NYPA Implements Smart Meter Upgrades, Increasing Our Digital Capability
One element for becoming the nation’s first end-to-end digital utility centers on comprehensive smart meter upgrades.
New digital meters are being installed across our generation and transmission facilities, and at customer substations that connect municipal and rural electric cooperative systems to the power grid. These devices better monitor the power system at the bulk, wholesale level. They also provide greater redundancy and validation of measurements, offer improved accuracy and better time synchronization, make more information available to system operators and enable greater flexibility to allow for any future changes to the power grid.
These upgrades began in 2012, with the installation of two meters at various interface points. The meters are used for billing and wholesale market settlement with the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), and the validation process improves the accuracy of measurements, avoiding errors and ensuring that all energy is properly accounted for. The new smart meters also provide more detailed energy measurement throughout the power system, which prepares NYPA’s metering infrastructure to support future market changes.
These upgrades provide NYPA operators with better real time data when issues arise, and they accelerate the troubleshooting process without the need to install additional equipment. Smart meters allow system operators to observe trends in energy generation and use, in addition to voltage and current on particular lines. If a customer such as a municipality or a cooperative is experiencing voltage problems on its system, NYPA operators can leverage the meter data to view power quality measurements and trends to quickly troubleshoot and fix the problem.
“The upgraded smart meters provide more useful data to NYPA employees, our customers and the NYISO,” said Frank Ronci, Senior Director of Electrical and Controls Engineering. “This is an ongoing effort, and we’re using designs that are flexible to account for potential changes moving forward. We want to find more new applications for these meters and to apply what we learn at our major facilities to make improvements in how we operate.”
In addition to smart meter upgrades across the state power system, NYPA is also investing in submetering across its own facilities, including its White Plains Offices, to better monitor internal efficiency and energy use. These submeters interface with the NY Energy Manager (NYEM) platform to provide visualization and targeted energy efficiency improvements at our facilities. The equipment supports Governor Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy through the BuildSmartNY initiative to improve energy efficiency in State-owned buildings.