[Kevin Praet (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

I hope all is well! To best help our member from Enbridge, I wanted to circle back on this thread and provide some additional questions that were sent over. We again are looking for your insight around AMI/AMR and any advice you might have for another utility going down this path.

Here are the addiitonal questions provided:

1. Do you leverage AMR or AMI to collect data? If yes is it hourly or another granularity? 
2. Has your utility analyzed the data to gain efficiencies? 
3. If so have you built these capabilities inhouse or purchased existing applications and tools to leverage for analysis? 
4. Has your utility used data collected through AMI to improve system planning? If so, how specifically is it used for system planning? 
5. What is the most valuable program/initiative that was made possible with data collected through AMI? (Any details you can share would be helpful) 
6. Did your utility pursue any new ideas to leverage AMI data that ultimately failed or that weren’t worth pursuing upon further investigation?  
7. Does your utility leverage the advanced functionality of meters to identify and address meters with deteriorating health in a manner that has created efficiencies? If not in this way specifically, have you improved meter testing and treatment of retirements through AMI? 

Thanks again for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2021 13:43
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hello UAI Members,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week I connected with one of our members from Enbridge Gas Inc. who is currently on the path to automated meter reading (AMR/AMI). In preperation, Enbridge was hoping to learn more from others on the following:

• How did you implement AMI/AMR – (purchased software, worked with a consultant or figured it out in house, etc.)
• Sharing experiences relating to the following

• Using AMR/AMI and related data to improve system planning – peak analysis etc.
• Sharing of hourly data with customers – what aspect was of most value in this front and also an understanding of the levels of difficulty with this
• Improvements to meter testing/sampling – as new meters can report back if their health is deteriorating
• Other values derived through AMR/AMI implementation

Given the popularity of this topic, I’m hoping our members will be willing to share thier experiences to assist Enbridge. Please provide any insight below and let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks in advance for your help!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Chad Carsten]

Hi Kevin, 

Here is Evergy’s answers to these. 

1. Do you leverage AMR or AMI to collect data? If yes is it hourly or another granularity? A: Evergy uses AMI data for 99% of our meters. The majority of them are at the 15 min granularity level. 
2. Has your utility analyzed the data to gain efficiencies?  A: Evergy does use AMI data for Operations and Customer. 
3. If so have you built these capabilities in-house or purchased existing applications and tools to leverage for analysis? A: Evergy uses both. Customer Insights is purchased as well as some Operations Analytics. 
4. Has your utility used data collected through AMI to improve system planning? If so, how specifically is it used for system planning? A: We are still building this out. Currently, we have load forecasting and load analysis in production using AMI Data Aggrergrated at the hour level. 
5. What is the most valuable program/initiative that was made possible with data collected through AMI? (Any details you can share would be helpful) A: Using AMI Data for operations and billing. 
6. Did your utility pursue any new ideas to leverage AMI data that ultimately failed or that weren’t worth pursuing upon further investigation?  A: not yet.. 
7. Does your utility leverage the advanced functionality of meters to identify and address meters with deteriorating health in a manner that has created efficiencies? If not in this way specifically, have you improved meter testing and treatment of retirements through AMI?  A: Yes – we leverage meter events as well as the absence of reads from AMI meters to find AMI Meters that are failing. 

Thanks 

——————————
Chad Carsten
Sr Mgr, Customer Analytics and Systems
Evergy
Topeka KS
7855751310
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2021 16:03
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hello UAI Members,

I hope all is well! To best help our member from Enbridge, I wanted to circle back on this thread and provide some additional questions that were sent over. We again are looking for your insight around AMI/AMR and any advice you might have for another utility going down this path.

Here are the addiitonal questions provided:

1. Do you leverage AMR or AMI to collect data? If yes is it hourly or another granularity? 
2. Has your utility analyzed the data to gain efficiencies? 
3. If so have you built these capabilities inhouse or purchased existing applications and tools to leverage for analysis? 
4. Has your utility used data collected through AMI to improve system planning? If so, how specifically is it used for system planning? 
5. What is the most valuable program/initiative that was made possible with data collected through AMI? (Any details you can share would be helpful) 
6. Did your utility pursue any new ideas to leverage AMI data that ultimately failed or that weren’t worth pursuing upon further investigation?  
7. Does your utility leverage the advanced functionality of meters to identify and address meters with deteriorating health in a manner that has created efficiencies? If not in this way specifically, have you improved meter testing and treatment of retirements through AMI? 

