Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), a provider of energy-related products and services, has started the deployment of 50, 000 ‘Smart Meters’ for its residential and small-business customers in Broward County, Florida.

These meters run on technology provided by Silver Spring Networks (SSN) and have already been tested for reliability and functionality during the first phase of this project that ended with the installation of 50, 000 meters in January 2008.

Combining a number of components including intelligent meters, a two-way communications network using an Internet Protocol language, and sophisticated operating systems and databases, this Advanced Metering Initiative will be fully activated by this summer.

The system will help FPL monitor its electrical grid in real-time and thereby enable the company to identify and correct service interruptions more quickly. It will also allow customers to monitor their electricity consumption more easily by tracking their usage online by month, week, day, or hour. The SSN technology allows the smart meters to ‘talk’ to other meters and electronic devices to create a wireless "mesh" network that makes the system comparatively more cost-effective.

After meeting extensive performance criteria during the first phase, the meters will now be monitored in terms of business and customer benefits along with expanded performance evaluation.

FPL Vice President of Customer Service Marlene Santos said, "We're taking a disciplined and systematic approach to the evaluation and implementation process to ensure we achieve full value. This began with a careful review of all of the technology solutions available in the market. We felt that Silver Spring had the most to offer, and we have been very pleased through the first phase of the project."

"Our partnership with FPL has been very successful," said Scott Lang, president and CEO of Silver Spring Networks. "The team is pleased with how easy the network was to install and manage and we look forward to completing the next phase."


Vinti Vaid is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Vinti’s articles, please visit her columnist page.


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