Oncor and Landis+Gyr Roll Out 300,000 Smart Meters in Massive and Speedy Deployment

The Oncor and Landis+Gyr Dallas smart meter deployment is considered one of the country's biggest and quickest Smart Grid technology rollouts so far. The partnership expects to have 700,000 meters installed by the end of 2009, and up to three million throughout Oncor's service area by 2012.

The Landis+Gyr meters will provide energy consumption information every 15 minutes to the utility and to homes and small businesses through their home energy management dashboards. The complete Landis+Gyr system, called Gridstream, includes the meter, wireless network infrastructure and home energy management tools. The Gridstream plaftorm can save consumers up to 15% of their current energy costs by cutting consumption by as much as 10%.

Another benefit of the system is that the information provided to customers will give them the option of using more energy during off-peak hours when demand is less. It also allows utilities to smooth out the highs and lows of traditional energy supply patterns which enables them to provide a steadier flow of power.

A Brattle Group study recently concluded that a mere 5% drop in peak demand at the national level would be enough to stop installing and operating roughly 625 power plants that are now only used during peak demand periods. Those plants are typically higher emitters of pollutants. So in addition to annual savings of roughly $3 billion, there are environmental benefits, too.

"Oncor is already on the ground making the benefits of Smart Grid technology a reality. Our consumers can more easily take control of their energy usage the way they want to, instead of how their utility wants them to," said Bob Shapard, Oncor chairman and CEO.

He added that combined with the utility's consumer education program, the smart meter installations can save seven million customers about $284 million a year and eliminate the need to build more than a dozen new power plants over the next decade. Those are significant bonuses as Oncor's service area is considered the country's highest growth region.

   Quick Take: The Oncor rollout was a troubled one, with numerous starts and stops and several vendors "disinvited" until they finally got the current team into place.

   Smart Grid technology – press release on rollout

   Oncor profile in the SGN Key Players channel