Colombia, South America-based utility EMCALI EICE ESE has chosen Two-Way Automatic Communications System (TWACS) technology from Aclara to support its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The contract provides for deployment of the TWACS technology to five substations and 14,500 customers, with a provision for doubling the installation size without additional approval.

EMCALI management's plan is to reach as much as 25% of their grid by the end of 2011, and the utility has earmarked the project's funding in their three-year budgeting plan.

The TWACS AMI system will handle prepayment and non-technical loss solutions in addition to the full AMI feature set that includes meter reading, outage management, line balancing, aggregate demand, voltage quality and other miscellaneous cost-saving solutions.

As a long-term partner with the utility, Aclara will assist EMCALI, which serves 550,000 electric as well as 440,000 water customers in Santiago de Cali, with initiatives to improve the operating processes of the utility, to enhance service to users and to facilitate efficient operation of the electricity distribution system. Assuming full deployment, EMCALI will have the largest AMI implementation in South America, offering an advanced prepayment services system, providing significant operating cost savings through the reduction of non-technical losses and employing full AMI capability.

Additional information is available at www.aclara.com.