Professional Computer Systems Co. has released an integrated Meter Data Management system for utility companies. PCS has partnered with Utility Software Solutions Inc. to provide a seamless solution for integrating meter reading collection systems, meter analysis systems, customer billing, and other utility solutions.
MDM solutions are becoming the foundation of smart grid implementations. Unlike the advanced metering infrastructure systems of today that store meter readings and event statistics for 30 to 90 days, an MDM is designed to record much more historical data for a longer period of time. MDM solutions are uniquely designed to provide near real-time metering information allowing for detailed graphing of consumption patterns and analysis for operational and business purposes. The MDM backbone powers critical functions called validation, estimation and editing, commonly called “VEE.” This function alone provides the algorithms to always have the most accurate consumption available for enterprise systems.
In the past, MDM solutions could only be afforded by large utilities. The PCS/USSI partnership offers this powerful solution and is cost-effective for any size utility. The solution can be implemented on in-house servers or be hosted in the PCS Data Center, eliminating costly hardware and server expenses associated with the implementation of MDM projects.
Appalachian Electric Cooperative (AEC), a PCS client in New Market, Tennessee, recently completed an installation of the MDM system. AEC uses the MDM to harvest hourly readings from its AMI vendor. PCS and USSI developed the integration allowing the MDM to pass consumption patterns to PCS’ billing system. With the new integration, customer service reps can now review consumption graphs showing monthly, daily, and hourly usage in near real-time. AEC also has the goal to implement time of use rates in the future. With the MDM solution, the utility will have accurate consumption patterns for rate design and can combine that with the billing engine to bill for those rates. As an added benefit, AEC now has the historical data to view meter events such as blink count and outage events, distribution analysis and transformer loading.
