Ed Malemezian President, Ed Malemezian Consulting, Inc.

1. AMR is Much More Than AMROutage Management, Reliability, Call Centers, and Asset Utilization All Win Big Ed Malemezian President, Ed Malemezian Consulting, Inc. Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!

2. Show me the money !! Presentation Outline • AMR Benefit Categories • Operational Savings • Supply Side & Resource Savings • New Revenue Opportunities • The New Frontier • Outage Management • Care Center Support • Asset Optimization

3. Quantifiable Benefits - Hard $$$ • Reduced expenses • Avoided losses • More effective planning • Reduction in capital expenditures • New revenue opportunities

4. Intangible Benefits - Soft $$$ • Customer service benefits • Improved relations with regulators • Enhancement of your “brand” • Strategic benefits • We really won’t go into these today

5. Operational Savings • Outage investigation - NTH • Outage follow-up - NTH • Reliability indices - NTH • Care center support - NT • Current diversion • Connect/Disconnect - NTH • Collections – NTH • Revenue assurance - NTH • Usage / inactive acct - NTH • Meter Reading • Estimated Bills • Meter accuracy - NT • Meter maintenance - NT • EMR equipment - NT • LP communications – NT • Load research - NT • Outage care center - NT • Outage dispatch - NT NT denotes Non-Traditional and NTH denotes NT Huge

6. Supply Side & Resource Savings • Distribution Planning - NTH • Transmission Planning - NTH • Generation Expansion - NTH • Load Forecasting - NTH • Demand-Response – NTH • Asset Optimization - NTH

7. New Revenue Opportunities • Power Quality Monitoring - NT • Power Outage Notification - NT • kW Demand Monitoring - NT • kW Threshold Alerts - NT • Load Profile Data Services

8. The New Frontier • Outage Management & Reliability • Care Center Support • Asset Optimization

9. Outage Management (OM) • Consists of four interrelated sub-systems • Outage Detection • Outage Extent Mapping • Outage Restoration Monitoring • Momentary Interruption Monitoring

10. Outage Management - cont • Integrated with utility CIS, OMS, GIS & WMS systems • Must be highly automated • Little operator intervention • Runs in real time • Effective filtering

11. Outage Detection • Runs constantly in the background • Detect outages in near-real time • Detection goals • Feeder & Line Section: less than 5 minutes with strategically placed meters • Transformer & individual customers: less than 10 minutes to cover 100% of meters • Must be reliable with few false positives

12. Outage Extent Mapping • Once triggered, determines the extent of each outage • Must know distribution network connectivity model and escalation rules • Triggered by • AMR Outage Detection sub-system • Utility OMS, VRU, call center, or other related systems • Smart enough to identify separate outages in the same geographic vicinity vs. rolling up into a single, larger outage

13. Outage Restoration Monitoring • Works very closely with Outage Extent Mapping • Runs in near-real time to monitor the progress of outage restoration activity • Verification that all customers have actually been restored • Before restoration crews leave the area • Before trouble ticket is closed out • Eliminates the “stragglers” • Proactive customer service

14. Restoration Monitoring - cont • Eliminates the need to make follow-up phone calls • Manual / care center • Predictive dialers & associated systems • Tremendous tool for follow-up on multi-day outages - hurricanes, ice storms, floods, etc. • Particularly beneficial when people are not home • Vacation, summer home, mountain cabin, etc. • Left to ride out the storm somewhere else • Feeds data to reliability indicators

15. Momentary Interruption Monitoring • Works closely with Outage Detection • Monitor Momentary Interruption counters in each meter (blink / power down counter) • Monitoring frequency can be • Near-real time - best • Historical - good • Feed tickets into utility Work Management or Outage Management Systems • Identify and reduce very annoying situations

16. Momentary Monitoring - cont • Momentary interruption counts can be aggregated to isolate the specific area where the problem is occurring • Troubleshooting can include more frequent monitoring (hourly) to isolate when the problem is occurring • Eliminate momentary problems (tree branches) before they become permanent outages

17. OM - Operational Savings • Care center call reduction - NT • AMR with real-time or near real-time communication provides the means to notify the utility of outages and PQ problems before the customer feels the need to call the utility • Calls to the care center will be reduced • Care center calls typically cost $1.00 to $10.00 per call to handle

18. OM - Operational Savings - cont • Trouble dispatch savings - NT • AMR with real-time or near real-time communication provides the means to verify the problem to be real before generating a trouble ticket and sending it to the trouble dispatcher • Calls handled by dispatch will be reduced • Tickets typically cost $0.50 to $10.00 per call to handle

19. OM - Operational Savings - cont • Investigation savings - NTH • AMR with real-time or near real-time communication provides the means to verify the problem to be real before sending a trouble ticket to the field for investigation • Outages can be more precisely defined • Investigators can be sent directly to the proper location to effect the most speedy (less costly) service restoration • Trouble tickets typically cost $25 to $150 per ticket to investigate

20. OM - Operational Savings - cont • Restoration follow-up savings - NTH • AMR with real-time or near real-time communication provides the means to verify that all customers are back in service before closing out the trouble ticket • All customers can be checked to have power and the expected voltage before the troubleman or field crew leaves the area • Done remotely vs. visiting each customer

21. OM - Operational Savings - cont • Restoration follow-up savings - cont • Typical savings of $5 to $10 per customer affected • Stragglers, or those inadvertently overlooked, will be eliminated • A very embarrassing situation will go away • Eliminates return visit at $25 to $150 per ticket • Eliminates the expense of follow-up phone calls

