Metering.com 4 JANUARY 2018
Wisconsin Public Service Company has chosen Landis+Gyr to provide a multi-purpose advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network platform for advanced metering and grid modernisation.
Based in Green Bay, Wisconsin Public Service serves more than 450,000 electric customers and more than 326,000 natural gas customers in northeast and central Wisconsin and an adjacent portion of Upper Michigan.
The project includes deployment of an RF mesh network technology, 450,000 FOCUS AX-SD electric meters and about 326,000 two-way gas modules under a managed services agreement.
Additionally, the utility will use Landis+Gyr’s meter data management system (MDMS) under a Software as a Service agreement to integrate metering data into daily operations.
Wisconsin Public Service will have the ability to remotely connect utility customers and improve outage management support.
Related software systems will help the utility to retire several legacy IT systems, and the utility plans to utilise the MDMS to provide business process automation for several core functions. Once the project is complete, Landis+Gyr will continue to manage the network under a managed services contract.
“This project represents a major transition in technological capabilities for Wisconsin Public Service’s grid modernisation programme. By adding grid intelligence, communications and data management capabilities, the utility will be able to interact with devices across the distribution grid,” said Prasanna Venkatesan, executive vice president of the Americas at Landis+Gyr.
“The improvements gained in operational efficiency, reliability and customer service not only benefit the utility, but provide opportunities for energy consumers to become more engaged in energy management.”
Since 2001, the company has managed the advanced metering network for We Energies, a sister company of Wisconsin Public Service, helping the company transition from first-generation meter-reading technology to the latest network platform. We Energies recently expanded its advanced metering capability to 550,000 electric customers and is using Landis+Gyr’s MDMS for data management. We Energies and WPS will be able to share some system components, including the Command Center operating system for the RF mesh AMI network.
The multi-purpose RF mesh network provides a standards-based, IPv6-capable communications platform for advanced metering, intelligent sensors and distribution devices. The company’s MDMS is currently supporting some of the world’s largest advanced metering deployments, and processes data for more than 58 million metering endpoints at utilities around the globe.