Over the course of the year, Butler Power and Light will be upgrading its power system to allow it to read electrical meters by receiving data through the power lines as opposed to the more traditional method of sending out meter readers.
The upgrades will feature the installation of new electric meters on every home and business in the borough, as well as the installation of new transformers and computer equipment, which is coming from Aclara Power-Line Systems, said Borough Administrator Jim Lampmann.
The new meters will be able to take readings of power usage every 15 minutes, and will allow the borough to measure power usage multiple times per day by transmitting data back through the power lines to a central location (likely Borough Hall).
This will save Butler the money that it has been paying for two full-time meter readers. Those positions will now be eliminated through attrition.
“Instead of going around (physically) and reading the meters over and over, we’re going to automate that process…and auto-collect meter data every day on every meter,” said Lampmann.
The move is being made in anticipation of new federal regulations regarding power usage that will mandate the implementation of “time use rates,” which will mean that there will be different rates depending on what time of day electricity is used.
Lampmann said that the federal policy is expected to be enacted sometime in the next two years.
The total price for the project will come to about $1.5 million, which will be funded through a loan taken out by the electric utility.
The monies for the payments on that loan will come from the payments made by electric users throughout Butler, Kinnelon, and Bloomingdale, as well as the money saved on the salaries of the two meter-reader positions, which is expected to be around $150,000 annually.
There will be no rise in the electric rate because of the project.
The system’s hardware and software installation on the borough’s end will start in about six weeks, and meter installations on homes will start late this summer. The system should be completed by the end of 2011.
Numerous borough benefits
There will be a handful of new abilities that the borough will gain by going to this type of system, the administrator said, not the least of which is that in future, power users will be able to track their consumption day by day, online.
“The goal of this is to get to a system where we’ll be able to present the data for the customers on a website…and if they can get an idea of what’s going on, that would help them determine what things are killing them on power usage,” said Lampmann.
“I think people would use it,” he said. “We do get people who call up and ask about their power and what they’re using.”
The website could be online some time in the summer of 2012.
On the utility’s end, the borough will be able to determine the voltage at each meter, and also the “power factor,” which is a measurement of how efficient the power that the utility is putting out is.
Knowing this power factor will allow the utility to make slight modifications to the system that will ensure that as little electricity as possible is being wasted, which will result in more stable voltage readings and, in turn, more efficient appliances on the customers’ end.
The system will also make the billing cycle more flexible with the ability to compile data at any time.
“Since there’s nobody out physically reading the meters, we can adjust when a meter is read and billed and it’s not a problem,” he said.
It will also help when widespread power outages occur, such as what occurred during certain ice storms over the past winters.
“Sometimes a single service is ripped off a house (by a tree limb) and we would never know until someone calls,” he said. “Now, within minutes, we’ll know all the customers who are out and we’ll make sure that they’re restored, even if they’re not home.”
This should eliminate sending crews out time and again when calls come in from different areas at different times.
It will also make it easier to both cut and restore power on homes in cases of late payment, as Lampmann said that a special ring can be installed under the meter that would allow a dispatcher to turn the power on and off without sending a crew out.
Source:http://www.northjersey.com/news/121480629_Butler_Power___Light_revamping_its_system_.html?page=all
