20060424Comment.pdf

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Jean Jewell
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Ed Howell
Sunday, April 23, 2006 10:19 PM
Jean Jewell; Ed Howell; Gene Fadness; Tonya Clark
Comment acknowledgement
WNW Form Submission:
Sunday, April 23, 2006
9:18:37 PM
Case: IPC- E-06-
Name: DCSI (H. Ward Camp)
Street Address: 945 Hornet Drive
City: Hazelwood
State: MO
ZIP: 63042
Home Telephone: [phone]
Mail: wcamp~twacs. com
Company: IPC
Comment description:BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE
REVIEW OF IDAHO POWER
COMPANY I S PHASE ONE
IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
CASE NO. IPC- E-06-
AMR
COMMENTS OF DISTRIBUTION CONTROL SYSTEMS , INC
Distribution Control Systems, Inc. (DCSI) is pleased to have this opportunity to provide
comments in this proceeding. DCSI was pleased to been chosen by Idaho Power to provide an
advanced metering system through its "Two-way Automatic Communication" the TWACSCSJ system.
As noted in its Final Report, IPC was very successful in reading its meters, to wit
IPC has a near 100 percent success rate in collecting daily reads through the TWACSCSJ
system. It has an approximately 98 percent success rate in collecting hourly usageinformation. P. 4
DCSI found Idaho Power to be knowledgeable and motivated and can state it was a pleasure
to work with the dedicated team charged with implementing the AMR program.
DCSI provides the additional clarifications and corrections. The format will be to paste
an IPC statement with our commentary in bold.
IPC Statement: "The meter modules used in Phase One have a 24-hour memory that is used in
8-hour blocks. Any problems with the electrical system, phone lines, software or the
servers can usually be resolved in time to capture the daily readings that are stored in
the meter for 24 hours. To ensure accurate data collection, it is necessary to communicate
with the meter in no greater than 16 hours timeframes prior to the data being over-written
in the memory. Individual meter failures or problems that cannot be fixed within 16 hours
are rare, but do result in the loss of daily readings and hourly data.
DCSI Response: This is correct, however DCSI has now released to the market extended
memory ("XM") modules that, in conj unction with new software, allows retrieval of hourly
intervals and daily readings for up to 7 days. This greatly mitigates the, albeit rare,
chance of loss of data. IPC plans to investigate the use of XM modules, but XMs were
unavailable during Phase One.
IPC Statement: "This limitation presently exists at the substation equipment level in
which the equipment is not able to listen to multiple substation bus, feeder, and phase
configurations. "
DCSI Response: DCSI has now released its Multiple Input Receiver Assembly (MIRA) which
directly addresses this issue. The MIRA board was unavailable for IPC during Phase One
but has since been installed in one IPC substation for evaluation.
IPC Statement: "The system does have limitations in its bandw~dt h capabilities.
DCSI Response: IPC has verified to DCSI that IPC did not
limitations related to retrieval of hourly/daily reads or
control under "normal" operations. The recently installed
increased the bandwidth for inbound messaging which aids
the meter deployment phase.
experience any bandwidth
implementation of customer load
MIRA receiver has greatly
the meter search process during
IPC Statement: "For the Phase One Project, IPC placed an emphasis on collecting the meter
usage information at the hourly level, which required IPC to contact each meter a minimum
of three times daily to obtain the information in the 8-hour time blocks. The bandwidth
limitation causes concern when other services may be used on top of meter data collection,
such as load control signaling or polling for outage verification, in which the
communication network may become over burdened creating conflicts in functionality.
DCSI Response: DCSI is confident that the specific concerns do not pose a bandwidth
problem (e.g. load control) and that software and hardware enhancements by DCSI in the
past few years have dramatically increased bandwidth capability.
DCSI is confident that it can
Collect hourly intervals for residential and C&I customers (Phase One)
Time synchronization of all meters 4 times an hour. (Phase One)
Collect IS-minute intervals for C&I customers (DCSI has meters and transponders
currently capable of this, but this was not a part of Phase One,
) .
provide load control with verification (Phase One)
collect gas and water meter readings (via its short hop RF solutions) (DCSI has
meters and transponders currently capable of this , but such meter/transponders were not
sold to IPC nor were they a part of Phase One. DCSI points out that the short hop RF is
currently only with the Orion BadgerCID stsytem) .
send signals to an In-Home Display (DCSI's In Home Display is still in beta testing)
send signals to Programmable Thermostat (DCSI is in discussion with thermostat
makers, and design plans have been created, but no PCT is currently available)
perform 30 minute status/outage polling of every endpoint (This capability was not
available Phase One , but IPC has indicated a desire to investigate the DCSI Oasys outage
assessment software
The above applies for all of IPC's customers on the most congested automated substations
without incurring a bandwidth limitation during normal operations.
IPC Statement: "On November 18, 2005, IPC received a service announcement from DCSI to
immediately discontinue the use of 480-volt meter operation and installations due to
safety concerns of thermal overheating.
Response: A follow-up Service Advisory to resolve the 480V CMT-SX resistive element issue
was officially released by DCSI on January 6th, once testing of the re-designed element
was completed and materials availability was verified. The first field replacements were
installed at Idaho on February 7th and replacement elements have been shipped for the
balance of IPC's 480V meters. IPC will continue to evaluate the efficacy of DCSI'
solution for this issue. Although issues of this type can arise on relatively new
products, they are not necessarily indicative of the maturity of a technology.
IPC Statement: "IPC consistently experienced meter failures on irrigation pump locations
using variable speed drives (VSD).
Response: Three units with the new element design were installed at 480 Volt service
locations with Variable Speed Drive loads on February 7th. DCSI is not assured this
corrective action will be sufficient since DCSI has not determined a cause of the failures
from measurements taken to date. DCSI is currently evaluating more specialized measurement
techniques and equipment that will better capture the anomalies found at these service
points. DCSI will then return to the site to continue the investigation.
IPC Statement: (In re the load control devices) all indications from industry and vendor
sources are that the AMR technology and LCTs can effectively conduct load control of
appliances using on-demand technology.
DCSI Response: DCSI simply wishes to reiterate that the failure of the LCT was due to a
misunderstanding between IPC and their contractor regarding which of the two relays was
operational and said failure should not be attributed to the TWACSCID technology.
IPC Statement: "TWACSCID AMR System proj ected Cost
Installed Cost of Meters , Substation , Software, Servers, including labor $5,855 144"
DCSI Response: DCSI provided subsequent pricing figures for a full system-wide
implementation. IPC did not use the full rollout prices, only its actual Phase One costs.
Suffice it to say that upon review of nation-wide pilots versus system-wide implementation
the differences between pilot costs and full scale deployment cost can be dramaticallydifferent
, ..
The technology, functions and capabilities of the TWACSCID system and the
costs may vary based on what functionalities IPC wishes to procure, however DCSI believes
that a full scale rollout would result in a substantially less "per point" cost than what
IPC experienced in Phase One.
Respectfully submitted by Distribution Control Systems, Inc.
H. Ward Camp
Vice President, Regulatory and Alliances
wcamp~twacs. com
www. twacs . com
314.283.9178945 Hornet Drive
Hazelwood, MO 63042
Transaction ID: 4232118.
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User Hostname: 208.48.21.