The Role of Advanced Metering Technology in Building the Utility of the Future

摘要

Utilities that use a combination of tools and capabilities will provide a knowledge-based platform to share and apply critical data throughout their enterprise - from the generation plant, all the way through the delivery system to the end customer. For these utility customers, this vision translates into reduced costs; increased efficiency and reliability; improved asset utilization in terms of people, systems and infrastructure; improved accuracy and revenue assurance, and improved customer service. It's about running the business better and managing risk in a way that delivers value straight to the bottom line. Despite all the data that utilities gather, compared to other business sectors the utility industry currently operates with relatively little access to timely, analytical, decision-support data regarding how and when customers use their product. And often, the data that is collected is not treated as having enterprise value. This despite the fact that their industry produces, transports and distributes one of the most perishable, oftentimes precious, and sometimes volatile of commodities to a market that demands continuing low prices and 100 percent reliability.