Edgecombe-Martin County EMC has begun a system-wide upgrade of its current Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system to an advanced Landis + Gyr AMI system. The new system will use two-way communication over a secure network to provide members the latest in advanced metering technology. The upgrade will not impact rates.
“The upgrade to the AMI system is significant,” said Edgecombe-Martin County EMC CEO Winston Howell. “The data received from the new Landis + Gyr meters will be critical to the operations of the co-op and will provide numerous benefits. The meters will provide more data to answer consumption questions and allow for faster outage response, while also providing capabilities to better analyze our distribution system to recognize issues that could potentially cause an outage and correct the issue before an outage occurs.”
Once the meters are fully installed, members will no longer have to call in to report power outages. A signal from the affected meters will notify the co-op, providing more complete information on the location and numbers of members affected by the outage. The AMI system will complement the co-op’s conservation voltage reduction (CVR) and distribution automatization projects currently in place, as well as any future CVR and distribution automatization projects across its system.
The AMI upgrade is in an early phase of installing communication equipment, with plans to start the meter exchange phase of the project within the next few months. The project is expected to be completed in 2021.