Palo Alto’s transition to an “advanced metering infrastructure” will require the installation of five “base stations” with 10 boxes, as shown on the right. Provided by the City of Palo Alto.
After eight years of sway, debate and planning, Palo Alto is preparing to start turning to “smart meters,” and city leaders believe that this $20 million initiative will make local electricity, natural gas, and water supply facilities more efficient and reliable.
The city will approve contracts with three companies that the utility has chosen to install so-called “advanced metering infrastructure,” the system of meters and data management tools that allow communication between customers and the utility.
A report from the Utilities Department stated that Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is “a basic technology that is becoming a standard for the utility industry.” The report states that the technology helps to improve the customer experience, enhance reliability, and enable communities to achieve their sustainable development goals. For example, it can provide customers with real-time energy usage data and help them find the best time to charge their vehicles or use electrical appliances. It can also remind customers about water leaks.
The implementation cost for the city to switch to smart meters is approximately US$20 million. This includes a payment of approximately $12.7 million to Sensus, the company selected by the city through a bidding process to replace all 30,326 existing meters with its own “smart” meters. Palo Alto also plans to pay up to US$4.7 million in installation service fees to Sensus subcontractor Utilities Partners of America, and to pay Smart Works US$1.3 million in data management fees.
It also needs to reorganize the public utility sector, where seven meter reader positions will be eliminated. The report states that once the new technology is adopted, the city will “do its best” to train and reassign seven staff members to new roles. At the same time, the city is preparing to establish new positions, including AMI manager, AMI system technician, and MDMS (Meter Data Management System) data analyst to manage systems related to the new technology.
Although smart meters are nothing new, and about half of utility companies and more than 80% of investor-owned utility companies (such as PG&E) are already using them, the city council’s conversion of this technology is relatively new. In 2012, the committee chose not to switch, citing high costs and uncertain benefits. The board members changed their minds in November 2018, when they unanimously endorsed the technology and approved the roadmap for its implementation.
A key step in the implementation process took place on July 7, when the Public Utilities Advisory Committee voted to approve the withdrawal of $18.5 million from the Ministry of Public Utilities’ “Special Power Projects” reserves to pay for advanced metering infrastructure (these funds Ultimately, it will be the taxpayer of electricity, gas and water). The committee plans to approve the committee’s recommendations after the summer recess.
The committee, which has been discussing the project for many years, generally believes that the conversion will benefit both the city and the customer. The only opponent is Commissioner Fermetz, who suggested that the city should develop a clear plan for the “smart grid” plan before investing. Other committee members, including AC Johnston and Greg Scharff, supported the work to proceed without delay.
Johnston said in the discussion on July 7: “It’s really exciting to see this progress and get close to actual implementation.”
Both Johnston and committee chair Lisa Forssell stated that they are concerned about potential cybersecurity threats to advanced metering systems. Although employees assure them that each vendor meets industry standards in terms of privacy and security, Forssell urges employees to cooperate with auditors and security companies to conduct penetration tests to ensure system security.
Although the committee members generally believe that the system will bring tangible benefits to electricity and water users, Scharff pointed out that the benefits of natural gas customers are not so obvious and questioned the need to invest in natural gas utilities, which may be in the future. Phased out in 2010 as the city strives to achieve its sustainable development goals.
However, the utility staff pointed out that retaining the existing gas meters would require the city government to retain meter readers, thus giving up one of the main economic benefits of switching to the new system.
Shiva Swaminathan, senior resource planner at the Public Utilities Department, said: “It is not economical not to invest in radio for gas utility companies because we will send meter readers to read gas meters.”
The project will be launched in phases, with approximately 100 meters installed at the beginning of 2022, and 3,000 meters at the end of 2022 and early 2023. The staff will install the remaining 71,000 meters by the end of 2024. In addition to replacing each meter, the project needs to replace 8,369 water meters with a service life of more than 20 years. The rest will be retrofitted with “SmartPoints” to connect to advanced metering infrastructure. Approximately 24,000 gas meters will also be converted into “SmartPoints” so that each gas meter includes a radio that transmits gas data wirelessly.
Utilities staff pointed out that the system will provide customers with information to enable them to use natural gas more efficiently, so that cities can buy less natural gas and customers can save on bills.
“AMI is very cost-effective because you can help people save money by just providing information. This is where the community sees bill-saving — no need to buy additional gas because they are using information from their AMI system to save money. Use energy more efficiently,” Jonathan Abendschein, Assistant Director of Utilities Resource Management, said at the meeting.
At the same time, Metz pointed out that the city has not yet fully defined the “smart grid” plans, and it hopes to implement these plans once new technologies are in place. Utilities officials talked about their desire to implement “time of use” rates and “distributed energy” systems, such as encouraging electric car owners to charge their cars during off-peak hours. Metz said the city should develop a “specific plan” for these projects to justify the city’s investment in advanced metering infrastructure.
“I kind of feel that the’smart grid’ is being used as a slogan rather than enriching it…. How will we deal with it and get some value from automatic metering?” Metz asked.
Post time: Jul-15-2021