smart meter

[enireh]

when a "smart meter" is pulled does it raise a flag down at headquarters? if I pull a "smart meter" in order to upgrade my Aunt Mary's decades old Federal Pacific eqiupement will the co-op know on Monday morning?

 

[gadfly56]

when a "smart meter" is pulled does it raise a flag down at headquarters? if I pull a "smart meter" in order to upgrade my Aunt Mary's decades old Federal Pacific eqiupement will the co-op know on Monday morning?

They'll know within about 5 minutes.

 

[Little Bill]

It depends on the POCO and how they use the meters. We have one POCO that uses most of the features of the meter and one that uses none of the features. They say they want to wait until the "bugs" are out of the meters before implementing some of the features.

The one that uses some of the features will know within minutes if the meter is pulled. It updates every few minutes (maybe longer) and if it shows "lost service", they will send a lineman to investigate. If they see the meter has been pulled someone is in trouble!

As I said, it depends on the POCO and whether they use the features or allow the meters to be pulled by others.

 

[Fulthrotl]

They'll know within about 5 minutes.

yep. now, if you get a copy of the bill, and write down the meter number,
and call the poco, and explain the meter will go down for a few hours as
you are doing a safety inspection of the panel, and give them your license
number, then they won't roll a line patrolman to investigate the outage.

permission is easier to obtain than forgiveness.

when you are done, don't forget to release the outage notification.

 

[Little Bill]

yep. now, if you get a copy of the bill, and write down the meter number,
and call the poco, and explain the meter will go down for a few hours as
you are doing a safety inspection of the panel, and give them your license
number, then they won't roll a line patrolman to investigate the outage.

permission is easier to obtain than forgiveness.

when you are done, don't forget to release the outage notification.

That won't fly here!

We no allowed to touchy the meter!:happyno:

 

[truck41trouble]

When a smart meter goes offline, it typically gives an alarm at the system operations center. If a meter blips then clears its no biggie. If a meter goes out and stays out for a few minutes, they dispatch a supervisor. If a cluster of meters go out and stay out, they dispatch a troubleman.


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[Fulthrotl]

That won't fly here!

We no allowed to touchy the meter!:happyno:

i always ask before touchy da meter.
i never, ever, reach out and grab a utility by da meter.
they *hate* that.

if there is a "pillars of hercules" lock band on it,
i ask if they would please remove it first, and give
them a couple days. with the realtime monitoring,
they don't put the lock ring back on anymore
unless it's a meter in a place like compton, or inglewood.

 

[kwired]

As mentioned "it depends".

Most of them usually "ping" the server they are associated with on a periodic basis, or the server pings each meter registered to the system. How many missed communication incidents is necessary to issue the operators a trouble alert and how often those happen is going to be different with nearly every POCO. Some could perform such communications every few minutes, some could do so once a day, week or month. I'd guess most are expected to transmit data at least once a day though.

They not only use this system to detect individual service outages, but when there is a widespread outage, they can look at data of what is all out and help determine where the source of the problem may be before they even dispatch a repair crew.

 

[growler]

when a "smart meter" is pulled does it raise a flag down at headquarters? if I pull a "smart meter" in order to upgrade my Aunt Mary's decades old Federal Pacific eqiupement will the co-op know on Monday morning?

yep. now, if you get a copy of the bill, and write down the meter number,
and call the poco, and explain the meter will go down for a few hours as
you are doing a safety inspection of the panel, and give them your license
number, then they won't roll a line patrolman to investigate the outage.

permission is easier to obtain than forgiveness.

when you are done, don't forget to release the outage notification.

I agree that it's better to get permission.

With some power companies and some jurisdictions it may not even be that big of a deal even if you let them know the panel is changed. There are still jurisdictions here where you can do a panel swap (same type) without a permit. There is a small fee for a meter reseal from the POCO it gets added to the power bill.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

Most of them usually "ping" the server they are associated with on a periodic basis, or the server pings each meter registered to the system.

The Itron meters have a capacitor that keeps it powered a couple of seconds, allowing it to send a "dying gasp" message when it looses power. Once power is restored they send a restoral message. Otherwise I think the normal status updates are 15 minute intervals.