What is Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)?
AMI is a fixed information technology (IT) system designed to: automate utility billing, better optimize utility resources, and empower consumers with greater information on their patterns of use.
PG&E and SDG&E use the marketing term “Smart Meter” to describe their AMI systems, while SCE markets their AMI technology as “Smart Connect.”
AMI Automates Utility Billing
At the most fundamental level, AMI allows the utility to read customer meters remotely. Utility employees will no longer need to drive to your residence and look at your meter every month – your meter will communicate your use back to the utility. AMI systems “read” your meter hourly or daily, up from than the old once-per month standard.
AMI Optimizes Utility Resources
The utility can use the AMI system to better manage its resources. All utilities can use AMI systems to find theft. Electricity utilities can reduce the number of new power plants that they need to build through Demand Response programs. Gas and water companies can use AMI to find leaks. Electric utilities can remotely turn service on / off for people who are moving or have paid / not paid their bills.
(Because the utilities are regulated by the government, the utility is obligated to return much of the money saved through AMI systems to its customers.)
AMI Empowers Consumers with Information
Finally, consumers can use the AMI system to directly lower their bills. Dozens of academic research studies on consumer behavior show that the average person can easily save money when given more information about their consumption habits – an average savings of around 10%. This process, know as Information Feedback, can save the average Californian $100 per year in utility costs.
What is Information Feedback?
As Dr. Sarah Darby of The University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute summarizes:
Most domestic energy use, most of the time, is invisible to the user. Most people have only a vague idea of how much energy they are using for different purposes and what sort of difference they can make by changing day-to-day behavior or investing in efficiency measures. Hence the importance of feedback in making energy more visible and more amenable to understanding and control.2
The readout on a car’s speedometer, scored tests handed back from a professor, and even compliments received on new clothes are all examples of information feedback. The information informs us of the consequences of our past decisions and allows us to better optimize our decisions in the present and for the future.
What useful information will AMI give us?
At a minimum, all AMI systems will give customers access to their previous day’s consumption information online (like online banking information). With this information, customers can quickly figure out the cost of natural gas to heat a home on a cold day, or how high their water use rises on days when they water the lawn. With daily information, customers see the financial benefits of changing all their incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent or fixing the broken sprinkler head the next day online.
Some AMI systems give customers access to hourly consumption data. With hourly electricity information, customers can easily see how much money they wasted lighting the house when everyone was at work or at school. Hourly information exposes the “vampire” loads and leaks, when the customer thinks all consumption is off (water pipe leaks, gas heating unused water heater, electricity wasted in unused A/C DC transformers).
The most valuable AMI information will be available in real time. Electricity systems being built by SDG&E and SCE are equipped to interface with a sort of electricity speedometer that will show customers how much money they are spending [$/hour] as they use electricity. At a utility in Canada, families placed the display by the front door to confirm that lights were turned out throughout the house before the family headed off to school and work in the morning.
Note: Information that is available in real time has NOTHING TO DO with “Real-Time Pricing” (RTP). RTP is an extreme free-markets concept under which the price of electricity can change wildly at the whim of the marketplace. DRA does not support rapidly changing rates for residential consumers.
Example: The digital display [cumulative $] on the gas station pump is an example of information that is provided in real time – the price per unit of gas [$/gallon] stays the same while the driver fills their car. In contrast, RTP at the gas pump would allow the oil company to change the unit [$/gallon] price for gas while you were pumping gas into your car – an idea DRA only supports for large companies.
Individual customers may choose to consume the same, more or less of a utility product when given information. Some customers will not even care to access the information. But for customers who want to take control of their utility bills, and help the environment, AMI may help reduce waste energy and water waste by around 10%.
Where are AMI systems being installed?
AMI systems are currently being built around the US for electricity, gas, water utilities. PG&E, SDG&E and SCE are all currently building AMI systems in their respective territories. Water utilities across the state are currently evaluating the costs and benefits of installing AMI.