On May 11, 2006, Vehicles Loaded with New Solid-state Electric Meters Left Warehouses across Florida and North Carolina, and returned with an assortment of old electromechanical meters and a record: more than 20,000 meters exchanged in a single day.

That record was set by Progress Energy (Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.) during one of the fastest deployments in North American history. When the meter project was completed, more than 2.7 million meters were installed in only 18 months.

In 2005, Progress Energy, one of the nation's 10 largest investor-owned electric utilities, signed a contract with Itron (Lake Liberty, Washington, U.S.) to replace 2.7 million traditional electromechanical residential meters with Itron's CENTRON solid-state electricity meters, equipped with automated meter-reading technology. This was the first phase of a two-phase metering project. The intent was to reduce meter costs, not set records.

AN AGGRESSIVE DEPLOYMENT

Progress Energy had an aggressive schedule to deploy several million meters in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina in just 20 months. To make this work, communication — internal with staff and partners, and external with customers — was critical to gaining acceptance of this change in technology. It was this communication that enabled the utility to complete the project two months ahead of schedule.

A large-scale rapid deployment forces an organization to review many processes and procedures in a short period of time. There is pressure to make decisions quickly and find compromises. Routine problems are magnified by the sheer volume of occurrences when installing millions of meters. Staffing becomes a challenge in areas with low unemployment rates, and training new staff in a short period of time can be stressful.

Progress Energy faced these challenges and more, including hard-to-access meters for the change-out and internal personnel changes caused by a voluntary early retirement program. Then there was the question of whether the meters could be manufactured fast enough to meet the tight installation schedule. Itron field operations came through, shipping 60,000 to 70,000 meters per week, on average, to Progress Energy.

In 2006, Itron shipped 6 million meters, 2 million of those meters went to one utility — Progress Energy. That is something that Itron had never done. Three shifts were operating at the factory in West Union, South Carolina, to meet the demand. The manufacturing plant was literally working around the clock to make this happen.

To get an idea of how many meters were installed, think of the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. The building is 108 stories, or about 1450 ft (442 m). A stack of 2.7 million meters is about as tall as 775 Sears Towers.

PULLING IT OFF

For this metering installation project, Progress Energy took the road less traveled. Usually utilities tend to be very cautious and not very quick when it comes to making decisions. That is just how most of the utility industry operates. However, for this deployment, Progress Energy had to break away from the normal way of doing business.

The success of the fastest deployment in North American history depended on several factors. The first was the choice of a good partner who could act rapidly and help coordinate project management, meter manufacturing and installation. In addition, both the utility and vendor needed to have strong organizational support and autonomy.

Each partner needed to expect the unexpected and be prepared with contingency plans. The metering teams had a secondary plan in case of inclement weather, but fortunately, there were no major weather-related problems during the installation. Only three days of productivity were lost due to poor weather, and the project successfully completed 99.75% of the planned installations.

Progress Energy had many challenges, but one of the biggest was renting a site large enough to store the meters the utilty was installing in any given area. Progress worked with local real estate agents, but finding a warehouse large enough to house some 70,000 meters per week was a big challenge in nearly every location.

To ensure quality of meters and mobile data collectors to meet the accelerated deployment, constant meter testing, production audits and quality-control measures were executed throughout the project. Shared data and weekly project status updates kept the deployment team informed and on track.

In the field, more than 300 installers interacted with Progress Energy customers and exchanged meters, while identifying potential energy theft and unsafe meter enclosures. Three different subcontractors were responsible for the hiring, training and workload management for the temporary workforce. In addition to providing a place to store large volumes of meters, temporary locations had to be set up to serve as work sites without interfering with ongoing company operations.

LESSONS LEARNED

The lessons learned from such a rapid deployment are transferable to other projects. The most notable contributors to the success of Progress Energy's Mobile Meter Reading project included:

• Careful upfront planning
• An experienced project team
• A turnkey contract
• Communication, communication, communication
• Flexibility
• Attention to operational details
• Close monitoring of business case metrics
• Communication.

Speed, without attention to customer service, safety and cost, is of limited value. Throughout the deployment, Progress Energy maintained its core values of safety, customer service and financial responsibility.

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Luis Ordaz received his BSEE degree from the University of South Florida and joined Progress Energy in 1987. He has held various engineering, technology and management positions in which he implemented new distribution technologies such as work management, GIS, outage management and mobile data computing. Most recently, he deployed automated meter reading in Florida and the Carolinas as director of the Mobile Meter Reading project. He is currently a distribution operations manager at Progress Energy Florida. Luis.Ordaz@pgnmail.com

Kathy Small received a master's degree from Syracuse University and joined Progress Energy in 1988. She has held a variety of environmental, community relations and project management positions. During the Mobile Meter Reading project, she led the change management and communication elements of the project in Florida and the Carolinas. She is currently the supervisor of land in Florida for Progress Energy. Kathleen.Small@pgnmail.com

BENEFITS OF AUTOMATED METER READING

Progress Energy is on track to gain a savings of about US$21 million per year with the use of automated meter-reading technology due to reduced operating and maintenance costs. Staff reductions include eliminating 200 contract positions in the Carolinas and 160 positions in Florida. With the increased accuracy of solid-state meters, a 50% reduction in meter-related billing exceptions, such as work-order errors, also has been realized.

Progress Energy was able to reduce its meter-reading fleet, saving vehicle costs and insurance. Employee safety increased, as meter readers were no longer entering private property. In addition, improved meter accuracy resulted in an increase of revenue and tamper and theft cases have been reduced.

The first phase of the installment ended in 2006 with the replacement of 2.7 million energy-only meters. In 2007, Progress Energy completed the second phase of the project, identifying accounts where a demand meter was in place, but the usage did not warrant it. The utility replaced about 34,000 meters in the Carolinas and 15,000 meters in Florida during this second phase of the project. Optimization of meter-reading routes is currently underway.

Progress Energy will continue to refine and improve its meter-reading process. It is the utility's commitment to its customers and its employees, and its responsibility to be globally responsible. If that means thinking outside of the box and moving faster than usual, that is what Progress Energy will do.