Real-time Metering Comes of Age

True end-to-end system provides tremendous cost savings for utilities and C&I customers

Jackson, MS — October 30, 2001

SmartSynch™, the leading provider of smart metering solutions to the energy and utility industry, proudly announces that its SmartMeter SystemSM is now commercially available. The SmartMeter System will revolutionize the electric power industry by creating the long sought ability to manage the relationship between power provider and power consumer in real time.

Combining SmartMeters™, Transaction Management System (TMS) software, Advanced Communication Networks (ACN), and the Internet, the SmartMeter System manages the real time, two-way delivery of critical usage, power quality and reliability, and pricing information between electricity generators, transmission organizations, utilities, retail energy service providers, and the customer. It is the only system that provides the necessary architecture for real-time energy management solutions, such as real time pricing, voluntary load curtailment and verification, and alarming on power quality and outage events as they occur.

"SmartSynch's proven SmartMeter System provides the only commercially available infrastructure to support the real time solutions required to ensure the proper functioning of the electrical industry," said Mark E. Rodgers, CEO of SmartSynch. "Broad implementation of the SmartMeter System has already begun in California and across the country, and is expected to dramatically lower peak demand, forestall the need for new generation and lead to lower electricity rates."

The SmartMeter, compliant with ANSI and FCC standards, is an integrated product that utilizes SmartSynch's technology under-glass in an industry standard, general-purpose solid-state revenue meter. SmartMeters install in the field like a regular power meter, resulting in efficient, low-cost installation and operation. A subset of known power quality analysis functions typically performed by more sophisticated instrumentation is used to capture a practical set of measurement criteria that closely reflects the more common disturbances experienced by customers. The most common subsets of power delivery disturbances include power outage and restoration, low voltage, high voltage, momentary interruption/voltage sag, and voltage imbalance. The SmartMeter collects power quality and usage data, then compresses and encrypts the data for superior economics and data/device security.

As data is collected, it travels through advanced communication networks to the company's TMS software, a unique application that seamlessly interfaces SmartMeters over advanced communications networks and the Internet. Once TMS receives the information, it distributes it to key information systems such as load curtailment, billing, energy management, field force automation and customer relationship management. The data can be sent to any application system, workstation, computer, or browser-enabled personal communications device, including a cell phone, personal digital assistant, or pager.

The SmartMeter System has been initially designed to connect energy and utility companies to the commercial and industrial market, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of U.S. power revenue (Frost & Sullivan, 2000). Utilities will benefit from automated billing and outage notification, demand side management, improved load forecasting and improved customer service. Some utilities are even turning data collection and distribution into a value added service and profit center, charging as much as $80 a month per customer for automated power quality information generated by the SmartMeter System.

The benefits to commercial and industrial customers are also significant. The ability to reduce demand in peak periods, which requires real-time connectivity, has a significant effect on price; a five percent reduction in demand can lead to a 50 percent reduction in price. Some industries use equipment that can suffer costly damage if exposed to power quality problems. For these industries, the ability to protect this equipment by having real-time power quality data and even event alarming can yield tremendous savings. In fact, the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that power quality events cost U. S. businesses $50 billion in 1999 - and that was before the energy crisis.

The biggest long-term impact from broad application of the SmartMeter System is the ability to implement true real-time pricing. In order to offer power at continuously varying rates based on cost, a utility must be able to measure actual consumption at each discreet time interval. In order to take actions to reduce consumption when power is costly, energy customers must have real-time access to current price and actual usage.

The SmartMeter System provides the connectivity to usher in a new era of conservation and cost reduction that will have far reaching economic implications. Improving the flow of information between energy and utility companies and their largest power customers will lead to lower prices and increased service for all power consumers. The SmartMeter System is currently being utilized by 15 major energy and utility companies.

SmartSynch, an energy technology company based in Jackson, MS, is the leading provider of smart metering solutions to the energy and utility industry. Its core product, the SmartMeter System, enables energy and utility companies to communicate with commercial and industrial electricity meters using wireless communications and the Internet. The SmartMeter System manages the delivery of critical information to any application system, workstation, computer, or browser-enabled personal communications device. For more information, visit www.smartsynch.com.

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