The town of Culpeper, Virginia, has chosen Aclara to provide a total advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution for electric and water meters. Aclara is part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc.
Culpeper’s new AMI system will deliver remote meter reading to 5,000 electric meters. It will employ Aclara’s TWACS power-line technology for reading electric meters.
In addition, Aclara will supply enterprise meter-data-management (MDM) and consumer-engagement solutions to Culpeper. A web portal will provide access directly to usage data, allowing the town to better service its customers.
Culpeper also will employ Aclara solutions to manage and restore services after power outages and control usage during peak electric demand.
“Access to near real-time information will help us understand events on our utility networks and to be proactive in our response to outages, tampering, theft, and leaks,” said Mike Stover, Director of Light and Power for the Town of Culpeper. “For example, the ability to identify the extent of power outages without sending personnel to the field will exponentially improve our ability to restore services quickly.”
Stover said that Culpeper’s decision to deploy Aclara solutions was based in part on references from local utilities also using Aclara systems. He added that the water and electric utilities worked together to develop an optimum AMI system that met the needs of an expanding water service area as well as a municipal electric territory.
