OVERVIEW

Electricity and water utilities providers need to retain, access, and analyze operational smart meter data. However, at many organizations, these operational datasets captured from AMI (automated metering infrastructure) and AMR (automated meter reading) applications are largely discarded or ignored by internal, existing applications. Data volumes are huge and it’s difficult to even know where to begin. That leaves various internal teams in “reactive mode” - unable to improve network reliability or detect anomalies, fraud, mis-mapped meters, and more.

Our MARK (Meter Analytics Reporting Kit) solution puts power in the hands of internal teams to work more proactively. It reads AMI HES schedules and other related raw data from smart meters into a data repository in real time. The data is then harmonized, modeled, and displayed to internal end users in a series of dashboards for non-technical end users to answer their own questions by interacting with the data.

This solution requires an ETL/ELT tool, a database, and a reporting tool. For example, the original version of this solution utilized the Snowflake database, the Talend ETL/ELT tool, and Tableau dashboards all on AWS.

For organizations who have a preference for specific tools, we can work with you to utilize them. For example, this entire solution can be built using the AWS native services S3, Glue, Redshift, and Quicksight.

DASHBOARDING SUITE

MARK makes the following analytical dashboards available to end users:

Electric/Water Meter Overview dashboard is for the Meter Operations team to answer questions like: Which meters have we not received a reading from today? In 3 days? In X days? Of those that have not been read, which are scheduled to be visited in the field? How has this trended over time? Are we seeing an increase in meters not producing readings? Are there any common attributes in those meters that are not producing readings?

Distribution Connectivity Quality dashboard is for the Meter Operations team to answer questions like: How complete and accurate is the master data management of all meters? Are we missing important attributes? How accurate is the connectivity between meter, transformer, circuit, etc. ?

Transformer Overloading dashboard is for the Distribution Planning team to answer questions like: Which transformers have a load higher than its rated KVA, indicating that the transformer might be overloaded?

Momentary Outage dashboard is for the Distribution Planning team to answer questions like: Which meters have reported momentary outages (or restorations) yesterday? For a momentary outage that was called in by a customer, can we validate that it was an issue on the utility side or was it an issue on the customer side? Is a given outage part of a recurring issue that should be addressed before critically affecting customers?

Faulty Equipment dashboard is for the Distribution Planning team to answer questions like: Which meters are experiencing voltage abnormalities (swells or sags) which may be indicative of faulty equipment?

BUSINESS ALERTS AND EXTRACTS

MARK can also be used to create automated alerts and extracts for different business use cases:

Alert the Sustainability team when a customer is irrigating too often (based on local irrigation laws).

Alert the Customer Experience team when a customer has an usual spike in water usage, indicative of a leak.