In the District of Columbia, Pepco has completed its installation of smart meters and is making progress in eliminating the small number of remaining legacy meters in hard-to-reach locations. The smart meter radio network that allows the collection of detailed energy usage data has been activated for nearly all customers in the District. Smart meters give customers access to more information about their energy usage than they have ever had before through Pepco’s “MyAccount” website. The Commission continues to examine technical issues as well as consumer protection issues related to access to smart meter data by competitive energy suppliers who seek to make new products and services available to customers as they become more familiar with their energy usage data.
AMI and the Outage Management System (“OMS”)
The OMS is the primary tool used to receive customer trouble reports, analyze reports and provide summary reports for crew dispatching. Typically the process starts with the customer reporting an outage by calling the Call Center or from a smart meter reporting the loss of power. The OMS database has the customer information, including customer phone number, address, and connected transformer. Additionally, the database contains the electrical network configuration of each feeder connecting each transformer to a feeder and the location of switches, fuses and taps. The system then analyzes all reported trouble by sorting the reports, prioritizing and grouping multiple problems to a common source so that a repair crew can be sent. The OMS analyzes all the customer calls as well as AMI meter reports and then determines the common source of the problem. Information is also passed back to Pepco’s Call Center to provide information to the customer about current trouble and estimated restoration time under non-major storm outage conditions.
Load Research Plan
The PSC has ordered Pepco to provide a Load Research Plan detailing how it will make use of the new smart meter data to manage and plan its network when it files its next base rate case. The Company must demonstrate how it will use the new information for Cost of Service, Pricing and Rate Design, Demand and Energy Forecasting, Energy Efficiency and Load Management, and Distribution and Substation Planning.
Related Cases
- FC 1130 - The Commission's Investigation into Modernizing the Energy Delivery Structure for Increased Sustainability
- FC 1098 - Washington Gas Energy Services' petition for an investigation into retail electricity supplier access to smart meter data
- FC 1056 - Pepco's implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) including the deployment of smart meters and the development and implementation of a customer education program through the AMI Customer Education Working Group
- PEPDLPR - Pepco's Direct Load Program Reports