FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC) Application for a Certificate of Public ...

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FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC or the Company)
Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity
for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project
Response to British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC or the Commission)
Information Request (IR) No. 1
Submission Date:
October 5, 2012
Page 185
detection and has concluded that the installation of feeder meters without the accompanying
advanced meters as an effective tool to identify electric theft is not practical for the following
reasons.
• It is not possible to accurately synchronize the meter readings on the feeder meters with
the cumulative consumption recorded by the current meter system as the readings
cannot be collected simultaneously, (it takes a meter reader several hours to read a
route and each feeder may have several routes which are read on different days
depending on the geography and customer population).
• If one accepts inaccuracies introduced by a manual meter reading approach to energy
balancing at the feeder level, specific theft identification would still require repeated
manual re-reading of meters downstream of primary metering to begin locating the
source of unusual losses.
The repeated and non-standard nature of the manual meter readings required for this type of
energy balancing would alert electricity thieves to the theft detection activities of the Company.
Response:
82.4.1 Please provide the results (or undertake and provide the results) of the
analysis referred to above. Please state all assumptions used.
Please refer to the responses to BCUC IR1 Q82.4, Q82.4.2 and Q87.2.9.
Response:
82.4.2 Does FortisBC consider it would be prudent to install the feeder meters
for theft detection first, and only include any additional electricity theft
related benefits in a subsequent AMI business plan? Please explain why
or why not.
The installation of feeder meters without the concurrent installation of advanced meters at
customer premises is not an effective tool in identifying electric theft. The thefts benefits require
the deployment of both types of meters. Please also see the response to BCUC IR1 Q78.3.1.