Wellington, New Zealand --- (METERING.COM) --- September 2, 2010 - New Zealand’s transmission grid owner Transpower has initiated discussions with interested parties on a multi-million dollar demand side initiative in the upper North Island to help defer investment in new assets.

Fredericton, Canada --- (METERING.COM) --- September 2, 2010 - Enbridge Gas New Brunswick is to purchase and install automated meter reading (AMR) devices on all existing and future natural gas meters to help improve operational efficiency and enhance customer service.

The implementation of these devices will allow Enbridge Gas New Brunswick personnel to read up to 10,000 meters on a single drive by route.

Colorado Springs, CO and Bloomington, MN, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- September 2, 2010 - Colorado Springs Utilities has selected Ecologic Analytics’ meter data management system (MDMS) to further enhance its local distribution network of more than 535,000 electric, gas and water endpoints for approximately 310,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Auckland, New Zealand --- (METERING.COM) --- September 2, 2010 - New Zealand energy company Genesis Energy has adopted Gentrack’s Time of Use (TOU) billing system, giving the utility one integrated system for billing all residential, small and medium enterprise (SME) and large commercial customers, the company has announced.

The Gentrack Velocity TOU billing engine was deployed in an eight month project, which involved a comprehensive migration of interval data for Genesis Energy’s SME and large commercial customers, each with a unique set of tariffs. The flexibility of Gentrack Velocity and application of new workflow technologies enables Genesis Energy to streamline the setup of complex accounts while also automating complex data validation and bill calculation processes.

Geneva, Switzerland --- (METERING.COM) --- September 2, 2010 - Two smart grid companies, OPOWER and Tendril, have been named by the World Economic Forum among its new class of Technology Pioneers, comprising 31 of what the body regards as the most innovative technology start-ups from around the world, representing the cutting edge in innovation and poised to have a critical impact on the future of business, industry and society.

San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- September 1, 2010 - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has announced the formation of a SmartMeter™ Technical Advisory Panel comprising experts, regulators, business stakeholders and customers to help guide the project rollout and ensure it follows best practices for customers.

Indianapolis, IN and Redwood City, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- September 1, 2010 - Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL) has entered into an agreement with smart grid solution provider Silver Spring Networks to build its smart grid platform for deployment in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Region.

The deployment, to begin later this year, is part of IPL’s smart energy project to promote energy efficiency, improve reliability, and deploy advanced metering. IPL is funding the project, in part, through a $20 million Smart Grid Investment Grant awarded by the Department of Energy (DOE) through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Redwood Shores, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- September 1, 2010 - Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0, a key component of the Oracle Utilities Smart Meter Platform, is now available, the company has announced.

With Oracle Utilities Smart Meter Platform, utilities can organize consumption data and turn it into actionable intelligence, improving service, controlling operational costs and responding appropriately to meter-related events and alerts. Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0 sits at the platform’s core and verifies, stores, processes and formats the data, providing every utility department, application and business process with the metering information it needs.  

Dublin, Ireland and Belfast, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- August 31, 2010 - By 2020 demand will play an active part in the process of system balancing and market price formation in Ireland’s single electricity market, according to a new consultation paper from the island’s regulatory authorities.

This will occur through a combination of autonomous response to expected market prices, dynamic response to market prices over a range of timescales and the inclusion of some dispatchable demand (and distributed generation) in the centralized processes of price formation and dispatch.

Hobart and Melbourne, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- August 31, 2010 - The Tasmanian state government’s new common services corporation, Onstream, has awarded a contract to water billing and CRM solution developer Gentrack to deploy its billing and CRM software.

Onstream, which was formed through the restructure of the Tasmanian water industry, will deploy the Gentrack Velocity billing and CRM platform to support a range of corporate and professional services, including IT, billing and customer services for its three stakeholder water corporations in Tasmania.

Chandigarh, India --- (METERING.COM) --- August 30, 2010 - In order to reduce line losses and to prevent theft of electricity, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam plans to implement the latest remote automatic metering system for large industrial consumers.

The system will be installed for all 3,100 HV industrial consumers to closely monitor their consumption from the head office of UHBVN at Panchkula. The project will be phased, starting in approximately three months with 507 HV customers in the Panipat district and thereafter expanded to the other districts.

Portland, OR and Seattle, WA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- August 30, 2010 - Ford has entered into partnerships with Portland General Electric in Portland and the City of Seattle to develop consumer outreach and education programs on electric vehicles as well as share information on charging needs and requirements to ensure the electrical grid can support the necessary demand.

Godalming, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- August 30, 2010 - WWF-UK has become the latest organization to weigh in on water metering in Great Britain, calling for the new government and water companies to take action now to ensure that water meters are installed nationwide by 2020.

Saying water meters are a key solution to Britain’s water shortages, WWF-UK reminds that the U.K. is one of the only European countries where most households don’t pay for water on the basis of how much they use.

Germany is one of the front-runners in the current EU-wide smart metering implemention with the country busy clearing the way for the nationwide uptake of smart metering.  “Smart metering is definitely on the move in Germany and this is a country to watch in terms of how it is planning its nationwide roll-outs,” says Elisabeth Brusse, project director of Metering, Billing/CRM Europe, “with the country’s utilities preparing their roll-outs and several pilot projects have been implemented so far.“  Several prominent German utility experts will share their insight and experience at Metering, Billing/CRM Europe, which is the continent’s leading utility industry forum taking place in Vienna from 22-24 September.  

Geneva, Switzerland --- (METERING.COM) --- August 27, 2010 - The International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Smart Grid Strategic Group (SG3) has released for comment its draft Smart Grid Standardization Roadmap setting out the standardization requirements for smart grids.

The 136 page draft roadmap also presents an inventory of existing (mostly IEC) standards, analyzes the gaps between actual standards and future requirements, and makes recommendations for evolution.