eMeter Executive Brief:
JEA Case Study
Introduction
JEA of Jacksonville, Florida sought in 2003 to increase the level of benefits the utility
was realizing from the implementation of its Cellnet advanced metering
infrastructure (AMI), known at JEA as its Network Meter Reading (NMR) system. By
that time, JEA was well down the path of installation of the NMR meters and
communications network. The focus became: how could JEA achieve the business
benefits of NMR that go well beyond simply automating the monthly meter reading
process. In doing so, JEA has become an industry leader in using data from fixednetwork AMR systems and realizing the business benefits of doing so.
Following an extensive business case development process, JEA decided to
implement an Advanced Meter Information System (AMIS) that includes a highfunction meter data management system (MDMS). Via an RFP process, JEA selected
the Power Information Platform™ by eMeter, or PIPe. In addition, eMeter brought in
Enspiria Solutions to perform additional integration services related to the
implementation of the PIPe, including JEA’s customer Web services and outage
management systems. eMeter performed the integration to billing.
JEA has four sources of meter reads: Cellnet’s NMR for the majority of its customers,
an MV90 system for a small number (a few hundred) of large commercial customers,
mobile data terminals (MDT), and an Itron PremierPlus4 handheld system. The MDT
system As needed for Customers where an automated read via Cellnet or MV90 is
not available for any reason at the time a read is needed for monthly billing
(“monthly billing window”). The handheld system supports manual meter reading for
customers not yet automated or in some water-only districts that may not be
automated for some time.
JEA desired a single, integrated MDMS to support and optimize its business
processes for all current three meter reading systems – and to support any
additional systems it may desire in the future.
JEA is the eighth largest community owned electric utility in America providing
electricity, water and sewer services to more than 650,000 accounts in Northeast
Florida.
Enspiria Solutions Inc. headquartered in Denver, Colorado, has, as its primary
business objective, the reduction of their utility clients’ risk while increasing the
performance and reliability of key utility assets and operational support systems.
Combining proven third party technologies, in-house software development, and
extensive utility business expertise, and the resources of its parent, Osmose
Holdings, Inc., Enspiria provides a comprehensive range of solutions aimed at
improving the integration of operational effectiveness, asset performance, customer
service, and energy efficiency systems.
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Business Case
JEA’s business case analysis had three primary steps:
1. A series of business unit and IT workshops and interviews to identify
potential business and IT benefits. This included incorporating JEA
corporate goals, technical and organizational constraints, and risk
factors. Data sources were JEA departments and industry benchmarks.
2. An analysis to assess and prioritize gaps between desired data
availability and uses and actual data availability and uses. The analysis
results were used to formulate proposed solutions.
3. Following validation, an implementation plan was developed.
The resulting financial analysis concluded that the MDMS project would substantially
increase the savings associated with the NMR system and would have a simple
payback of less than two years.
In its plan, JEA decided to target several specific goals in implementing an MDMS:
‰
Provide customer care consultants (CCCs) with ready access to up
to date consumption history to expedite bill research /
investigations.
‰
Improve productivity by lowering bill investigation costs by up to
25 percent.
‰
Improve customer satisfaction with an improved zero-defect billing
status and quicker and more accurate response to customer bill
inquiries.
‰
Enable virtual connect/disconnect with on-demand reads and highlow usage monitors.
‰
Enhance customer service with online access to latest meter data.
‰
Improve productivity by eliminating most off-cycle and special read
service orders, reducing backend orders processing and lowering
bill investigation costs.
‰
Improve customer satisfaction by providing added service
flexibility, connect/ disconnect time commitments and on-line last
bill estimates.
‰
Reduce call center backend processing by up to 70 percent per call.
‰
Reduce field service costs associated with physical disconnects,
manual meter reading, and meter re-reads by up to 95 percent.
‰
Enable more effective service risk management with meter tamper
flags, usage alerts, and on-demand reads.
‰
Improve profitability by increasing revenue, reducing write-offs,
and improving theft investigation productivity (by increasing
quality of leads and by lower investigation cost per lead).
‰
Increase utilization of distribution assets.
‰
Implement the project in a manner so as to minimize the impact
on existing IT Infrastructures.
‰
Ensure the MDMS interfaces comply with JEA standards and
specifications as well as all functional requirements.
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‰
Keep to the project schedule and remain within the project cost
budget.
Project Description
The purpose of JEA’s MDMS project was to implement a series of new interfaces and
enhancements to realize the potential of its advanced metering infrastructure
deployment. This project would implement information services included in the JEA
business case that were prioritized as first by improvements in customer satisfaction,
and second offered the best return on investment (ROI) to JEA.
The high-level project scope included the following deliverables:
‰
Meter Reads from Cellnet, MV90 and Itron – Receive and store
daily reads (cumulative, demand, and load profile/interval) from
Cellnet, direct register reads from Cellnet, billing reads from
Cellnet, weekly and billing cycle reads from MV90, and pickup and
billing cycle manual reads from the Itron handheld system. All
reads are stored in a single data repository. All reads will be
identified as good, stale, missing, estimated/allocated and used for
billing.
