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Case Study

Dickson Electric Reduces Power Outage Response Time with Sensus

Utility uses AMI system to enhance customer service and save operational costs

Power outages are a fact of life for utilities. The quest to restore power as quickly as possible is often top of mind, and this is certainly true for Dickson Electric System.

Headquartered in Dickson, Tennessee, the utility serves more than 36,000 residential and commercial customers across more than 700 square miles and parts of seven counties.

Dickson Electric chose Sensus due to the speed of the FlexNet network and the ability to automate data collection.

Ice storms, which occur frequently in Dickson Electric’s service area, can lead to widespread outages that impact thousands of customers. And whether responding to large- or small-scale outages, the utility’s staff knew relying on customer calls to pinpoint outage information wasn’t enough.

“We had customers calling in to tell us when their power was out, and it could be difficult to tell exactly how much of the service area was affected,” said Darrell Gillespie, general manager for Dickson Electric. “It could take hours to tell how many customers were affected and we had to send out trucks, sometimes after hours, which could be a major expense.”

Automating key processes

To help speed up its outage response time, Dickson Electric knew they needed a way to automate data collection and use that data to pinpoint the exact location of outages. After considering power line carrier solutions and mesh networks, the utility decided to overhaul their infrastructure with a fixed base advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution from Sensus. This revamp would include replacing its electricity meters and investing in a two-way communication network to transmit data to headquarters.

“We wanted to optimize the electric system to be able to deliver power more efficiently, and that’s something we expected a transition to an AMI system could deliver,” said Gillespie.

We’re not running trucks after hours. That alone delivers huge cost savings. We don’t know if we can live without it.

Finding the right solution

After soliciting proposals from multiple providers, Dickson Electric chose to revamp its infrastructure with the Sensus AMI solution, which offered all the benefits they sought, including:

Their solution included Sensus Stratus®, iConA™ and Elster A3 ALPHA® electricity meters, running on the FlexNet® communication network and supported by Sensus Professional Services.

With the FlexNet system, Dickson can transmit potential outage data over a secure, reliable two-way network, while the Stratus meter can help provide faster restoration of service during outages as well as enable remote disconnects of meters to prevent power theft.

“We don’t know if we can live without it”

With its fully implemented AMI solution, Dickson Electric has significantly reduced its response time, resulting in faster restoration no matter the outage size. Now, the team knows exactly how many meters were affected during an outage event and can make restoration decisions faster.

“We can quickly respond to both large and small incidents,” said Gillespie. “We’re not running trucks after hours. That alone delivers huge cost savings. We don’t know if we can live without it.”

Gillespie recalls one instance in which the Sensus AMI system exceeded expectations.

“Recently, we had a large ice storm that affected around 12,000 customers. Within hours we were able to identify the full extent of the damage that occurred and shortened our response time by about four to six hours. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it gave us a huge jumpstart on restoration and helped us more effectively manage the whole process.”

Delivering added benefits

Beyond outage restoration, Dickson Electric has experienced many other benefits from its Sensus AMI implementation, all with the goal of providing better service to its customers. These include the ability to:

  • Remotely connect and disconnect meters in the event of customer move-in or move-out
  • Use the Stratus meter’s advanced functionality to prevent tampering and power theft
  • Reduce the number of trucks sent out to manually read meters, saving operating costs associated with truck rolls
  • Provide customers with more accurate and timely views of their usage data to help them use energy wisely

As Dickson looks to the future, the utility sees data analytics as the next frontier in its Sensus AMI journey.

“We’ve accumulated years of customer data, and now we can look at data analytics to add in other refinements of our distribution system and optimize efficiencies,” said Gillespie. “We’ve only started to realize some of those benefits, and there’s a lot of opportunity we haven’t even explored yet.”

 


Challenge:
Improve outage response and restoration time

Solution:
Sensus AMI solution including the FlexNet communication network

Reach Farther:
Leverage remote disconnect capabilities to prevent power theft

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