Portland General Electric (PGE), headquartered in Portland, OR, is one of the utilities in the United States that hold a higher percentage of renewable energy consumers according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) annual report in 2009 [1, 2]. The project which started in 2009, will install meters communicating via a wireless network identical to the cellular phone network, to provide for a 2-way communication between PGE and its residential and commercial consumers [1, 3, 4, 5]. PGE selected the Sensus' FlexNet advanced metering infrastructure solution. PGE believes that the smart grid installation will result in energy and cost savings to consumers, environmental benefits and speeding up of power restoration [1].
The installation start/end dates:-
- Beaverton meter reading offices: Apr 2009 - Dec 2009
- Tualatin meter reading offices: Aug 2009 - Nov 2009
- Salem meter reading offices: Aug 2009 - Feb 2010
- Portland meter reading offices: Oct 2009 - Apr 2010
- Woodburn meter reading offices: Dec 2009 - May 2010
- Gresham meter reading offices: Feb 2010 - Aug 2010
- Oregon City meter reading offices: Feb 2010 - Aug 2010
- Sheridan meter reading offices: Mar 2010 - Apr 2010
PGE plans to complete the smart meter installation for about 850,000 consumers in Oregon by September 2010 [1, 2]. The capital cost of the project is expected to be $130-135 million [6]. AMI was purchased from Sensus Metering. Residential and smaller business customer meters will be installed by Wellington Energy [6].
