Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for Utilities

Utilities are accelerating deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to modernize their operations and customer experience, promote energy and water conservation, and increase system resiliency. Despite significant investment, many utilities are not yet realizing the full value of their AMI investment.

While there is no one-size-fits-all formula for leveraging AMI technology, utilities face some common challenges. The most common? Complexity. That’s where we come in. 

We have supported dozens of electric, water, and gas utilities at all stages of AMI technology adoption over the last decade, from planning to deployment to value realization. We’ve optimized field and back-office organizations. We’ve gained valuable lessons and best practices through those experiences and we use that unique insight to help you navigate complex change faster and realize the customer, operational, and societal benefits of advanced metering infrastructure sooner. 

Results You Can Expect

• Move through regulatory and approval processes faster and with favorable outcomes
• Deliver a positive return on investment for your utility and customers
• Engage customers to maximize benefits and customer experience
• Promote conservation and environmental stewardship
• Reduce lost revenue from meter tampering or diversion, consumption on inactive meters, and bad debt
• Increase reliability and improve storm response performance
• Optimized labor and field execution performance 
• Clear planning and tools for ongoing benefit realization tracking and reporting

What We Offer

Set your AMI technology strategy and vision

Advanced metering infrastructure unlocks tremendous value when viewed strategically and in support of your utility’s overall objectives. With experience developing, refining, and right-sizing AMI strategy for utilities across the country, we make sure your strategy and vision are relevant to your customer base and aligned with broader organizational goals.

Develop a compelling business case

An effective business case is the heart of a successful advanced metering infrastructure program. Build it well and your program has a head start on delivering value. Our AMI system business case model is based on more than 50 projects over the past decade-plus. Among other factors, it considers:

• Continuous evolution of AMI technology, prices, and requirements
• Validity of assumptions and deployment scenarios
• Transparent outlay of program costs and savings, including direct customer benefits  
• Ability of cost and benefit calculations to stand up to regulatory and stakeholder scrutiny
• Flexibility to adapt to changing scope as planning progresses

Secure regulatory support

Navigating the regulatory process requires experience, unique skills, and focused collaboration. With extensive AMI system regulatory experience, we provide assistance with overall strategy development, regulatory filings, and expert witness services.

Develop a comprehensive plan

The most successful AMI technology programs devote sufficient time at the front end for thorough, comprehensive, and collaborative planning. We’ve developed many deployment plans, so we come prepared to facilitate this process. 

One key area of focus at this stage is vendor selection. Our approach is built on extensive strategic sourcing expertise and distills lessons learned from dozens of AMI projects to guide bidding, solicitation, and negotiation – helping utilities build confidence in long-term partners who will support their AMI system for up to 20 years. 

Execute efficiently 

Expect to have a dozen or more multi-year work streams, ranging from customer education to network and meter deployment that require active management. Having overseen deployment of 10+ million meters and counting – in some of the largest US cities – we understand the unique challenges and interdependencies required for AMI systems.

We lead advanced metering infrastructure transformation with a focus on delivering short-term benefits while progressing toward longer-term goals. We staff our execution teams not only with technical experts but also specialists in business process redesign, role-based readiness, and transformation enablement. We focus on preparing your employees and customers for the changes ahead.

Capture and maximize the value

Maximizing the potential starts with good measurement. We will work with you to establish metrics and KPIs relevant to your specific business case, operations, customer base, and vendors – and report them through real-time dashboards.

Even utilities that have seen success have opportunities to accomplish more. We design innovative strategies for leveraging AMI technology usage data and distributed sensors – for example, to increase participation in electric vehicle, energy efficiency, or dynamic rate programs.

Optimize the solution

Deploying advanced metering infrastructure is only the beginning of the transformation journey. Once the AMI technology is deployed, our experience shows that operationalizing  the solution requires effective planning, incorporation of insights, and a culture of continuous improvement. By taking a fresh look at your organization across all functional areas, our team has methods and tools to drive value and efficiencies in the field, back office, and with customer interactions that exceed initial business case targets.

Finally, recognize that advanced metering infrastructure is not a one-time investment but a part of your infrastructure that requires proactive management and monitoring. We can provide insight about advancements in AMI technology and work with you to evaluate additional uses of AMI system data and potential future upgrades.