REVENUE PROTECTION THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF REVENUE PROTECTION: SMART METERING AT BELD By Joe Morley, Engineering and Operations Manager, BELD, and Zac Canders, Program Manager Emerging Technologies, SAIC Ever since electrical engineer Otto Blathy patented the alternating current (AC) kilowatt-hour (kWh) meter in 1889, a key component of the meter-to-cash process has been revenue protection. While metering technology has changed dramatically since 1889 and vendors have come and gone, one thing has stayed the same: if the meter isn’t recording energy used or produced, someone’s not getting paid. To track watts, prevent theft, and guarantee bottom lines reflect energy sales, myriad processes, sometimes manual, have been developed and shared between utility professionals across the country. In most cases, these processes are not dependent on the size or location of a utility. Most utilities aim to maximize revenue, minimize expenses, and improve reliability. An easy solution to help optimize the income statement and increase annual net income, while still improving system reliability, is to explore the benefits of smart grid. At Braintree Electric Light Department (BELD), a Massachusetts utility, revenue protection has always been a daily part of the job. Robust strategies such as barrel locks on all meters and having meter personnel inspect all meter-related issues resulted in dramatic declines in energy diversion and minimal potential losses. So when it came time to upgrade its meters, BELD needed to understand how technology could complement its existing processes. When considering advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), as a non- regulated utility that could not accept the risk of spending capital on unjustified assets and services, BELD had to make sure its business case mirrored the benefits of AMI. Working with SAIC, BELD identified smart metering, using AMI, as the first step in its smart grid systems roadmap. The selection and timing of AMI was the bi-product of cross-utility preparation, collaboration, and teamwork with the vendor community to understand both the current and modernized state of BELD. The solution would help the utility save money, realize efficiencies, and ultimately redefine how revenue is protected. Together, BELD and SAIC identified how new AMI technology could complement its existing and proven revenue protection strategies: • Capitalizing on metering technologies that identify theft and tampering the moment they occur • Minimizing the number of truck rolls and customer visits associated with metering issues • Maximizing the collections process and minimizing lost revenue that is written off each year • Protecting metering assets without on-site inspections now that meter readers no longer visit meters each month for usage readings. BEFORE SMART METERS AT BELD Historically, revenue protection at BELD relied on proven, sometimes century-old techniques such as: 50 • Barrel locks and security rings • Disconnecting service, which required sending a utility worker to each site • Inspecting meter service for signs of theft, tampering, and other fraudulent activity • On-site validation of non- metering or low energy usage • Replacement of faulty metering An old BELD meter equipment • Leveraging historical monthly kWh usage for lost reads and bill estimation activities • Credit and collection agency reporting with intermittent success. Strategies similar to these can be found at practically every utility and are achieved via time intensive manual investigative and intervention techniques. Most of these familiar revenue protection tools require field personnel to be sent out to the customer premise to determine the correct action to re-align the meter-to-cash process. If a meter fails or a customer purposely steals energy, or an electric bill goes unpaid, the utility is forced to quickly resolve the issue or face placing the losses as a write-off on its balance sheet. BELD recognized that many of these strategies wouldn’t go away although the enhanced granularity of meter data, near real-time alerts, alarms, and events could strengthen these exiting revenue protection strategies. While BELD’s original cost benefit analysis focused heavily on the obvious opportunities of AMI such as reduced meter reading expenses and fewer truck rolls, BELD recognized and used the information in Table 1 to show its utility board how advances in metering technologies would lead to better revenue assurance. Before smart metering Manual disconnecting of a non-pay service On-site inspection for inversions, bypasses, or tilts of meters On-site validation of faulty metering equipment After smart metering Remotely disconnect service, track, and maintain non-pay customers – no truck rolls required Leverage granular meter data channel information to track trends, inspect possible theft, and manage customer energy delivery Remotely troubleshoot, explore meter logs, and determine potential failure or missing reads retrieval without sending a truck Table 1 – How smart metering can change revenue protection AMI INSTALLATIONS AT BELD Leveraging the expertise of its existing bargaining unit metering personnel, BELD adjusted deployment timelines to avoid the costs of employing an external installation vendor. This decision proved instrumental: with more than 11,000 customer premises to visit, METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE - 3 | 2013