Georgia utility picks Oracle to help make sense of meter data

Oracle Utilities will be helping Georgia’s Cobb Electric Membership Corporation manage the vast amount of data the utility will be gathering from its deployment of 196,000 smart electricity meters.

A not-for-profit electric membership cooperative that serves parts of the metropolitan Atlanta area, Cobb EMC will work with Oracle and Oracle partner Red Clay on its smart-grid initiative, which is being supported with federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds.

Cobb EMC plans to use Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management to verify, store, process and format its smart-meter data, providing every department, application and business process with the metering information it needs. The utility will also use the energy usage data collected through smart meters for time-of-use rate design.

As part of a pilot program, Cobb EMC will also use Oracle applications to connect advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) usage data and 3,800 in-home displays. The pilot program is aimed at helping the utility understand what information will best help customers to effectively monitor and manage their energy use.

The utility will also use Oracle Utilities’ Smart Grid Gateway to provide a single point of connection between all existing and future smart-grid devices and applications. The utility plans to use the solution to handle common AMI processes, including remote connect/disconnect and meter status.

“As utilities move forward with smart grid projects, they are faced with an influx of meter data,” said Bill Vellante, group vice president and general manager for Oracle Utilities. Oracle’s applications, he said, will help Cobb EMC move toward “making the most out of the data they are collecting.”