In conjunction with keeping members informed, at last year’s Annual Meeting we reviewed plans to install an automated meter reading system, a project which commenced this spring and which should be completed by year’s end 2007.  The work will be done on a substation area basis and before any of the new meters are installed, the following letter will be mailed to each member: 
 
 

Dear SouthEastern Member,

In the near future a Cooperative representative will visit your property to replace the old style mechanical or electronic meter with a new AMR type unit.  If you missed last year’s annual meeting or have not been able to read recent Cooperative communications on the subject, the term “AMR” stands for Automatic Meter Reading. 

Effective in the month of ___________, 200__, it will no longer be necessary for you to read your meter or calculate your bill.  Instead the special AMR meter, installed at your home, farm or business, will use SouthEastern’s existing power lines to transfer meter readings back to the Cooperative.  Once those readings have been received, an invoice type bill will be prepared and mailed to you.

Besides the obvious benefit to our members of not having to worry about reading meters and calculating bills, there are a number of other advantages of AMR for both the member as an individual and the Cooperative as a whole including:

• Outage Notification.

The AMR system will allow us to monitor our electrical system’s protective devices every ½ hour and every individual account on an hourly basis.  Therefore if a member is at work or not at home for any reason, the Cooperative should be aware of any outage within an hour.  In addition, during periods of major storm damage, the AMR system will be used to verify the status of all accounts before our line crews leave the affected geographic area.  That feature will eliminate the need to phone members to verify their power status, a procedure which can be very inconvenient for members, especially when done late at night or early in the morning.

• Fault Detection. 

The AMR system will be used in combination with other technology to predict the location of faults which are causing outages.  At the present time Cooperative personnel have to search for the location of the problem before they can repair it, a process that is frequently more time consuming than the actual repair work.  Using the AMR system combined with other modern technology will isolate the search to a much more concise geographical area, allowing us to restore service to our members quicker.

• Increased Service Level. 

Few situations are more aggravating than recurrent “blinks” or momentary interruptions of electric service.  Currently the Cooperative has the capacity to monitor those situations by reviewing counting devices already installed on certain protective devices or by installing special devices in areas where members are complaining about blinks.  The AMR system will greatly enhance our ability to detect blinking problems because every meter will have the capacity to count and record momentary outages or “blinks”.

• Fuel/Vehicles. 

Although the bulk of SouthEastern’s accounts are self read, the complexity of  commercial and industrial type electric meters require they be read by trained personnel.  In addition, there are some seasonal and residential accounts which are currently being read by Cooperative employees.  Collectively each month, some 2,500 meters are read in this manner.  The AMR system will negate the need for this procedure, which will not only result in lower fuel cost and vehicle wear, but will also provide for more efficient use of our employees.

• Self-Read System. 

Other cooperatives, who have converted from the “self read/self billed” type of system your Cooperative is presently using, note an error rate of 15%.  At SouthEastern, our error rate is better than average at approximately 12%.  However, considering the fact that some 20,500 accounts are self read, a 12% error rate means that almost 2,500 contacts, either by phone or mail, are required on a monthly basis at considerable expense.  The AMR system will negate the need for the Cooperative to send out thousands of open balance letters each month.

• Meter Audits. 

Despite the fact that the majority of our members are very honest, there are a growing number of individuals each year who are more than willing to let the rest of us pay their power bills for them.  To address that situation, the Cooperative periodically reads all meters on the system, a procedure which typically results in a gain of about $100,000 of revenue, but at a cost which may exceed $30,000.  The AMR system will eliminate the need for such audits and in addition, the AMR meters have the capacity to alert the Cooperative in the event of tampering or attempted power diversion.

When the lights go out in a member’s home, it is often hard for them to determine whether or not they have power at their meter, a task that can be especially difficult at night.  This situation results in the Cooperative spending thousands of dollars each year to dispatch employees to member homes after regular working hours only to discover the problem is a tripped breaker or a blown fuse on the member’s side of the meter.  The AMR system will allow us to determine whether or not there is power available at the meter without dispatching personnel, and it only takes six seconds to do so.

• Patronage Capital. 

Periodically, the Cooperative returns patronage capital to its members for years in which Cooperative margins exceeded expenses.  To do so, requires considerable expenditures for check printing, processing and postage. The AMR system will allow us to return the patronage capital as a credit on any active member’s bill and avoid a significant portion of the above noted expenses.