Utah-based Heber Light and Power Co. has selected the Sensus Metering Systems’ FlexNet advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution. Heber’s plans call for deployment of the system to more than 9000 residential and commercial electric customers.

“Our formal RFP process, our investigation of competitive AMI technology options, and our discussions with other utilities on vendor performance led our team to a unanimous conclusion in favor of the Sensus FlexNet AMI system,” said Tony Furness, chief financial officer for Heber Light and Power. “The simplicity of this tower-based radio frequency solution yields low operations and maintenance costs over the life of the project and supports our requirements for rapid growth with minimal infrastructure. The open systems TCP/IP information system provides immediate compatibility with our existing networking and billing operations,” Furness said.

Sensus’ Primary-Use licensed system for FlexNet, which provides up to 2 W of power, allows for greater transmitter range from a minimal infrastructure.

“Sensus’ licensed-band RF solution mitigates our future risk, by ensuring that the system will operate without interference from other consumer devices over the life of the project,” Furness said.

The FlexNet system provides Heber with two-way communications to Sensus iCon electric meters, enabling automated billing, on demand reads, remote connect/disconnect services, outage/restore notification and time of use rates. FlexNet also establishes the platform for additional customer and systems-related benefits in the future.

In fact, because of an average growth rate of up to 20 percent per year, more than 16,000 endpoints are expected to be installed in the Heber area in the future.