
Jeff Little is Director of Software Product Management at Aclara, responsible for Aclara’s AMI and analytics software portfolio, including Aclara360. He brings broad smart grid experience across engineering and product management, having served in product engineering, systems engineering, and hardware and software product management roles. His work focuses on helping utilities extend the value of their AMI investments by transforming meter and grid data into actionable operational insights. Jeff holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from LeTourneau University.
Dr. David Rieken
Vice President, Engineering Research
Aclara360
Dr. David Rieken is a technology executive and research leader specializing in distributed intelligence, advanced analytics, and grid-edge computing for electric utilities. He serves as the technical lead for the Aclara360 platform, a distributed cloud-edge system for grid observability, analytics, and operational intelligence. Over the past 20 years at Hubbell/Aclara, he has led smart grid and distribution automation research focused on applying advanced sensing, information theory, edge computing, and machine learning to utility infrastructure challenges. Prior to Hubbell/Aclara, he conducted research at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Boeing, and General Dynamics.
