Challenge

Installations of advanced metering infrastructure (AMS) continue to grow among power utilities as the benefits of smart meter communications with grid operators become increasingly evident. However, determining the quality of a smart meter installation is often difficult without physical site presence and local electrical testing. Misconnections could result in lost utility revenue, while earth faults could create shock hazards, and TN-grid mis-connections could potentially result in fatalities.

The operations management team of an International Oil Company (IOC) was troubled by recent asset performance and equipment failure rates. Management had limited success in extracting and analyzing rig data due to the sheer number of legacy data systems that came from post-merger integration.