IESO Selects IBM to Operate Ontario's Smart Meter Data Management and Repository System

March 14, 2013
IBM has been selected to continue supporting the Independent Electricity System Operator to operate Ontario's Meter Data Management and Repository system with new computing infrastructure and an updated operating environment.

IBM has been selected to continue supporting the Independent Electricity System Operator to operate Ontario's Meter Data Management and Repository system with new computing infrastructure and an updated operating environment.

The 5-year $68.5 million (Cdn) contract was awarded following a competitive procurement process and includes options to extend to seven or 10 years.

Under the agreement, IBM will provide new computing infrastructure, enhanced web services facility to support increasing volumes of requests for consumption information, enhanced disaster recovery capabilities, and operational improvements with a focus on reducing risk and costs.

The MDM/R is a core part of Ontario's Smart Metering Initiative to drive a culture of conservation, enabling the billing of Time-of-Use rates and encouraging consumers to shift more of their energy use to off-peak periods. The MDM/R supports the meter to billing operations of 72 local distribution utilities and their 4.7 million customers, processing over 100 million transactions every day. The MDM/R receives, validates, estimates and allows for editing and storage of meter read data received from smart meters. It then translates the resulting hourly energy consumption data into time-of-use billing quantities (or buckets) for use by local distribution utilities to bill and communicate consumption information to their customers. Given that the MDM/R is the central repository of hourly data about residential and small business energy use in Ontario, it will be a valuable tool for big data analysis, research and energy trend forecasting over time.

The IESO is responsible for managing Ontario's bulk electricity power system and operating the wholesale market. The IESO as the Smart Metering Entity is responsible for the administration and operation of the MDM/R, including the collection, validation, estimation and the ability for distributors to edit the meter read data.

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