Latest Automatic Meter Reading Association Report Shows Accelerating AMR Growth
| Utilities are deploying automatic meter reading (AMR) systems in record numbers, according to the 1996 Trials & Installations Report, published by the Northbrook, Illinois-based Automatic Meter Reading Association. In the largest AMRA Trials & Installations Report ever published, 183 utilities report deploying, or planning to deploy, almost 10 million AMR units. In addition to AMR, utilities are using their systems for load management, distribution automation, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and outage and tamper detection, as well as applying them to acquire other automation capabilities. Included in this year's report is information from 125 installations, representing more than 9.9 million units. Also included are data from 81 trials, which comprise 63,678 units. While gas utilities account for the largest portion of the units deployed, electric, water and multiutilities report impressive numbers also. Thirty-two gas utilities have more than 5.2 million units in use, and 11 gas industry trials underway represent 13,500 units. Combination utilities report having installed more than 2.7 million units in 17 projects. And 19 trial projects are said to account for over 10,600 more. In the electric power segment 35 systems have more than 1.1 million units in place, with another 31,750 in trials. In the water supply segment utilities report 41 installations and nearly 779,000 units in place. Seventeen trials involving over 7,800 units are underway. Since the last report water utilities have implemented more than 70,000 units through 14 deployments. One example is the North Wales Water Authority of North Wales, Pennsylvania, which is installing a full-scale AMR system incorporating about 19,500 mobile radio units. Also in the water utility field, eight expansion projects have accounted for over 70,500 new units. Clayton County Water Authority of Morrow, Georgia, is expanding its 652-unit mobile radio-trial system into a full-scale installation. Through its ongoing installation project, this utility will have 52,000 units in use. The Trials & Installations Report is an annual compilation of AMR deployments. In this case it covers those that occurred during 1995 and/or are planned for 1996. An update to the report will be published in the July 1996 issue of AMRA News, the monthly newsletter of the Automatic Meter Reading Association. To have your utility included, contact Editor Heather Freise at AMRA, 60 Revere Dr., Suite 500, Northbrook, IL 60062; tel. 708-480-9628; fax 708-480-9282; e-mail, amrahq@aol.com. (Note that as of Jan. 20, 1996, AMRA's area code will be 847.) The association is an international, nonprofit organization founded in 1986 in response to concerns about standardization, justification and deployment practices for the technologies involved in the development and application of automated metering services. AMR allows remote reading of utility meters without the need for physical access. AMR, distribution system automation and telemetry-based resource management are rapidly evolving technologies with broad application potential and are expected to have a major effect on the operation of water, gas and electric utilities and their customers. |
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