PrimeRead MDM v4.0

The continuing evolution of the international AMI revolution, and the ever-growing sophistication of the applications and practices that continue to be demanded of TRUE AMI SOLUTIONS, have ushered forth an entirely new and growing set of Back Office Software requirements.  Yesterday, it might have been OK for a utility to look exclusively toward the captive software of an AMI hardware vendor to nominally power only that AMI system.  That was when AMI was still considered to be hardware-centric.  Today we know better.  Today, it is no longer possible to look to one hardware vendor’s nominal software offering as being the AMI MDM solution of the future.  In the beginning, when only the basic functionality of Generation One MDM software was commercially available, what choice did a leading edge utility have but to implement what was, at the time, the only viable option?  Today, Second Generation MDM solutions are changing the face of AMI rollouts forever.  Today there are choices.  Today, TRUE AMI MDM needs to be addressed.

The following are but few of the myriad factors that account for the diversity of the revenue metering and related hardware in service at today’s modern utility:

• Physical geographies
• Network structure(s)
• Number, location, and engineering of intertie points
• Regulatory and operational business requirements
• Anticipated changes to the regulatory environment
• Required functionality for operations and maintenance
• History of acquisitions and the associated hardware mix
• Expensive to replace, still functional legacy hardware
• Legacy software systems and integrations
• Strategic partnerships with vendors
• High and unjustifiable equipment replacement costs
• Varied and evolving communications topologies
• Perceived value of one vendor’s offerings over another

These and other related factors have and continue to drive many if not most of the revenue and system operations metering procurement decisions made by the utility.  These factors have also lead to a diverse array of revenue metering and related hardware platforms in co-existence at any modern utility of any size.

Considering the mix of hardware that must be taken into consideration when a utility considers the licensing of a TRUE AMI MDM solution, does it make business sense for a utility to limit itself to the present Generation One offerings presented by the AMI hardware vendors or by the other vendors that fail to look at the holistic needs of a utility’s Meter Data Management requirements?

Many a utility’s most important revenue stream comes from the in-place high end, communicating, polyphase metering systems at that utility’s Large C&I customer base.  Why, then, do the vast majority of the so called MDM systems commercially available not address this vitally important metering segment.  Can this be TRUE MDM?  The answer is simple.  The majority ignore this vital metering management segment because they don’t possess the technology to address it.  When considering the forward looking needs of a Meter Data Management solution for your utility, doesn’t it make sense to consider ALL OF YOUR METERING NEEDS rather than just the needs of the newest additions; only the AMI meters?  When making a system changing, completely disruptive investment of this magnitude, doesn’t it make sense to implement a system that will address your needs now and for the future?

Fortunately, PrimeStone’s twenty years pedigree of experience in Revenue Interval Data Management and Meter Communications has an answer to this important utility dilemma – PrimeRead MDM 4.0.

PrimeRead MDM v4.0 is the first of the TRUE SECOND GENERATION AMI MDM solutions.  Built upon the communications reliability and hardware platform versatility of the original PrimeRead Enterprise Revenue Interval Meter Communications solution, PrimeRead MDM v4.0 adds the capabilities to integrate seamlessly with modern AMI-centric hardware systems, and their associated software, while maintaining the ability to communicate with the legacy metering systems that are ubiquitous in a modern utility.  Then PrimeRead v4.0 goes one giant step further.  Through its seamless integration with various other components of the PrimeRead Energy Suite the PrimeRead MDM 4.0 software system becomes the most robust, the most versatile, and the most cost effective Second Generation AMI MDM solution available on the market today.  The ability to address ALL of a utility’s Meter Data Management needs and requirements is what PrimeStone calls “TRUE AMI.” 

PrimeRead MDM v4.0 contains all of the robust functionality that one might expect of a modern and highly competent MDM solution.  PrimeRead MDM v4.0 can:

• Securely communicate with all legacy and modern utility meters to acquire, archive, validate, edit, and estimate (VEE), transfer, inter-exchange, and make operationally available a utility’s revenue interval data;

• Appropriately scale, as the utility’s node count grows, to manage the myriad terabytes of interval data that a large AMI system will acquire;

• Provide appropriate tools to make enormous amounts of data securely available, in a useable for, all authorized users;

• Provide appropriate tools to allow authorized users to manipulate viewed data to make those data valuable to that person or group to improve their job efficiency; 

• Integrate with third party software applications to inter-exchange and otherwise post-process acquired data;

• Integrate with utility SCADA systems to provide the SCADA system with additional parameters for monitoring and control;

• Integrate with other third party utility systems to include CIS, GIS, billing, work management, fleet dispatch, EAM, and associated modern software applications for appropriate purposes and requirements;

• Provide strictly defined and carefully managed levels of secure data access, use, viewing, and reporting;

• Integrate with appropriate high level Business Intelligence applications, such as the PrimeRead MMM (Mathematical Modeling Module) v1.5, to provide statistical and pattern recognition insight into the massive amounts of acquired interval data;

• Integrate with present and future modules and function sets of the PrimeRead Energy Suite to extend the functionality of the base MDM solution.

Modern Meter Data management is a complex and a costly endeavor requiring a forward looking approach.  Every software solution carries with it massive cost requirements; not only license, implementation, and maintenance costs, but also those hidden costs that go into raising a solution’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).  Lowering software TCO is a primary goal of any organization.  TRUE AMI MDM is far less expensive than is Generation One AMI MDM in that the TCO to maintain one Generation Two Meter Data Management solution – especially if that solution is PrimeRead MDM v4.0, – is far less than in maintaining a Generation One MDM solution and a separate Revenue Interval Data Meter Communications solution for the utility’s C&I metering communications needs.

Don’t sell your utility short by looking only to the present.  With PrimeRead MDM v4.0 you have in your hands the ability to look ahead, not only to Second Generation MDM, but to Third Generation, Fourth Generation, and beyond.  Lower software TCO and greater performance are just a phone call away!