The seven electric utilities that comprise the District 9 Advanced Metering Infrastructure consortium in Ontario, Canada, formed its alliance based on common geographical traits: urban as well as remote, rural, rolling hills with sparse endpoint service territories.

Banded together, D9 represents 80,000 endpoints and a membership that is committed to implementing a Smart Metering program to service this region. Members of D9 are set to implement Sensus FlexNet and include Chapleau (1,370 endpoints), Espanola (3,353), Great Lakes Power (11,372), Hearst Power (2,751), North Bay Hydro (23,268), Northern Ontario Wires (6,370), and PUC Distribution Inc. located in Sault Ste Marie (32,300). These utilities will continue to work together during and after implementation, to share resources, streamline deployment, and maximize service area coverage of FlexNet over the diverse and challenging terrain.

Sensus, via FlexNet, provides customers with a dedicated, primary-use, FCC and IC licensed and protected communications network with up to two watts of transmission power. As a result, utilities get timely and accurate AMI communications through crystal-clear and massively redundant RF data paths with double the RF power of competing systems. This allows for communication over sparse areas like D9’s with a complete range of endpoint devices including smart meters, intelligent home devices, and distribution automation equipment.

FlexNet also provides a reliable and flexible AMI fixed network service to utilities, offering dependable, mission-critical performance combined with ANSI compliant metering, IP-based wide area communications, open standards home area networking, advanced smart grid products, and IP-based information systems.

Members of D9 will also have access to KTI Limited, Sensus’s Canadian AMI distribution partner for technical and customer service support, as well as a Sensus project management office operating in Aurora Canada, staffed with professionals focused on providing conservation solutions for current and future FlexNet projects.