Thanks again for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2021 13:43
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hello UAI Members,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week I connected with one of our members from Enbridge Gas Inc. who is currently on the path to automated meter reading (AMR/AMI). In preperation, Enbridge was hoping to learn more from others on the following:

• How did you implement AMI/AMR – (purchased software, worked with a consultant or figured it out in house, etc.)
• Sharing experiences relating to the following

• Using AMR/AMI and related data to improve system planning – peak analysis etc.
• Sharing of hourly data with customers – what aspect was of most value in this front and also an understanding of the levels of difficulty with this
• Improvements to meter testing/sampling – as new meters can report back if their health is deteriorating
• Other values derived through AMR/AMI implementation

Given the popularity of this topic, I’m hoping our members will be willing to share thier experiences to assist Enbridge. Please provide any insight below and let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks in advance for your help!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Kevin Praet (Adm)]

Hey @Chad great to hear from you and THANK YOU for this great insight! I will absolutely pass this on to our member from Enbridge and let you know if we have any follow up questions.

Thanks again!​

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2021 16:13
From: Chad Carsten
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hi Kevin,

Here is Evergy’s answers to these.

1. Do you leverage AMR or AMI to collect data? If yes is it hourly or another granularity? A: Evergy uses AMI data for 99% of our meters. The majority of them are at the 15 min granularity level. 
2. Has your utility analyzed the data to gain efficiencies?  A: Evergy does use AMI data for Operations and Customer. 
3. If so have you built these capabilities in-house or purchased existing applications and tools to leverage for analysis? A: Evergy uses both. Customer Insights is purchased as well as some Operations Analytics. 
4. Has your utility used data collected through AMI to improve system planning? If so, how specifically is it used for system planning? A: We are still building this out. Currently, we have load forecasting and load analysis in production using AMI Data Aggrergrated at the hour level. 
5. What is the most valuable program/initiative that was made possible with data collected through AMI? (Any details you can share would be helpful) A: Using AMI Data for operations and billing. 
6. Did your utility pursue any new ideas to leverage AMI data that ultimately failed or that weren’t worth pursuing upon further investigation?  A: not yet.. 
7. Does your utility leverage the advanced functionality of meters to identify and address meters with deteriorating health in a manner that has created efficiencies? If not in this way specifically, have you improved meter testing and treatment of retirements through AMI?  A: Yes – we leverage meter events as well as the absence of reads from AMI meters to find AMI Meters that are failing. 

Thanks

——————————
Chad Carsten
Sr Mgr, Customer Analytics and Systems
Evergy
Topeka KS
7855751310
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2021 16:03
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hello UAI Members,

I hope all is well! To best help our member from Enbridge, I wanted to circle back on this thread and provide some additional questions that were sent over. We again are looking for your insight around AMI/AMR and any advice you might have for another utility going down this path.

Here are the addiitonal questions provided:

1. Do you leverage AMR or AMI to collect data? If yes is it hourly or another granularity? 
2. Has your utility analyzed the data to gain efficiencies? 
3. If so have you built these capabilities inhouse or purchased existing applications and tools to leverage for analysis? 
4. Has your utility used data collected through AMI to improve system planning? If so, how specifically is it used for system planning? 
5. What is the most valuable program/initiative that was made possible with data collected through AMI? (Any details you can share would be helpful) 
6. Did your utility pursue any new ideas to leverage AMI data that ultimately failed or that weren’t worth pursuing upon further investigation?  
7. Does your utility leverage the advanced functionality of meters to identify and address meters with deteriorating health in a manner that has created efficiencies? If not in this way specifically, have you improved meter testing and treatment of retirements through AMI? 

Thanks again for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2021 13:43
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: AMI/AMR Implementation – Advice Requested

Hello UAI Members,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week I connected with one of our members from Enbridge Gas Inc. who is currently on the path to automated meter reading (AMR/AMI). In preperation, Enbridge was hoping to learn more from others on the following:

• How did you implement AMI/AMR – (purchased software, worked with a consultant or figured it out in house, etc.)
• Sharing experiences relating to the following

• Using AMR/AMI and related data to improve system planning – peak analysis etc.
• Sharing of hourly data with customers – what aspect was of most value in this front and also an understanding of the levels of difficulty with this
• Improvements to meter testing/sampling – as new meters can report back if their health is deteriorating
• Other values derived through AMR/AMI implementation

Given the popularity of this topic, I’m hoping our members will be willing to share thier experiences to assist Enbridge. Please provide any insight below and let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks in advance for your help!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Eddie Fee]

We’ve had success ‘bundling’ use cases by category and being able to capitalize the development of solutions (Analytics) for them.  The basic argument there is that we are indeed building an ‘asset’ with a ‘useful life’.   

Perhaps you could stretch/extend that argument to a Data Quality initiative that extends the usefulness/life/value of the data ‘asset’ you’re building (although we have not done that to my knowledge). 

I cannot think of a way, however, in which you could argue for capitalization of a Data Governance effort.

