Advanced Metering Data Systems (AMDS; New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.), a metering and wireless connectivity company, is proceeding with a 500-meter trial at Alabama Power Co. (Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.). The initial installations in Alabama Power Co.'s Birmingham service area this past summer have been completed, and the trial is scheduled for completion in March 2005.

The patented (and patent-pending) technology employed in the AMDS network architecture allows a meter endpoint to reliably communicate directly with tower-mounted AMDS base stations located 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) away, thus eliminating hundreds or even thousands of complex, intermediate tier pole-top or roof-top-mounted data collectors.

“The entire Birmingham-area network installation required only three towers outfitted with AMDS base stations, yet it provides over 200 sq miles (518 sq km) of coverage in an unforgiving terrain marked by hills and valleys,” said Marc Reed, vice president of Systems & Software for AMDS. “The fact that our system is reliably providing synchronized hourly read interval data and demand reads with such a lean installation profile underlines one of the key benefits of our design,” Reed noted.

Derl Rhoades, principal in Alabama Power Co.'s Power Delivery Metering department, added, “The integration to our billing system was flawless, eliminating the need for manual meter reads.”

AMDS recently licensed Sensus Metering Systems (Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.) to manufacture an under-the-glass AMDS meter module for the Sensus iCon meter, which is now in full production. “So far, the installations and field testing have gone smoothly,” said Reed.

“The combination of our wireless technology coupled with the latest generation of Sensus iCon meters has already been demonstrated to be a winning combination,” Reed continued. “We believe that the ongoing deployment of our dedicated, FCC-licensed fixed wireless network will quickly prove its value as a reliable yet simple advanced metering infrastructure for utilities of all types, sizes and locations.”

The advanced metering infrastructure network developed and deployed by AMDS represents an entirely new approach to the gathering, transport and dissemination of utility metering data. This new concept is based on a wireless network architecture that is simple, reliable and inexpensive to purchase, install and maintain. Similar deployments are also in progress at various utilities across the United States.