Whitewater Valley REMC (Liberty, Indiana, U.S.) has selected the Tantalus Utility Network (TUNet) as the communications network for its advanced metering program and a full range of Smart Grid applications.

Whitewater Valley, which provides electricity to 12,000 meters in eastern Indiana, chose TUNet for full deployment after a rigorous field trial that involved placing TUNet-equipped meters in the cooperative's toughest and most-remote terrain in order to test the performance of the two-way, real-time communications network from Tantalus (British Columbia, Canada).

Targeting remote farms and rural communities was Whitewater Valley's first priority. An “outside in” deployment strategy enables the co-op to eliminate high-cost reading routes as well as instantly detect outages, an ever-present threat in a region where the storm season spans from late fall to early spring. This approach is paying off in fewer truck rolls, faster repairs and customer-service response, and safer working conditions for staff.