Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • August 24, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 17 WHO IS YOUR HERO ON THE FRONT LINES? GO TO >> HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM/HBJ-EVENTS CLICK ON HEALTHCARE HEROES & NOMINATE! NOMINATE TODAY DEADLINE 9/15 FEATURED HOST: PLATINUM SPONSOR: GOLD SPONSOR: and are therefore not captured in its cost-benefit analysis. Helping with outages Smart electric meters could also im- prove Eversource's ability to respond to future storms and outages by giv- ing it the ability to automatically de- tect where the power is out — without needing custom- ers to call — and more efficiently allocating trucks and repair crews to where they are needed most. Asked if smart meters would have led to fewer outages or a faster recovery from Isaias, Gross said extensive tree damage caused by the storm's high winds were to blame for the situation. However, Eversource's own proposal, as well as other smart-meter experts, claim the technology could provide real benefits, including more accurate planning for outages and restoring power more quickly and efficiently when infrastructure is damaged. Eversource's analysis includes $83.5 million in benefits over a 20-year pe- riod related to outage restoration and customer reliability, including an im- proved ability to coordinate mutual aid storm response crews and automate the typically labor intensive process of identifying the remaining pockets of so-called "nested" outages in the final days of a storm-recovery effort. While each storm is unique, Ever- source estimates that smart me- ters could reduce outage durations by about 12%. AMI has a mixed record PURA's review of utilities' smart-meter proposals will come following regulators re- jecting large meter deployments in other states in recent years, includ- ing Massachusetts, Virginia, New Mexico and Kentucky. In those states, regulators de- termined that the investments wouldn't produce sufficient benefits for ratepayers. For example, Massachusetts util- ity commissioners in 2018 rejected a proposed smart-meter rollout by three utilities, including Eversource, citing that many of the benefits of automated meter reading had already been realized in the state, as well as potential complications re- lated to how third-party energy sup- pliers would play into the program, according to Greentech Media. And in Virginia, Dominion Energy (which owns Conncticut's Millstone Power Station nuclear plant), has seen its meter plans stymied, as regulators there rejected three pro- posals in the past two years, accord- ing to The Virginia Mercury, which reported that officials there called the utility's benefit projections "overoptimistic and flawed." Indeed, while there were 98 mil- lion smart meters deployed across the country as of the end of last year, according to data published by the Edison Electric Institute, most utili- ties don't use the meter technology to its fullest potential, researchers with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), concluded in a recent report. "This is due in part to organizational barriers including silos and workforce challenges, data access and sharing issues, and difficulties communicating the benefits and costs of AMI to key stakeholders," the ACEEE report said. Jess Melanson, chief operating of- ficer of Rhode Island-based Utilidata, which makes software that interacts with smart meters and counts lead- ing meter manufacturers among its clientele, said he is hoping PURA learns from such mistakes and mandates clear directives up front for what Con- necticut's utilities must do with their smart meters. For example, he'd like to see clear targets and metrics related to transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. "If you're going to spend hundreds of mil- lions of dollars on grid-edge com- puting in 2020, you need to ask it to do more," Melanson said. Melanson hopes the recent storm and resulting anger at Eversource won't dim Connecticut's prospects for leveraging smart meters to their full- est potential over the next few decades. "I worry more that, in a rush to solve today's problem, which is 'I didn't know whose power was out,' that we'll make a giant investment that doesn't stand the test of time," he said. PURA Chair Marissa Gillett oversees the state's grid-modernization efforts. Jess Melanson, Chief Operating Officer, Utilidata PHOTO | HBJ FILE

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