Denton is located at the northern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, with a population well in excess of 100,000. Upon completion of this phase, DME will roll out AMI meters in homes and businesses throughout Denton. The entire project is expected to take five to seven years, deploy approximately 45,000 smart meters, and phase out the need to manually read meters.

"Denton is home to approximately 45,000 college students so we have a great deal of residential turn-over," according to Kyle Tunnell, Meter Planner and Coordinator at DME. "Today we have to roll a truck every time there is an ownership change to an account, which is costly and inefficient. When our smart meters are up and running, we will have the capability to simply log in to a residential or commercial account and make whatever changes are required."

By installing smart meters, DME will also have a greater understanding of how energy is consumed by Denton residents. Instead of monthly meter readings, the new meters collect usage data electronically in intervals selected by DME. The most common intervals are usually every fifteen or 60 minutes. This level of transparency into its data will permit DME to speed up their response to outages and consumer requests to service connections and disconnect service, as well as a greater understanding of the load on transformers, substations and feeders.

"We consider this implementation the first step in providing our customers with the right tools and information to make smart energy decisions," added Tunnell. "Everyone wants to do something about energy savings, and with Trilliant's help we have the tools to make a real difference."

"Denton is a great example of how Trilliant uses Smart Grid technology to solve real business problems," said Eric Miller, Chief Solutions Officer of Trilliant. "DME will be able to provide more detail and better information about how their customers are using energy, as well as insights into how to better manage that usage throughout the Denton power grid."

Trilliant Incorporated provides hardware, software and service solutions that deliver on the promise of Advanced Metering and Smart Grid to utilities and their customers including improved energy efficiency, grid reliability, lower operating cost, and integration of renewable energy resources. Since its original founding in 1985, Trilliant has been a leading innovator in the delivery and implementation of energy management systems, including advanced utility wireless data collection for residential and commercial customers, demand response, time-of-use billing, and critical peak pricing initiatives. Trilliant currently has more than 200 utility customers including Hydro One, the single-largest Smart Grid implementation in North America.

By Robert Hoskins

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