MuniWireless

Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the utility owned by the city of Santa Clara, California, has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to create an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), including a Meter Data Management System (MDMS) and a broadband Utility Communication Infrastructure (UCI). These will form the foundation of the Meter Connect Program. The city will also use the Wi-Fi network (previously owned by MetroFi) which it acquired last year.

Excerpt from the RFP:

“The City intends to its existing utility communication and…

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District will replace energy meters in 600,000 homes and businesses in Sacramento County over the next 2 years with wireless “smart” meters to enable it to monitor in real time the amount of energy use in the county and to meet California’s strict clean energy requirements. The wireless meters will also give residents the ability to control their own energy consumption. The utility has hired Silver Spring, which raised $90 million this year from Kleiner Perkins…

Human meter readers will soon be as obsolete as coachmen, not just in New York City, but in other American municipalities. New York has announced that it will be replacing over 800,000 water meters, currently read by humans, by wireless meters monitored automatically. The new system will inform residents in real time about their water consumption and allow the city to find and fix leaks rapidly. New York’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications has hired Aclara Technology to install…

Hollywood, Florida (pop. 142,000; 27 square miles; 70 square km) has deployed a municipal wireless broadband network for wireless automated meter reading (AMR), public safety and free Wi-Fi service for residents. The city has hired Sling Broadband, a local wireless firm, to run the service. Sling also provides fixed WiMAX service to the municipality and businesses using the 3.65 GHz frequency.

The city has signed a contract with Johnson Controls for wireless AMR (they expect to save the city $23 million…

North Ridgeville, Ohio (pop. 28,000; 23 square miles) is doing what many municipalities have been busy with lately: upgrading the water meters in homes and buildings to Wi-F- enabled meters that allow the city to monitor how much water people are using. North Ridgeville plans to install 11,500 water meters. The project costs $2.8 million. The city says that the new system will allow them to find leaks and cut down on tampering of meters. Residents will know in real…

Most new utility meters are capable of automated meter reading or automated meter infrastructure (controlling).  Before embarking on a project to implement a wireless AMR or AMI network, you need to do extensive due diligence on the vendors’ meters. Ideally, all municipalities would enjoy blanket radio or RF coverage to listen and manage all of their utility meters. But the fact is most cities are already developed and building such infrastructure would require replacing or augmenting all meters. Some municipalities…