Leading Meter Data Management System Is Featured at the AMI/MDM User's Group

Puget Sound Energy discusses its use of the Ecologic MDMS with over 140 attendees at the AMI/MDM Working Group meeting in Bellevue, Wash.

MINNEAPOLIS - April 25, 2008:  Last month Ecologic Analytics' Meter Data Management System (MDMS) was featured at the AMI/MDM Working Group meeting by the event host, Puget Sound Energy (PSE). The utility has used the Ecologic MDMS in production since 2001, making it the longest running MDMS deployment in the industry.

PSE's metering information experts, John McClaine and Theresa Burch shared in-depth knowledge accumulated over the last seven-plus years pioneering advanced metering initiatives and using an MDMS as an enterprise-wide system of record for meter reading related information. The MDMS serves as a source for operational and planning needs across multiple functional areas and use cases within the utility. Key benefits identified by PSE to date include ability to:

• Validate, estimate and edit meter reads
  
  
• Provide a single view of current and historical usage and event data to customer service representatives answering billing questions and conducting on-demand meter reads
  
  
• Supply near real-time storm outage and restoration information to supplement various systems that handle outage management
  
  
• View and easily adjust interval data when necessary for commercial and industrial customers on complex, advanced rate schedules

"Today we're finding actionable uses for the data that were not anticipated in the beginning," said McClaine. "For example, the MDMS allows us to verify the accuracy of our outage management system to ensure we're dispatching personnel efficiently during a storm. We discover more uses for the data all the time; the consistent and validated data in the MDMS has become a much sought-after commodity by many different departments."

Supporting PSE's 1.8 million electric and gas meters for residential and commercial accounts, the full-function MDMS synchronizes data between mainframe legacy systems, existing asset management solutions and seven distinct meter reading sources, including various Cellnet+Hunt Automated Meter Reading (AMR) solutions. In addition to organizing data from multiple sources, the WAVE™ and iWAVE™ engines automatically validate data from daily and interval meter reads, while other modules provide PSE with functionality such as, on-demand reads, outage validation and restoration verification and automated service order generation. All application modules within Ecologic's comprehensive suite are managed through a single user interface.

PSE has been collecting and managing AMR data with the Ecologic MDMS since 2001 and is poised to lead the industry in taking action based on the business intelligence inherent in such volumes of historical usage and event information. The Ecologic MDMS at PSE currently maintains over 6.5 billion meter reads; a number that continues to increase by nearly 2.5 million reads daily (~ 900 million annually).

About Ecologic Analytics
Ecologic Analytics, formerly known as WACS, is a leading provider of meter data management (MDM) software solutions and decision management technologies for electric, natural gas and water utilities. The Ecologic Analytics solution offers a flexible, configurable and highly scalable architecture, enabling it to receive data from any AMI/AMR system and/or manual source. Its world-class engines and analytics provide utilities with support for critical operational and business processes. Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota.

For more information, visit:
www.ecologicanalytics.com

About Puget Sound Energy
Washington state's oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-square-mile service area stretching across 11 counties, PSE serves more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 729,000 natural gas customers, primarily in Western Washington. PSE meets the energy needs of its growing customer base through incremental, cost-effective energy efficiency, procurement of sustainable energy resources, and far-sighted investment in the energy-delivery infrastructure. PSE employees are dedicated to providing great customer service to deliver energy that is safe, reliable, reasonably priced, and environmentally responsible.

For more information, visit:
www.PSE.com

Media Contact Information

Matt Schwarz
Director of Marketing Communications
Ecologic Analytics, LLC
Phone: (952) 843-6043
Fax: (612) 395-5535