22. Power Quality • Closely related to Outage Management • Enabled by AMR system deployment • Tremendous impact on customer satisfaction • Facilitates improvement in Reliability Indicators reported to the utility commission

23. Power Quality - cont • Power outage detection • Voltage monitoring • High / low voltage • On demand checks - care center, customer service & account managers • Sags & swells • Voltage imbalance • Momentary interruptions • Harmonics

24. PQ - Operational Savings • Investigation savings • Voltage and Power Quality problems can be diagnosed remotely • Calls investigated in the field will be reduced • Trouble tickets typically cost $25 to $150 per ticket to investigate

25. PQ - New Revenue Opportunities • Upon receipt of PQ and outage calls, utility can offer “premium” services • Digital message - Customer notification via pager, cellphone, fax, and email, with the details of the problem • Automated generation of trouble tickets • CI customers willing to pay $25 to $100 per month per meter for these services • Customers love it !!!!

26. Reliability Improvement • Improvement in Reliability Indices - NTH • AMR with real-time or near real-time communication provides the means to reduce outage duration by speeding up the whole outage detection, investigation and restoration process • Reduced outage duration improves reliability indices such as SAIDI, CAIDI, ASAI, and others

27. Reliability Improvement - cont • Reliability Indices - continued • Improved reliability indices save maintenance and restoration $$$ - one can achieve reduced outage duration through brute force (more crews on duty, shotgun facility upgrades, etc.) or by faster outage detection, investigation & restoration • Improved reliability indices can bring in big $$$ with Performance Based Rates and related regulatory programs

28. Care Center Support • AMR systems and AMR data provide great assistance in solving customer problems • Historical usage data • Real-time information with the customer on the phone • Meter reads – billing issues • Final reads, move-in, and move-out • Power on or off – inside trouble or utility problem • Voltage – high, low, or flickering condition

29. Care Center - Historical Usage Data • Provide daily or hourly usage data • Easily posted on the web • Self-service for customer inquiries • Reduces call volume answering questions • Data readily available for care center rep • Helps explain customer usage • Compares present usage against past patterns • Visual tools help identify anomalies

30. Care Center - Real Time Data • Meter reads with customer on the phone • Identify or refute meter reading errors • Explain billing questions • Allows the rep to talk with authority – good data removes most uncertainty from the explanation • Final bills can be generated “on the spot” • Eliminates the need to send someone to field on customer move-in and move-out

31. Care Center - Real Time Data - cont • Power Problems • Can tell instantly if utility power is present at the meter or not • Identifies inside trouble or utility problem • Ask customer to check his breakers, etc. • Can eliminate a utility service call • Some AMR meters provide accurate voltage measurement at the meter • High, low, or flickering voltage • Inside trouble or utility problem • Can eliminate a utility service call

32. Care Center - Operational Savings • Care center call reduction • Calls to the care center will be reduced • Care center calls typically cost $1.00 to $10.00 per call to handle • Trips to the field will be reduced • Final / special meter reads typically cost $25 to $75 per read to obtain • Crew / trouble visits typically cost $25 to $150 per trip to investigate

33. Asset Optimization • AMR systems can provide hourly load profile data on some or all customers • With hourly load profile data on all the customers under a utility device you can determine the peak, coincident loading on that device • Distribution transformer • Line section (wire & fuse) • Recloser, Feeder, Substation, etc.

34. Asset Optimization - cont • Knowledge of peak loading in real time • Allows operation closer to maximum capabilities • The margin of safety can often be reduced - less uncertainty • Assists decision making for field switching during emergencies • AMR can provide accurate inputs to VAR management and related power optimization systems

35. Asset Optimization - cont • Knowledge of historical peak loading • Identifies underutilized utility devices (transformers, wire, fuses, etc.), thereby extending their useful life • Identifies overloaded utility devices – upgrade on regular time vs. burn-up • Provides valuable input to the utility planners making system improvements • Provides inputs into the utility design models used to engineer utility facilities

36. Asset Optimization - cont • Distribution Planning Savings • Better data provides for better, more effective planning, and better utilization of resources • Policies, practices, standards, and models can be fine-tuned to better reflect reality • Small improvement to the planning process results in huge savings • An improvement of 1.0% on an annual distribution budget of $200M is $2.0M

37. Asset Optimization - cont • Transmission Planning Savings • AMR systems allow the utility to collect detailed consumption and demand data on every customer up through the transmission system • Transmission planning processes and benefits are similar to those discussed for distribution • An improvement of 1.0% on an annual transmission budget of $150M is $1.5M

38. Asset Optimization - cont • Generation Expansion Savings • AMR systems allow the utility to collect detailed consumption and demand data on every customer up through the generating system • Generation expansion processes and benefits are similar to those discussed for distribution • An improvement of 1.0% on an annual generation budget of $250M is $2.5M

39. Conclusions • There are a myriad of benefits that bring value to AMR business cases – many are traditional – many are non-traditional • Outage Management, Care Center Support, and Asset Optimization are part of AMR’s New Frontier • The New Frontier is real: it is far beyond just talk and theory – FPL and a number of utilities are deriving these benefits today

40. Conclusions - continued • A key “lesson learned” is to get all the other utility groups involved at the outset – traditional utility silos are bad • Interface standards like MultiSpeak and IEC 61968 are helping with system integration issues – support them • Don’t overlook the New Frontier just because it is hard to get people on board - it adds tremendous value (more than meter reading) ... Go for it !!!

41. Questions ???? 772-286-9831 Ed@emalemezian.com