Newport Utilities, a community owned electric & water utility company, serves 20,000 electric customers in the eastern Tennessee area. Newport Utilities started its investigation on implementation of AMI technologies in 2005 [1, 2]. Newport uses Tantalus Utility Network‘s (TUNet) 900 MHz Local Area Network and 220 MHz Wide Area Network for providing two-way communication coverage over 95% of its service area [1, 2]; and chose GE I-210 solid state meters for their electricity metering. The utility’s AMI system provides outage reporting, remote connect/disconnect and real time access to customer data [1]. Originally, the project planned to be finished in four years. However it is expected to be ahead of the schedule [1, 3].
