Verizon will update Washington State’s Peninsula Light Company (PenLight) power distribution system with the carrier’s Grid Wide Utility Services Intelligent Energy platform. Electric meters equipped with Verizon cellular connectivity will replace meters at the end of their life in the homes and businesses of 33,000 PenLight members. The utility can manage the new meters using Verizon’s Grid Wide platform.
Grid Wide is a cloud-based, Internet of Things (IoT) platform developed by Verizon to help utilities modernize their systems. It allows utilities to remotely configure, monitor and manage end-points within their service areas, creating operational efficiencies and improving customer service.
Verizon is working with a number of utilities to enable technologically advanced systems by leveraging its 4G LTE network and expertise in security technology. “Utilities want to offer customers the benefits of IoT technologies, but can face costly infrastructure upgrades to do so,” said Steve Szabo, head of Verizon’s Global IoT Products & Solutions group, adding that, “Verizon’s Grid Wide Platform-as-a-Service is a highly scalable and robust environment that combines an IoT application suite with the 4G LTE network.”
PenLight is a member-owned electric cooperative serving Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula in Washington State. These communities will benefit from improved meter reporting and billing accuracy, and better power outage management, including improved outage identification, confirmation and response time, notes Verizon.
According to PenLight CEO Jafar Taghavi, Verizon’s solution enables PenLight to remain nimble within the rapidly changing dynamics of the electric utility industry. “We’re building on our already strong relationship with Verizon, with Grid Wide. The solution perfectly addresses our appetite for more system data as it relates to voltage, power quality and incremental demand, and offers reliable inputs to our outage management system,” Taghavi explains.
August 1, 2019
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