Itron Case Study
Xcel Energy
Enhancing & Streamlining Operations
Using the Itron Meter Data Management
System
“To minimize the risks
associated with
implementing a new
billing system, we looked
for ways to use a
standard, proven
package for meter data
management,” said Xcel
Energy Data Acquisition
Systems Team Lead,
Steve Moschkau. “Our
goal was to avoid
customizing the billing
system if at all possible.”
background
As the product of a merger between Minneapolisbased Northern States Power Company and
Denver-based New Century Energies, Xcel Energy
emerged in 2000 as the nation’s fourth largest
combination utility, serving 3.3 million electricity
customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers
throughout 12 states. However, the Minneapolisbased operations, Xcel Energy North, and the
Denver-based operations, Xcel Energy South, each
operated using different and sometimes conflicting
business rules, data formats, and customized legacy
systems. For example, each had its own Customer
Information System and neither system interfaced
with the other. The organization lacked
an enterprise view of its meter-reading and billing
operations. Once bills were produced, Xcel Energy
could not distinguish which data came from an
interval data system, which data originated from
meter readers, or what information was delivered
from a fixed network or automated mobile data
collector. Xcel Energy wanted to change this
environment to improve its operations and evolve
its business.
opportunity
In 2002, Xcel Energy elected to implement a new
billing system in order to benefit from a single
enterprise-wide solution. This large-scale project
created an opportunity to revisit the structure of the
billing system and its interfaces with other local
applications used by the North and South
operations.
“To minimize the risks associated with
implementing a new billing system, we looked for
ways to use a standard, proven package for meter
data management,” said Xcel Energy Data
Acquisition Systems Team Lead, Steve Moschkau.
“Our goal was to avoid customizing the billing
system if at all possible.”
“We recognized that if we separated the meter
reading data from the billing system, we could
realize a number benefits,” he added. “Separation
would enable us to avoid customizing the billing
system, streamline processes company-wide and
better ensure the integrity of the data used
throughout the organization. At the same time, we
could more easily pursue supplemental functions
that were outside the scope of the billing system
project.”
Xcel Energy contracts with IBM for the majority of
its IT services, leaving IBM to chart the best course
to achieve the company’s IT goals. Bryan Groll,
IBM Global Services metering account manager for
Xcel Energy, said, “We had a pretty tight
timeframe for implementing a new billing system,
yet we knew revamping the system also created a
unique opportunity to help Xcel Energy improve its
overall business processes. Sometimes the best way
to change business processes is to change the
systems that drive them. The challenge was to find
a way to implement a new billing system and the
meter-reading database solution within the utility’s
parameters. We found the solution when we found
Itron’s Meter Data Management system.”
solution & results
The Meter Data Management system essentially
creates a centralized repository where premise,
meter and register data for Xcel Energy meters is
stored. As an independent entity in the overall IT
network, this solution provides a scalable platform
for collecting and storing meter data from any
number of data collection systems. It functions as a
one-stop point from which the billing system can
request and receive billable readings and interval
data in a consistent format.
Xcel Energy customers receive energy bills via the
Peace Energy Billing System, a complementary
customer information system that integrates
seamlessly with Itron’s Meter Data Management
System. At the same time, the system provides
accurate, up-to-date information to other utility
enterprise systems using application program
interface (API), industry-standard query tools and
reports. Another benefit is that all versions of data
are stored along with the original, which helps Xcel
Energy satisfy the requirements of the SarbanesOxley Act of 2002.
“With the meter functions separate from the billing,
we have better, more clearly-defined functionality
lines established between our delivery and retail
business units,” states Moschkau.
Flexible Meter Data Acquisition
Another area notably altered by the new databasebilling structure was meter-reading data collection.
With its new IT structure,
Xcel Energy is poised for
the future. Because of
the open-platform nature
of Itron’s Meter Data
Management system, the
plethora of data stored by
the system is now
available for use by a
variety of other
information systems at
Xcel Energy.
“Between our North and South operations, we
collected meter data using four different meterreading methods,” said Moschkau. “In the South,
reads were obtained primarily using a mobile
collection system and Itron’s Integrator software.
Commercial and industrial meters were read by one
of four copies of MV-90. The North had a large
implementation of Cellnet AMR, with handheld
readings through a second copy of Itron Integrator
and more interval data collected by MV-90. There
were also differences in reading schedules, billing
windows and a number of other operating
parameters. The CIS implementation project gave
us an opportunity to standardize operations
between the two groups.”
