Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) has signed a five-year extension of its agreement with Zug, Switzerland-based smart meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr for management of the utility's advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The new agreement extends the contract from 2016 through 2021.

JEA owns and operates the largest community-owned utility in Florida and the eighth-largest in the United States. The utility's electric system serves more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent counties. In addition, JEA's water system serves more than 305,000 water customers and 230,000 sewer customers in Northeast Florida. Altogether, JEA's network collects daily metering data from 730,000 electric and water endpoints.

JEA's advanced metering program for electric and water meters has operated under a managed service agreement with Landis+Gyr since 2001. In fulfillment of this commitment, Landis+Gyr deploys, maintains and operates the AMI and provides data management services for the utility.

However, up until 2011, although JEA had instituted automated meter reading -- which improved the process of recording and reporting customer usage -- that technology was only one-way: JEA could read the meters, but could not interact with them.

In 2010, JEA received a $13 million grant JEA from the U.S. Department of Energy under the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which it matched with $13 million of its own capital, for a total of $26 million in smart grid development funding. The program provided for:

·         Distribution of smart meters to 3,000 customers,

·         AMI communication systems,

·         A meter communications network,

·         Backhaul communications,

·         A meter data management system, and 

·         A Web portal that provides customers with access to data on their own hourly, daily, and monthly energy and water consumption, as well as projections through the end of the billing cycle.

In April 2011, the utility began adding Gridstream infrastructure to its network to provide full two-way communications with endpoint devices. Gridstream features multi-energy smart metering devices that enable near real-time communication as well as advanced programming capabilities. Among other benefits, Gridstream enables the utility to add more energy efficiency and payment options, such as prepaid metering, while enhancing reliability with automated outage detection.

"We are excited by the opportunity to continue providing network and data management services for JEA under this agreement," said Prasanna Venkatesan, senior vice president of Systems and Services at Landis+Gyr. "This agreement allows the utility to continue utilizing existing investments to access and analyze metering data, while being able to add new technology to expand network capabilities in the future."

"Before extending our contract, we reviewed the option of taking over operation of our advanced metering network. But after a brief study, we concluded this was the best option for us and our customers at this time," said Marlene Murphy-Roach, JEA’s vice president of Customer Relations. "

Landis+Gyr offers the option of network and data management services to utilities as part of its smart grid solutions business. The company currently manages advanced meter networks for 20 utilities --  representing 15 million electric, gas, and water meters.