FortisAlberta has entered the second phase of its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment with Landis+Gyr, and is scheduled to deploy approximately 370,000 advanced metering endpoints over the next two years.

"The strong working relationship between FortisAlberta and our program management team has been essential to completing the first phase of the deployment," said Jeff Carkhuff, general manager of Middle Market Systems at Landis+Gyr. "We look forward to increasing the deployment pace and introducing additional system capabilities as we work to complete our largest two-way PLC deployment in North America on schedule."

A regulated electricity distribution company serving central and southern Alberta, FortisAlberta contracted with Landis+Gyr in 2007 for a "turnkey" deployment of a two-way advanced metering network to cover its entire service territory. In addition to providing the hardware and software solutions for advanced metering, Landis+Gyr is also serving as the deployment contractor on the project, and is managing all meter and substation equipment installations.

System acceptance testing and regulatory approvals were completed in 2008, and more than 80,000 advanced meters have been installed so far. FortisAlberta is implementing the two-way TS2 PLC system, part of Landis+Gyr's Gridstream family of smart grid and energy management solutions. The PLC network solution is particularly suited to the utility's large and geographically diverse service territory.