Keynote session

The promise of the smart grid : Will it really change consumer behavior?
Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO, Shelton Group

There's a prevailing theory that if people could just see how much energy they're consuming, they'd consume less. But comfort and convenience are huge drivers for Americans, and we're pretty bought into blaming our utility for higher monthly bills. So what will it take to really nudge consumers into lower consumption, higher personal responsibility and a smarter energy future? Suzanne Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group, will share insights from her firm's four annual consumer studies (the Pulse series), as well as examples of the programs, messages and campaigns that work to move consumers forward.

Intelligent Utility Megetrends
Tom Ayers, President and CEO, Tropos Networks

The Grid has been showing its age. Superficially, it appears healthy – the U.S. power industry is generating more electricity than any time in history. New devices designed to provide more information and controls have been added to the Grid in the past decade. Electric companies are the last large American industry undergoing the major technology transformation from analogue to digital. And like industries such as transportation, communications, broadcasting, and finance, this transformation will bring amazing benefits to both consumers and the utilities themselves. But beneath the surface, the Grid will undergo a transformation starting at the foundation to allow for the integration of the new digital devices into a mostly analogue world. To design and implement the new vision of the Smart Grid, power companies need help. To many utilities that will mean a close examination of “what can I do today in order to successful complete a 20-year journey towards a complete Smart Grid implementation."

This presentation incorporates a profile three companies who are leaders in this early adoption of the Smart Grid, their visions, and benefits they will realize.

The Next Decade of Smart Grid: Lessons from the Telecommunications Boom
Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO, Elster Group

Current CEO of Elster Group and former CEO of Nokia-Siemens, Simon Beresford-Wylie experienced the telecommunications boom firsthand. Tremendous parallels exist between the telecommunications industry and the Smart Grid, as do lessons to be learned. Based on this expertise, Beresford-Wylie will offer not only his vision for where he will lead the international company that is Elster Group, but also his unique perspective on the future of Smart Metering, communications technology, security, and unified Smart Grids which include natural gas, electricity, water and consumer engagement.

Applications sessions

MDMs and the utility back office
Amy Erwin, Salt River Project

Meter and grid data can have tremendous value if it is stored and formatted to make it easily accessible throughout the organization. This session explores how MDMs connect to the other data systems in the utility to improve processes for utility workers and customers.

Remote demand response: Entergy's rice wells project
John Ledet, Entergy

The ability to easily combine, replace and upgrade communications technology across their AMI project makes it possible for Entergy to control a significant 3-phase demand response project in remote agricultural locations. This project will enable them to quickly reduce a projected 10 MW of demand in 2010. Using EnergyAxis, Entergy implemented this direct point-to-point solution in rural Arkansas in parallel with their ongoing mesh network in Baton Rouge. Both communications platforms are managed by the EA_MS head end system.

Using EnergyAxis data to detect and deter tamper, theft and loss
Miguel Muniz, Importadora MGS

Non-technical losses can be a significant challenge for many utilities. Importadora MGS has developed a software tool that leverages EnergyAxis meter data to alert the utility when an attempt is made to misappropriate energy. In this session, the team from the Dominican Republic will describe the data requirements, how and when the utility learns about the theft attempt, and the savings they have enabled by using this software tool.

Voluntary and involuntary TOU rates: Lessons learned from the field
Ritesh Patel, Salt River Project; and Kevin Myers, Veridian Connections

Salt River Project (Arizona) and Veridian Connections (Ontario) share their experiences with implementation of TOU rates. For SRP, consumer participation in TOU is voluntary—but over 20% of their customer have selected this option. In Ontario, pilots are underway because TOU will become mandatory in 2012. In the interim, what have we learned about TOU? What does it take to educate the consumer? Are changes in consumer behavior being tracked and documented? Is energy usage being reduced or simply shifted?

What all utilities should know about demand response
Panel Discussion

Tips, tricks and secrets every utility should know about demand response. In this panel discussion, Elster DR partners will take a look at consumer behavior, standards, internal communications, training, the usefulness of pilots, tips for scaling up, web portals vs. in home devices, residential DR vs C&I DR, and a broad range of related topics. Bring your questions. We’ll open the floor to your concerns.

AMI/DA convergence: Leverage your AMI deployment
Carl LaPlace, Elster, and Bill Rambo, Survalent

Leverage your EnergyAxis communications infrastructure to make your grid more efficient and reliable with very little incremental investment. We’ll take a quick look at how EnergyAxis supports utility grid modernization priorities such as voltage conservation; integrated volt/VAR control; remote load control; loss detection; asset management; and outage detection.

Network/system architecture

Network Performance Optimization at City of Ocala
Joel Noel, City of Ocala

Systematic exploration, review and analysis of AMI systems can maximize potential, enabling utilities to reduce costs while ensuring that the system is operating at the highest levels of reliability and efficiency. Joe Noel from the City of Ocala will describe his team’s experience and emphasize the importance of utilities investing more of their own time at the beginning of AMI deployment to learn about and understand the system, especially if the system is configured by a third-party contractor.

Award-Winning Pilot Enables Confident Rural Deployment
Rudolf Vorster, Metrix

Virtually all utilities have at least a portion of the service territory that is rural or remote. In most cases, long distances are compounded with factors such as temperature extremes, mountainous terrain or heavy vegetation. Metrix (New Zealand) initiated a trial to test the effectiveness of the mesh network using strategically placed external antennas and elevated communications nodes in their network. In this session Metrix will describe the original approach and results that earned them the 2010 “EnergyAxis Award for Innovation” along with the results of further trials that now enable them to deploy EnergyAxis into rural areas with confidence.