Hope this helps.

——————————
Eddie Fee
Director, Metering & Field Ops
Orlando Utilities Commission
Orlando FL
407.434.2262
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2021 14:41
From: Ben Ettlinger
Subject: CAPEX vs. OPEX

We are struggling to determine account determination (OpEX vs CapEx) for Data Governance, Data Quality and Data Analytics. In order to be considered CAPEX, We were advised that software has to be a “functional asset” other wise it has to go under OPEX. Hence when building a Data Governance/Data Quality/Data Analytics platform it has to be charged to OPEX. This can be an issue especially during more austere periods where the is a great push to reduce operational expenses. How is your organization addressing OPEX vs CAPEX issues with regard to analytics and software development. 

——————————
Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
——————————

[Kevin Praet (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

I hope all is well! Our UAI Connect Engagement Challenge has been live for just about two weeks, and in that time we’ve already seen a big spike in engagement through our communities, discussion forums, and general profile completeion. Thank you to everyone who has taken time to participate thus far!

Just a quick reminder on the rules: This game is open to all current UAI members and is designed to help you maximize your engagement throughout UAI Connect. As part of this game, we provide clear direction on how to get more involved and how to make the most of your experience on UAI Connect. By getting more involved within UAI’s communities, discussions forums, and completing your profile on UAI Connect (just to name a few things), you will in turn gain more value from the network on UAI Connect, which includes some of the brightest and smartest minds within utility analytics. For a complete breakdown of how to earn points during this game and the scoring, please refer to our “Gamification Scoring Sheet” found in the Ask Your Network Library.

In addition to getting more active on Connect, we will be selecting three winners at the end of December (to be announced Monday, January 3, 2022) based off of their scoring. Please note our scoring will only include data between October 8 and December 17, 2021, and previous scoreswill notbe included so that everyone starts with a clean slate for the game. 

Just in case you’re still not excited, see what great prized we have picked out for our winners!

• 1^st place – Webcam/microphone bundle
• 2^nd place – Lume Cube
• 3^rd place – $25 Amazon gift card

If you have any questions on our UAI Connect Engagement Challenge please reach out to me at kpraet@utilityanalytics.com otherwise we thank you again for your participation and wish you the best of luck.

Thanks!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 10-08-2021 11:30
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: Introducing the First Gamification Challenge on UAI Connect!

Hello UAI Members,

We are excited to introduce our first UAI Connect Engagement Challenge! The goal of this challenge is to help you become more engaged on UAI Connect in a fun and interesting way! Earn points along the way for activities you perform and possibly win prizes at the end of the gaming period.

This game is open to all current UAI members and is designed to help you maximize your engagement throughout UAI Connect. As part of this game, we provide clear direction on how to get more involved and how to make the most of your experience on UAI Connect. By getting more involved within UAI’s communities, discussions forums, and completing your profile on UAI Connect (just to name a few things), you will in turn gain more value from the network on UAI Connect, which includes some of the brightest and smartest minds within utility analytics. For a complete breakdown of how to earn points during this game and the scoring, please refer to our “Gamification Scoring Sheet” found in the Ask Your Network Library.

 

Sweepstakes Timeframe + Scoring:

This game is kicking off TODAY, Friday, October 8, 2021, and will run through Friday, December 17, 2021. Three winners will be selected at the end of December and announced Monday, January 3, 2022, based on their scoring, which is automated in UAI Connect. Please note our scoring will only include data between October 8 and December 17, 2021, and previous scores will not be included so that everyone starts with a clean slate for the game.

To get a snapshot of our most engaged and active members throughout the gaming period, you can find our “MOST ACTIVE MEMBERS ON UAI CONNECT THIS WEEK!” listed on the bottom of the UAI Connect homepage. This list will showcase our leaderboard, listing the top 8 most active members each week. Check back weekly to see if you’re on the top of the list!

Why Take Part?

The UAI Community is growing, and we want to help you maximize your involvement, build your network with other UAI members through UAI Connect, and make the most of your UAI membership. Collaboration is KEY to everything we do at UAI, and with access to the best minds and resources in the world, we want to make sure you’re connecting with everything (and everybody) that’s available to you within UAI Connect! BONUS…we are offering some amazing prizes for our top three finalists!

 

• 1^st place – Webcam/microphone bundle
• 2^nd place – Lume Cube
• 3^rd place – $25 Amazon gift card

 

We encourage you to spread the word to others internally to get them involved as well! If someone on your team does not have a UAI Connect member account, they can register now.

If you have any questions about the game, please reach out to me, Kevin Praet at kpraet@utilityanalytics.com, and I’ll be happy to assist.

Thanks in advance for your involvement and best of luck!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————