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 280
Information Systems (which is where the bulk of software costs will be spent) and 2)
segregating customer data in a manner that would ensure customer privacy.”
For the purposes of analyzing the value of sharing an MDMS, FortisBC assumed that basic
integration costs would be similar. However, there are additional complexities and costs
involved with sharing the MDMS:
• Procuring or constructing secure communications links with sufficient bandwidth
between BC Hydro and FortisBC data centres, including backup data centres;
• Additional configuration costs for the MDMS to ensure that data is appropriately secured
and segregated;
• Additional setup costs and ongoing administration costs related to creating appropriate
role-based MDMS security for BC Hydro and FortisBC employees;
• Negotiating and administering a MDMS sharing agreement between FortisBC and BC
Hydro; and
• Coordinating upgrades and enhancements of the MDMS, HES and billing systems at
FortisBC and BC Hydro.
FortisBC believes the costs of sharing the MDMS arising from the activities above to be in
significantly in excess of $500,000 one-time and $100,000 on an annual basis. These costs
would be in addition to the integration costs identified in the responses to BCUC IR1 Q114.2
and 114.5.
Savings from a sharing arrangement could arise from lower licensing and maintenance fees.
FortisBC is contractually required to keep contract details confidential, but can confirm that onetime
licensing and ongoing maintenance fees related to the MDMS are less than the minimum
estimated costs of sharing above.
Response:
114.2 Please provide the anticipated costs for connecting the proposed FortisBC
MDMS to the proposed FortisBC MDMS.
FortisBC assumes the question should have read “Please provide the anticipated costs for
connecting the proposed FortisBC HES to the proposed FortisBC MDMS” and has answered on
that basis.