Best Practices for Rural/Remote Deployments
Rudolf Vorster, Metrix
Keith Skelly, Turlock Irrigation District
Gary Kohama, Black Hills Power
Moderated by Bob Henes, Elster

Three experts share their remote deployment challenges and successes, and answer questions about what worked for them. The panel will cover topics such as planning, mapping, network trouble-shooting, and the use of repeaters and antennas.

Second generation WAN: An APS case study
Lindee Gable, Arizona Public Service; Bryan Shang, Elster

Arizona Public Service (APS) was using a first generation wide area network (WAN) technology that had certain performance limitations. To continue to grow their system, APS needed a secure WAN that was more reliable and offered better performance, so this large IOU decided to step up with a large deployment of gatekeepers equipped with the new Elster WAN Interface Card (WIC) using a public wireless network. APS plans to install over 1000 of the WIC equipped gatekeepers by the end of Q2. This case study will cover the challenges faced by APS, and the proof of concept, deployment, and current results of their second generation WAN deployment. The session will also include a short overview of the Elster WIC.

Business & Community

Cultivating Community Support for an AMR to AMI Conversion
Kevin Heimiller, Westar Energy

Beginning in 2011, Westar Energy will remove its existing AMR system and replace it with approximately 45,000 smart AMI meters in Lawrence, Kansas. But before the first meter goes in, the Westar team will have done everything they can to ensure that the customers in Lawrence—including business and governmental leaders—support the project. This session will detail Westar’s successful community relations initiative as well as taking a look at what they expect as they replace their current system.

Living the business case: AMR to AMI transition
Matt Stormoen, Wisconsin Rapids Water Works and Lighting Commission

Wisconsin Rapids Water Works and Lighting Commission invested four years in an unsatisfactory AMR project before making the decision to transition to EnergyAxis in 2008. This detailed case study takes a look at how this municipal utility built out and tracked its business case – including staff hours, costs and savings, system performance, challenges and successes.

Internal and external communications: The challenge of keeping stakeholders aware and supportive of your smart grid project
Mike Gurganus, Dominion Virginia Power

Dominion Virginia Power has been working on various aspects of their smart grid system for four years, including dynamic pricing, remote service connections and voltage conservation. This session will describe how Dominion is leveraging EnergyAxis solutions and how they are communicating the changes, the results and the benefits to customers, employees, local government representatives, regulators, and other interested parties.

A tale of two utilities: Similar challenges, different approaches
Mark Legleiter, Westar Energy; Walter Koopmann and Sandra Arnold, City of Georgetown, TX

Westar Energy (Kansas) and City of Georgetown (Texas) are facing similar challenges and have a similar background. They both have extensive experience with existing AMR systems. They both have Meter Data Management systems. They are both rolling out EnergyAxis. This session will compare and contrast the priorities and objectives of their projects, as well as the plans and strategies to achieve them.

Variations on a theme: Three deployments, many challenges, one head-end system
Eric Sisco and Kim Trujillo, Black Hills Energy; John Cheeseman, Cheyenne Light & Power; Kevin Howard, Black Hills Power

Black Hills Corporation utility operations include separate business units in South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. Each business unit has its own objectives, challenges and processes—but they all leverage a single instance of EA_MS. Hear about Black Hills AMI system deployment and expansion, the different objectives each is working on (including TOU, demand side management and net metering), the business process changes that continue to ripple through the organization, and the extraordinary team collaboration makes it all work.

Elster products & services

Getting the most from Elster Project and Support Services
Bob Dumas, Elster

A “must attend” session! Elster’s VP for project and support services will describe the evolving and expanding services that are available during the EnergyAxis project deployment and under your System Maintenance Agreement. Learn who does what (and how it benefits you). Find out how to leverage the on-line support portal to your best advantage. Gain insight into the EnergyAxis Monitor that the Elster Support Team uses to provide proactive monitoring of customer systems. Learn about a range of other service and support activities that can help to improve your system's effectiveness and performance.

Smart grid industry

Smart grid vision 2015, 2020 and 2030
Panel discussion

Expectations are accelerating on almost a yearly basis. First there was AMR, then AMI. Now we’ve abandoned the boundaries of Metering to embrace the broader opportunities of the Smart Grid. We expect the momentum to continue. But where will it go and how can we all keep up? This panel takes on the future with a free-wheeling discussion of what may happen, how utilities can position themselves to take advantage of opportunities, what will drive consumers, which technologies look like winners, and what the global energy and water marketplace will look like five, ten and twenty years from now.

Smart grid security 101: What you don’t know can hurt you
Panel discussion

This session is for non-experts. As leading utilities stand on the cusp of deploying large Smart Grid projects, the need for iron-clad security on utility networks is coming into sharp focus. The presenters will discuss cyber and physical security trends, privacy issues, standards development, and will draw examples and lessons learned from deployments they have worked with. Learn where to assign your security resources to get the most bang-for-your-buck.

Smart grid security master class
Roundtable discussion

This session is for experts and “experts-in-training.” Bring the security topics that most deeply concern you to this roundtable for an in-depth discussion with the experts. Not for discussion of EnergyAxis specifics. (See Training Session SOL-5 “How-to” Series: Understanding End-to-End Security with EnergyAxis 3:45-4:30 Sunday).

Standards for the smart grid: 2011 and beyond
Ed Beroset

Whether they are established, emerging or imagined, standards have the potential to impact every aspect of the smart grid. Get your 2011 update on an inside look at the latest decisions, events and ideas that can shape the future for interoperability and integration.