Another advantage was that in the past, each time
Xcel Energy selected a new meter-reading
technology, they had to customize the billing
system. With new technologies becoming available,
and the potential for older systems to be retired,
Itron’s solution allows Xcel Energy to avoid the
cost of writing and maintaining interfaces. At the
same time, it prevents disruptions to the billing
process. In fact, during the installation of the billing
system, Xcel Energy added the ability to read with
SmartSynch meter-reading technology. With the
Meter Data Management system in place, the
addition of SmartSynch was virtually transparent
and didn’t disrupt or delay the billing system
implementation schedule.
Billing Flexibility
While the meter-reading database interfaces help
minimize billing system maintenance costs, it also
provides a place to prepare and pre-process data for
use by standard features in the billing package. In
this respect, Itron’s Meter Data Management
system provides a one-stop point from which the
billing system can request and receive billable
readings, register and interval data.
“The flexibility of the data management system has
allowed us to easily adapt to billing system
changes,” said Moschkau. “For example, our
billing engine had certain requirements for
calculating on-peak and off-peak consumption. The
meter repository has been able to calculate the
appropriate values and respond to those requested
from the billing engine. That has saved us from
making changes to the billing engine, which would
have proven very costly.
“Multiple readings for the same meter are handled
smoothly as well,” Moschkau added. “For example,
if readings come in for the same meter from a
handheld and the AMR system, the meter data
repository stores both readings. But with special
business rules, only the billing quality reading is
passed to the billing system. The non-billing
register reads, meter attributes and route attributes,
however, remain accessible from the meter data
repository. This feature provided the traceability we
required.”
Improving Operations
Xcel Energy significantly enhanced the meterreading/billing process, and realized a number of
other benefits throughout their organization. For
example, now when a customer service
representative processes a move-in/move-out or
meter exchange, that data is automatically
synchronized with the CIS and meter-shop
functions. This automatic updating has eliminated
inefficiencies such as hand-entering the changes at
multiple places.
Currently, Xcel Energy has about 12,000 meterreading routes throughout its 10-state territory.
Changing existing routes and adding new ones
triggers updates in other systems. To keep route
information up-to-date in all these systems, Xcel
Energy uses an automated synchronization process
wherein the CIS, meter data repository and route
management application are synchronized
whenever data in any one of those systems changes.
The interface capabilities of Itron’s Meter Data
Management system makes this task easy and saves
valuable resources.
From a customer standpoint, customer service has
been enhanced as well. Customer representatives
access the origin of all meter reads and respond to
customer queries with web screens using XML
interfaces. For the majority of Xcel Energy North’s
Minnesota metropolitan customers, customer
service is now able to respond to tenant changes
with meter readings from its Cellnet AMR system.
Rather than estimating a closing account bill by
prorating the last month’s billing read, the new
system allows Xcel Energy North to use all of the
daily data to generate the bill.
For other utility operations, the elimination of
legacy restrictions in the prior systems has allowed
Xcel Energy to merge new data with existing data
and phase in new business processes, thereby
taking advantage of new system functionality. For
example, since beginning the Meter Data
Management project, Xcel Energy has worked with
Itron on its Distribution Asset Optimization and
Utility Innovations projects, which leverage
customer meter data for use across distribution
network and outage management systems. These
projects have led to better asset utilization and
understanding of outage reasons and accurate
restoration times.
thinking ahead
With its new IT structure, Xcel Energy is poised for
the future. Because of the open-platform nature of
Itron’s Meter Data Management system, the
plethora of data stored by the system is now
available for use by a variety of other information
systems at Xcel Energy. This unprecedented access
to company-wide data provides Xcel Energy with
the flexibility to develop prototypes and employ
new system functionality. For example, should new
rates or calculations be proposed, the Meter Data
Management system will make it easy to preprocess data so that existing billing functions do
not need to be changed.
conclusion
Xcel Energy selected Itron’s Meter Data
Management system to help facilitate its
consolidation of two legacy customer information
systems into one central billing system. By
implementing Itron’s meter data repository
solution, Xcel Energy was able to eliminate legacy
system restrictions, consolidate data sources and
phase in new business processes. With Itron’s
meter data repository solution, Xcel Energy finally
has all the necessary elements in place to address
ongoing concerns such as demand-side
management, procurement, curtailment and
customer service issues. Given the system
architecture of the Meter Data Management system,
Xcel Energy has a flexible system that addresses
present-day needs, while providing a platform for
growth.
Publication 100540CS-01
06/05