计划远程断开AMI仪表

communication network, headend software enhancements, andRD meter firmware needed to begin deploying this technologyacross service regions.A robust communication network: a fast, reliable, and flexiblepoint-to-multipoint network to communicate directly orindirectly with multiple meters simultaneously and effectively.Headend software enhancements: the ability to create multipleschedules, cancel and modify messages, and include featuressuch as priority messaging, which allows for expedited messagedelivery during emergencies.RD meter firmware: software that allows RD schedules to beimplemented, along with a random restore feature to preventthe distribution system from becoming too overloaded afterreconnection and an armed feature to schedule the use of theautomated disconnect function.With a more targeted and precise approach to loadmanagement and control, electric utilities can increase revenueand improve public perception while providing a more reliableand safe distribution system for their customers.An emergency responseThe cooperative’s team geared up to serve their neighborsin need—more than 30,000 customers without power mostlyin Graves and Marshall Counties. The electricity provider hadthe advantage of remotely-managed, resilient infrastructureto aid in outage restoration. Five years earlier, West Kentuckyhad deployed the Sensus FlexNet® communication network, areliable, point-to-multipoint system that enables near real-timemeter data monitoring.Experts from Xylem traveled to the region to confirm theFlexNet system had survived the storm. They found that all PAGE 2network gear withstood the catastrophe and showed whichproperties still had power and which did not.“The network helped us determine if there was still a meterwithout power in the field, as opposed to us sending out atruck,” said Smart. “It allowed us to pinpoint outages quickerand we restored power to all our co-op members in almost aweek’s time.” It also helped identify the 218 homes destroyedbeyond repair in the co-op’s service area.The resilient infrastructure enabled a targeted restoration effort.Mutual aid crews from other Kentucky cooperatives and Tupelo,Mississippi, along with contractors across the Bluegrass State,worked diligently to replace more than 250 transformers andstand up nearly 500 poles to help resolve service interruptions.Lessons learned:proximity and safety netSmart shares an important lesson involving the proximity ofoperations. The co-op’s operations center in Graves Countysustained partial roof damage. Its main office was structurally“[The network] allowed us to pinpoint outages quicker and we restoredpower to all of our members in almost a week’s time.”D AV I D S M A R TPresident and CEO, West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperativefine but lost communications. By contrast, the tornado leveled acandle factory across the street from the cooperative’s Mayfieldoperations center, killing nine people.“Our main office and our operations center are only two milesapart,” said Smart. “We were dangerously close to losing all ofthe trucks and equipment that make the emergency recoveryefforts possible.”Due to the near loss of all the cooperative’s local data systems,Smart is now considering a second data network center far fromMayfield. Thanks to Xylem technology, he felt reassured that,should he ever need it, their smart meter data is always backed-up at a secure location. This hosted solution creates dataredundancy—an insurance policy for the data that empowers therecovery of resilient communities.“This time we were able to access our own data, but it’s niceto know Xylem can provide a safety net,” said Smart. “You cannever have enough redundancy when it comes to resilientoperations.”The resilient infrastructure allowed West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative and mutual aid crews from neighboring states to kick off a targeted restorationeffort following the weather emergency. AMI DefinedAMI operates much like the human body. It’s an organization ofseveral systems working together to exchange vital information.The building blocks of AMI include:Smart meters—Meter firmwareCommunication network and infrastructureHeadend systemAt the heart of AMI is the smart meter, which enables two-waycommunication between the customer and the electric utility.The smart meter not only measures electricity consumption,but also measures voltage levels and monitors the operationalstatus of the service. Data from these functions is then sentto the electric utility to analyze, process and distribute time-based billing, energy use data and more. The electric utilitycan also detect tampering, monitor voltage levels andoutages, and remotely connect and disconnect. The ability toremotely monitor outages and restorations is the function mostresponsible for accelerating the restoration efforts during crises.If smart meters are the heart, then the communication networkis the circulatory system, “pumping” data from the smart meterto the headend, the “brain,