Meeting Details

Just How Smart Are Smart Meters?

Date: Thursday, July 23^rd, 2009

Location: SRP Information Services Building (ISB), 1600 N Priest Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281

Speaker: Paul Taylor, Elster

Topic: "Just How Smart Are Smart Meters?"

Smart Meter often refers to an electric meter, but it can increasingly also mean a device measuring gas or water consumption. Similar meters, usually referred to as interval or time-of-use meters, have existed for years, but Smart Meters usually involve a different technology mix, such as real-time or near real-time sensors, power outage notification, and power quality monitoring. These additional features are more than simple automated meter reading (AMR). They are similar in many respects to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters. Smart meters are also believed to be a less costly alternative to traditional interval or time-of-use meters and are intended to be used on a wide scale with all customer classes, including residential customers. Interval and time-of-use meters are more of a legacy technology that historically have been installed to measure commercial and industrial customers, but typically provide no AMR functionality. Smart meters may be part of a smart g rid, but alone do not constitute a smart grid.

Speaker Bio:
Paul is the Manager of System Sales West for Elster Electricity. Paul has more than 26 years of experience in the metering and utility industry and has been in Phoenix his entire career. Prior to his current position, he was Vice President of Sales & Marketing for PowerOneData, Inc., an Arizona based Advanced Metering start-up, acquired by Elster in 2008. He also has direct utility experience as Section Leader of APS’ Protection, Metering, and Automated Control group, as well as experience consulting for utilities and large energy users, as a Senior Director with the international consulting firm R. W. Beck.