Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE) will deploy the TWACS technology advanced metering infrastructure. CFE is Mexico’s single utility provider, servicing nearly 34 million consumers.

Initial implementation of Aclara’s pole-mounted and socket-type TWACS solution is planned for Acapulco, which is serviced by CFE’s South-Center Division, to support the utility’s plans to reduce non-technical losses. Another key feature of the implementation is installation of in-home displays, which will allow CFE to enhance its customer service through improved consumer communications. Ambar Electroingenieria, Aclara’s AMI distributor in Mexico, is the prime contractor for the project.

During the competitive evaluation process, Aclara’s TWACS technology was the only solution CFE that met all its technical requirements for deployment. TWACS technology proved its ability to provide two-way communications with fast response over existing power lines while scaling to millions of end points. TWACS technology also offered integral connect and disconnect as well as load-balancing, two capabilities that were essential to CFE’s selection. The utility will use TWACS technology to read both residential and commercial meters.

The initial purchase order for more than 90,000 AMI modules, with an option for another 90,000 units as part of the order, makes Aclara an integral AMI technology supplier to CFE. The utility plans to deploy new metering end points in several major cities over the next several years to reduce non-technical losses and to utilize the full AMI feature set including remote meter reading, interval-read outage management, tamper detection, aggregate demand, voltage quality, and other miscellaneous cost-saving solutions.