1. April 18, 2017
Load Profile Basics
Kenny O’Dell

2. Agenda A walk through history
Use cases for load profile today and tomorrow
How Sensus delivers load profile (LP)
How to get started, what to ask

3. What is load profile?
A graph of the variation in the electrical load versus time
Terms:
Channel: the value being recorded (most often, this is energy)
Interval: period of time to accumulate
Example:
Energy: kWh
Interval: 1 hour
Save the value used during that 1 hour period

4. In olden times…
Paper strip that was punched based on usage General Electric PD-55 Circa: 1950’s

5. In olden times…
Magnetic tape recorder… General Electric PDM-76 Circa: 1970’s

6. In olden times…
Electronic recorder with an optical port and a modem General Electric DR-87 Circa: 1987

7. In olden times…
Electronic registers on electro-mechanical meters General Electric TMR-92 Circa: 1990

8. And now…
Solid state electric meters with multiple channels of load profile.

9. Agenda A walk through history
Use cases for load profile today and tomorrow
How Sensus delivers load profile (LP)
How to get started, what to ask

10. Why Do We Care About Load Profile?
Provides a record of energy use
Load surveys
Helps distribution planners see exactly how much energy is being used at any given time
Real time
Offline statistical studies
Transformer loading
Load balancing
Finding coincident demand for geographically dispersed locations (ex. all schools)

11. Use Cases: Doing More in the Back Office
Description
Time of Use (TOU)
Apply new rate schedules at any time, without having to reprogram the meter
Demand
Calculate demand based on the LP data
Solar
Track energy coming in or out throughout the day for load planning
Electric vehicle chargers
Ability to see the impact of the chargers, and when they are used based on the data pattern
CVR
Voltage can be in a channel, and show how the system is performing at the end of each feeder

12. Use Cases: Getting More for Free
If you have kWh and kVAh, then you get Power Factor (PF), and kVARh for free!

13. Agenda A walk through history
Use cases for load profile today and tomorrow
How Sensus delivers load profile (LP)
How to get started, what to ask

14. Load Profile in Today’s World
Modern electric meters support load profile as part of the basic meter
4-20 channels
5, 15, 30, and 60 minute intervals
kWh, kVAh, kVARh, voltage
Time aligned
End readings
Stored in long term memory
Stored in long term memory, saving weeks or months of data depending on configuration

15. In-meter Storage Ample Storage Meter 1 channel, 60 min
(by number of days)
Meter
1 channel, 60 min
4 channels, 15 min
Stratus®/iConA™
961
115
I-210+c
1556
107
A3 ALPHA®
323 76

16. Load Profile in Today’s World
Data is accessed via ANSI C12.19 tables
Each manufacturer supports a different set of LP features
PUCs and utilities expect AMI systems to retrieve the actual table data to ensure accuracy
Pulling back lots of LP data means lots of bandwidth needed

17. Sensus Load Profile
FlexNet® module is programmed to auto-push LP data periodically
Reads straight from the meter’s tables
No need for the module to store the data
System can also ping the module to fill in gaps due to RF collisions

18. Auto-pushed message is flexible; contains 3 parts
Sensus Load Profile
Auto-pushed message is flexible; contains 3 parts
LP interval data
End readings
Snapshot registers
and is flexible enough to pull back a little or a lot of data, depending on what is required.

19. Auto-Pushed Message LP interval data
One or more channels (can be different than the meter)
Data source is the meter’s C12.19 tables
Time aligned
Message includes past intervals, transmitting as many as possible to reduce backfill pings

20. End readings (optional)
Auto-Pushed Message
End readings (optional)
Time aligned to the end of the interval
Meter updates the value at midnight (in most cases)
Can be sent with each message, or once a day, or not at all

21. Snapshot registers (optional)
Auto-Pushed Message
Snapshot registers (optional)
Values read when the message is transmitted
No history, no backfill, not time aligned with LP
Can be sent with each message, or once a day, or not at all
Examples: voltage, click counts, demand reset count

22. Meters supported Meter Device Type # channels Availability
Sensus iConA/Stratus 83 4
Nov 2014
Sensus Stratus 96 8
Feb 2019
Aclara I-210+c 20
Jan 2016
105
Oct 2017
Aclara kV2c
109
Apr 2018
Honeywell A3 ALPHA 49
Jun 2013
110
Q4 2018

23. Meters without LP (ESM)
Device Type
# channels
Availability
Sensus iConA 23
n/a
Sensus iConA/Stratus 50
Aclara kV2c 55
Honeywell A3 ALPHA 5 34
Landis+Gyr FOCUS 19 51

24. Use Case: Automatic Backup of Billing Data in the Meter
MDM crash
MDM bug/update/change-out
Reconstruct the data from the original source

25. Use Case: Protection From Long Interruptions
Back-office software offline for extended period
Network communication down
Temporary RF issues at the meter site

26. Use case: Solid Interval Data
Time aligned interval data from the meter
Auto backfilled
No gaps in the data
No more estimating bills

27. Use case: Flexible Choices in the Back Office
Billing options (change whenever you want)
Demand
Time of use, DST
Solar
Distribution system
System loading (demand throughout the day)
Voltage, current, power factor, temperature, etc.

28. Start Using LP Data: Next Steps
Capacity study needed
Must know if the system will handle the data
Ensure good RF coverage to the meter
Plan for now, and for growth

29. Start Using LP Data: Next Steps
Make a plan for system upgrade
RNI up to date?
RNI hardware upgrade needed?
More base stations or frequency needed?

30. Start Using LP Data: Next Steps
Check all your systems
Billing
Outage management
Load research
Voltage monitoring

31. Agenda A walk through history
Use cases for load profile today and tomorrow
How Sensus delivers load profile (LP)
How to get started, what to ask

32. Get up to speed on why to use load profile
Be ready to talk about all the ways that load profile data might be used at the utility
Distribution system load research
Transformer loading
Load balancing
CVR
Information to guide a demand response program
Bi-directional (solar, electric vehicles, wind)
TOU or Demand calculations in the back office

33. Plan for success from the first conversation
Before we decide how to setup the meters and build the network, we have to find out what the utility needs.
A FlexNet system can accommodate just about anything, but we need to size it to suit their needs, and stay within budget.
All networks are finite: FlexNet, cellular, PLC, mesh…
And we should leave room for plenty of growth.

34. Questions: new customer
What are your use cases for load profile data today?
How would you like to use load profile in the future?
Is your utility ready to process and use the data?
How granular do you need the intervals to be? 15 minutes? 1 hour?
How many meters? And what type?

35. Questions: existing customer
What are your use cases for load profile data today?
How would you like to use load profile in the future?
Is your utility ready to process and use the data?
How granular do you need the intervals to be? 15 minutes? 1 hour?
How many meters? And what type?
Will the current network handle the increased load, or do we need to add channels or base stations?
Do you have good 2-way communication?
Is your network tuned properly?
Are you monitoring the network?

36. Thoughts Plan for success
Don’t just “hope” the network will handle the data
Leave room for growth
Make sure all systems are ready (head-end, OMS, billing…)
Ask questions!

37. Questions?