Local electricity distributors are adapting to changes coming from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
And the electric departments in Columbus and Starkville are ahead of the game.
“I would say (they) are really moving ahead in that aspect,” said Mike Bradley, a TVA spokesman based in Knoxville, Tenn.
Smart networks, including meters that can relay up-to-the minute data, are in varying stages of completion throughout the TVA’s seven-state area.
Work will begin this spring to install a new, citywide fiber optic network in Starkville that will allow customers to track usage.
As part of a projected $5.5 million, five-year project, the Starkville Electric Department will add fiber optic cables to existing overhead ground wire. Additionally, Starkville Electric will install more than 23,000 new meters that will relay more data faster and without the use of meter readers.
Starkville Electric General Manager Terry Kemp said the new wiring and meter system will help the company maintain consistent rates while offering customers incentive programs to lower their bills.
“We’re continuing to prepare for the future,” Kemp said. “As a department, our goal is to provide safe, reliable and affordable electricity to the city of Starkville. This will allow us to manage rates, but there’s also a built-in benefit of system reliability, which is something we’re always striving to improve.”
Starkville Electric figures to reduce operating costs and improve customer support with more efficient meters by eliminating the need for meter readers, responding quicker to service interruption and connecting new customers quicker.
No existing meter readers are expected to lose their jobs, Kemp said.
Construction of the first phase, which will see new wire installed around half of the city, should be complete by August but hasn’t begun yet. Kemp said meter installation could take place by the start of the next fiscal year.
Though Starkville Electric’s plan is to have the entire city connected in three years and all meters and additional equipment up and running in five, Kemp said the time frame could be altered based on customer interest.
Two years ago, TVA provided the option to switch to a seasonal billing cycle that adjusted rates during peak seasons (summer and winter) to reflect true usage. While rates are higher in peak season, they are lower during spring and fall. TVA’s goal was to reduce the overall stress on its system. By October 2012, TVA plans to only charge time-of-use rates.
The new system helps local providers keeps rates down, and on the wholesale end helps TVA keep rates down and may reduce the need for such large capital investments as building new power plants.
With the addition of the fiber optic system, Starkville residents will be able to monitor their usage to the time of day. In the summer, peak times will be early afternoon through the evening. In the winter, peak times will be early morning and nighttime.
Columbus Light and Water installed a different type of fiber optic system in 2006 and uses it for supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, CL&W Manager Todd Gale said.
“We utilize SCADA to control and monitor certain parts of our systems such as electrical substations, delivery of water and maintenance for our sanitary sewer pump stations.”
Nonpeak usage
Rate programs will be available for people and retail businesses that use the bulk of their electricity during nonpeak hours. Additionally, customers will have energy efficiency incentives to consider.
“Customers will have information to make informed decisions and take action that will help them,” Kemp said. “As you look at industry standards and growth over the next several years, the difference is anticipated to grow. With that creates a bigger need. It’s going to continue to be a challenge to maintain some fairly consistent rates with upward pressure going on.”
Also included in the new system will be the water utility for which Starkville Electric sends bills. Though the pricing programs will be offered mainly on the electric side, the new meters will track water usage in real time, just like electricity use.
Starkville Electric is still determining what kind of connection customers will use to track their usage.
Columbus Light and Water will make the transition to smart meters in the coming years. The company has already installed hundreds of meters as part of pilot program to test the system.
Over the next four years, the 13,000-meter project will cost Columbus Light and Water about $4 million.
Like Starkville Electric, Columbus Light and Water does not plan to cut jobs. As the positions are phased out, meter readers will move into other positions or leave the company through retirement or other natural attrition.
Columbus’ system moves data through radio frequencies not the fiber optic system, Gale explained.
“The (Columbus) fiber system is connected to our radio towers for redundancy but is not required,” he added.
Wireless Internet could be a byproduct of plan
Starkville’s fiber optic ring also opens the possibility of the city installing a public Wi-Fi network. Several access points would be installed at the top of utility poles to provide public access in parks, recreation areas and downtown corridors. Police officers and first responders could upload data remotely, too.
A fiber optic ring will encompass the city’s outer edge. It transmits data through pulses of light sent from one end of the wire to the other. Starkville Electric will use the fiber optic wire to transmit all the usage information.
City Information Technology Manager Joel Clements said he envisions having three routers for the sportsplex/McKee Park on Lynn Lane.
Kemp said utility customers will not see an increase in their bills for the new materials and installation. “This is a capital investment for us, so it’s a part of our operating expense.”
The costs of implementing the Wi-Fi network would be left to the city.
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