Utility professionals gathered in Portland, Ore. July 28 and 29 for the Utilimetrics Smart Meter Learning Lab hosted by Portland General Electric (PGE).

PGE is recognized as a leader in smart metering by the utility technology industry. Bruce Carpenter, vice president distribution services and Utilimetrics board member, welcomed the group and provided an overview and timeline of PGE’s completed AMI project. Mass deployment of smart meters began in 2009 and was completed in 2010. About 825,000 meters have been installed and key business process development is complete. PGE is expanding its focus on “beyond the meter” services and staff members are eager to share their stories with other utilities.

Maria Pope, PGE senior vice president of finance, CFO and treasurer greeted the attendees and praised the AMI project team for achieving over $18 million in annual savings and paving the way for future smart grid initiatives.

Eric Spack, AMI project director, summarized the he smart metering project and provided lessons learned. He described the business process changes, IT software development and operational benefits PGE has experienced. Spack also reviewed the planning process, implementation, customer impacts and lessons learned each step of the way. Spack offered insights and advice to the visiting utilities which emphasizing the need to remain flexible and “plan to replan” throughout the process. He also explained many of the benefits and cost-savings PGE has realized as a result of its smart meter deployment.

Members of the PGE Customer Care Team discussed customer communications, customer relations, the PGE call center, regulatory relations and customers who opt-out of smart meters. Stan Sittser, Jan DeMeire, and Garret Saiki provided examples of PGE’s comprehensive, integrated communications strategy with customers, stakeholders, the media and within the company. Communication is a high priority at PGE.

The Learning Lab continued with a presentation from Jamie Swails, manager of network data operations and Elyssia Lawrence, supervisor, CIS billing who led a discussion on how smart metering has affected the system and field operations, as well as billing operations. They described the flow of data from the field through their MDMS and CIS and the challenges and opportunities they encounter. 

Learning Lab participants toured three PGE sites and had the opportunity to talk to several industry experts.  First the group visited the electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the PGE garage and one on the street provided a view of PGE’s role in the EV movement.  Rick Durst demonstrated how vehicles are charged and discussed plans for additional charging stations across the state.

The next stop was the Distributed Generation Control Center, where PGE employs standby generators in the community to meet peak demand. PGE maintains, upgrades, and covers operational costs for generators in various hospitals, commercial and industrial locations in exchange for the backup power during outages or high demand on the electric grid. Kelly Cox, explained how, with this unique program, up to 125 MW of generation can be added to the system during peak hours.

The last stop included a demonstration of the Meter Data Consolidator developed by PGE in 2001. It delivers up to 99.9 percent of required billing reads daily. David Gundolff, technical lead and product owner and Kirk Page, operations lead in the network data operations center, described the key functionality of the meter data management system and discussed the validation estimation editing (VEE) functions as well. In addition to these demonstrations, the meter shop also hosted some attendees who were very interested in their operation.

Steve Sprague, supervisor of the Energy Recovery Unit, showed a video of his team’s success in investigating marijuana grow facilities and recovering stolen revenues from these illegal operations. Mark Osborn, PGE’s smart grid manager and Conrad Eustis, director of retail technology development, talked about PGE’s future initiatives. Osborn described the Salem smart microgrid project, a federally funded demonstration project in the Pacific Northwest which will test energy storage and facilitate the integration of wind and other renewables. Eustis’ presentation covered implications for smart grid and next steps for Portland General Electric.

A cocktail reception followed the conference and gave everyone the opportunity to network, follow up on areas of interest and continue the dialogue on Portland’s contributions to the utility industry. Several attendees stayed for the “value added” Friday sessions, offered the following morning on specific areas of interest.

Thanks to Portland General Electric for making this Smart Meter Learning Lab a great success.