‰
Daily/Billing Allocation – For those days where daily data is not
available (missing or stale reads), calculate an allocated read and
store it in the data repository.
‰
Scheduled billing data to JEA’s customer accounting and
information system (CAIR) – On the scheduled meter reading
day, provide actual, allocated or estimated meter reads to CAIR for
billing. Where reads do not exist, request a read from the Itron
handheld system and provide these reads to CAIR. Provide a daily
billing report of good, manual, allocated, estimated and missing
reads.
‰
Virtual Move-in/Move-out – Upon request from CAIR, provide a
read for billing (actual, allocated or estimated) from the data
repository, or if a read is not available, request an on-demand read
from Cellnet. If a read is unavailable, indicate so to CAIR and a
read will be obtained through FFDS and the mobile data terminal.
‰
On Demand Read – Provide a programmatic interface by which
JEA personnel and systems can request and receive a read from
the data repository or from the network.
‰
Manual meter read estimation – Analyze the available meter
reads and produce a report of forecast of manual meter read
requirements prior to the actual meter reading day.
‰
Automatic request for field order – Upon detection of a problem
requiring a field visit issue a field order and track the field order
status to completion. Maintain a history of field activity and provide
reports on opened, closed and repeated field orders.
‰
Meter reading analysis and reports – Analyze the data and flags
provided by the different meter reading systems and identify
situations which require a field order (stale reads for more than X
days, missing reads, zero consumption, diagnostics flags, meter
reset, tamper, low battery, etc.).
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‰
Usage trends analysis and reports – Analyze the meter reads
provided and identify situations where the usage indicates a
potential problem and/or requires additional analysis (excessive
usage on an inactive account, usage exceeds a threshold, usage
indicates the customer should be on a demand rate, theft, etc.).
‰
Intranet access to data and presentation of data – Provide
JEA’s users with a web-based capability to view tabular and
graphical usage data contained in the data repository, view current
data collection status, view status of meter reading and usage
trends analysis, view status of field orders and service requests,
and request on-demand reads.
‰
Data synchronization – Synchronize MDMS with CAIR, the
Cellnet system controller database, and the outage management
system (M3i) to ensure that changes, additions, and deletions are
properly recorded.
‰
System load snapshot (SLS) and usage aggregation – Provide
reports with a snapshot of aggregated demand for a given
distribution circuit or transformer and daily meter reads by
transformer, showing overloaded and under-utilized transformers
based on transformer ratings data.
‰
Outage and restoration event management – Deliver real-time
outage and restoration events to M3i to support outage analysis
and management. Dynamically filter these events based on loading
and traffic during storm mode. Provide a means to configure
selected NMR meters as “bellwether meters” which would not be
filtered during storm mode.
‰
Meter asset management – Provide JEA users the means to
track the status and history of meters throughout the lifecycle
following initial installation until they are retired from service.
Provide viewing and reporting capability to identify trends in field
activity and data problems by meter or service point.
Implementation
eMeter and Enspiria implemented the project in three steps:
1. Requirements – in this phase, JEA worked with the project team to
define detailed technical requirements to implement the desired
functionality. The outcome was a very detailed requirements document
and project plan.
2. Base Functionality – in this phase, the project team implemented
the project plan. This included fully configuring and installing eMeter’s
MDMS software, the Power Information Platform™ by eMeter (PIPe). It
also included integrating the PIPe with JEA’s meter data collection
systems, on the one hand, and with JEA’s corporate IT systems, on the
other hand. One example of this was the interface to JEA’s outage
management system.
3. Enhanced Functionality – in this phase, the project team
implemented additional functionality beyond the applications included
in the initial installation. An example of this was providing key
customers – schools – with the ability to access outage information via
the Web (see figure below).
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Figure 1 – JEA Outage Application Showing Power Status of Schools
Future Plans
JEA continues to add functionality to its MDMS project as needs arise. Examples of
enhancements to the above functionality to be installed in mid-2006 are these:
‰
Enhanced Outage Filtering – Filtering of known meter
installation and maintenance activities to prevent delivery of false
power outage notices in such situations.
‰
Customized Outage Visualization – Additional user interfaces
for JEA dispatchers to use in checking outage status.
‰
NMR System Connectivity – Tracking and reporting of
communications connectivity in the NMR system (i.e. which meters
are communicating with which network nodes).
‰
Communications Performance Tracking – Tracking
management of the performance of the radio network.
and
Summary
JEA has successfully implemented its MDMS project and is now beginning to realize
many of the benefits anticipated in the project planning. A key use of the data is in
business intelligence in planning, managing, and operating the utility. JEA plans to
continue leveraging NMR data in these areas, making greater use of its NMR system
and increasing the business value.
The MDMS has improved the quality of data for customer billing by making it more
timely and more accurate. It has enhanced the process of connecting and
disconnecting customers on utility service. In conjunction with JEA’s outage
management systems, it enables JEA to know when customer power is out and has
enhanced JEA’s ability to restore service faster using data from meters. In addition,
the MDMS is providing JEA engineers with improved quality load data for enhanced
planning and engineering. As these new information services have been
implemented, JEA has begun realizing the associated savings.
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