AMR stands for Automated Meter Reading. It is the general term for one of many technologies available to remotely read your utility meter without sending someone to your property to actually look at the reading on the meter.

In our Fall newsletter, we told you that MEWCo’s Board of Directors approved a contract for the TWACS metering system. TWACS stands for Two Way Automatic Communication System, and is the brand name for the AMR solution provided by a company called DCSI. DCSI is currently the national AMR leader in terms of the number of deployed end points (meters).

The TWACS system uses power line carrier technology to talk to and receive information from each electric meter. That means it uses the existing power lines as the communication path (see Fig. 1). At each of our substations, special equipment is installed that couples a signal onto the distribution network. The meters at each service location receive that signal and “talk” back over the same lines. MEWCo’s main office communicates to each substation over an existing communication network to complete the system.

Why This Is Happening

Fig. 1: Electric Metering System Overview

What Is AMR (and TWACS)?

Currently, MEWCo spends a great deal of time and manpower reading electric meters for purposes of normal usage, read-ins/outs, and bill/payment resolution. The current method of getting those reads involves several employees, multiple paper processes, gasoline, and manual data entry. The timeliness of the reads is also a factor. Normal usage reads are done once per month (if there are no access issues). For requested reads and bill resolution, an additional trip and verification is required. Most often, these requests take several business days to be processed and resolved.

December 2007

Volume 1, Issue 1

AMR Newsletter

MODERN ELECTRIC WATER COMPANY, A CUSTOMER-OWNED UTILITY, STRIVES TO PROVIDE RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT ELECTRIC AND WATER SERVICES AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE COST

With AMR, the system will read every meter daily for usage and other status information automatically. Usage will be more accurate, as we will be able to monitor every meter for daily (and even hourly or less) usage patterns. Special request reads can be done while the customer is talking to the customer service representative, allowing “near-instant” bill resolution. You will still be billed on a monthly basis.