Jun 9, 2020 | AclaraONE, AMI deployments, Combo Utilities
Multi-service utilities – those that sell power, water, gas, or any combination of the three – have many opportunities to reduce costs and pass on rate savings to customers. If they can pick one AMI system that fits all commodities they sell, they can benefit from...
May 28, 2020 | Data analytics, Electric utilities, Featured, Grid monitoring
Have you ever gotten stuck in traffic? You know there’s a problem, but you can’t see far enough ahead to know what it is or the best options for avoiding a three-hour delay. Electric distribution engineers face a similar problem. The decades-old substations and major...
May 12, 2020 | AclaraONE, Data analytics, Featured
Utilities are on board with the benefits analytics can bring. According to a 2018 BRIDGE Index Utility survey of some 20,000 north American utility workers, use of asset-related analytics rose 55% between 2016 and 2017, while grid-related analytics use rose 17% in...
Apr 21, 2020 | Distribution Automation, Electric utilities, Featured, Grid monitoring, Load control, Renewable energy
If you looked up the word “optimization” in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, you’d find a definition sure to make engineers smile: Optimization equals “an act, process or methodology of making something as fully perfect, functional or effective as possible.” Of...
Apr 15, 2020 | Featured
According to a recent report published by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, utility customers have a 75% satisfaction with their utility provider, second only to banks. The reason for this level of satisfaction? A combination of high-touch interactions with...
Apr 8, 2020 | Electric utilities, Featured, Grid monitoring
Life on earth is changing rapidly and these changes are exacerbated by the current pandemic. Our economy and lifestyle have undergone drastic transformations, with entire companies working from home, schools converting to home-based curriculums, and people seeking out...
Mar 23, 2020 | Electric utilities, Featured, Gas utilities, Water utilities
The world is changing quickly, and energy and water utility professionals must stay well informed. Traditional trade publications, vendor websites, and research reports are the tried-and-true arrows in the utility professionals’ information quiver. But as strictly...
Mar 9, 2020 | AclaraONE, Data analytics
Analytics aren’t new to utilities, but the wealth of data now available from advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and grid-edge devices kicks its value up several notches, but only if you know how to leverage that data. There are benefits for utilities and their...
Jan 17, 2020 | Featured, Grid monitoring
In the last few years, devastating wildfires have ripped through many areas of the U.S. and globe. Recently, fires have devastated parts of Australia, driving residents and tourists out of towns up and down the country’s East Coast. The Wall Street Journal recently...
Jan 13, 2020 | AclaraConnect
Are you a professional at a gas, water or electric utility who wants to learn from the best and brightest? Then you’ll want to attend AclaraConnect 2020 at the Gaylord in Nashville, TN, April 27-30. This premier 3-day conference offers 40+ learning sessions with...
Jan 7, 2020 | Aclara News, AclaraConnect, Electric utilities, Featured, Leak detection, Power Line Communications, Water utilities
The beginning of a new year is a great time to look at accomplishments and progress in the previous 12 months. We decided to look at how our blog performed last year to help us plan the best mix of articles for utility professionals in 2020. In this article we will...
Dec 10, 2019 | AclaraONE, Data analytics, Featured
Distribution utilities can utilize a wide range of software products to help them use data to maintain efficient operations. There are software solutions for billing, for analytics, for outage management, for data management, and for engaging consumers, among others....
Dec 4, 2019 | AMI deployments, Electric utilities, Featured
In a survey taken this past Earth Day, Researchers at the Pew Research Center found that a majority of people in 23 out of 26 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center consider climate change a grave threat. With this week marking the start of the 25th United...
Nov 25, 2019 | AclaraConnect
If you’ve never attended AclaraConnect, or if it’s been awhile, we’d like to encourage you to join us when we bring together hundreds of electric, water and gas, professionals April 27-30, 2020 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville. Hurry and register now for the best...
Nov 13, 2019 | Featured, Power quality
When the Silver Dollar City amusement park in Branson, MO installed the Outlaw Run, one of the world’s steepest wood roller coasters, the loads caused by the ride tested the capacitor bank that ensured stable power quality to the park. In the past, the oil-filled...
Oct 9, 2019 | AclaraConnect, Electric utilities
The century-old business model of electric utilities today now must accommodate new technologies such as distributed energy resources and electric vehicles (EVs). More than 90 percent of respondents to the 2019 Utility Dive State of the Electric Utility survey, for...
Sep 25, 2019 | AMI deployments, Leak detection, Water utilities
People move into older homes because of their beauty and character, but they also expect to find hidden problems that need to be fixed. What they don’t expect is help from their local water utility in identifying those problems. That is exactly the situation one...
Sep 17, 2019 | AMI deployments, Electric utilities, Gas utilities
If you can say one thing about the United Kingdom’s smart metering program, it’s this: There’s no shortage of commitment. In fact, that seems to be a key difference between regulators in the U.K. and many of their counterparts in the U.S. Last November, Utility Dive...
Aug 13, 2019 | Aclara News
As the grid becomes increasingly digitalized and decentralized, distribution automation become increasingly important to adjust changing loads, generation, and failure conditions in real time. Unfortunately, we are still a long way from this future says Zpryme...
Jul 29, 2019 | Electric utilities, Substation infrastructure protection
Over decades, utilities have made huge investments in time-division multiplexing (TDM) infrastructures that use circuit switching to communicate with protective relaying and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that protect substations and the...
