Landis+Gyr, a provider of integrated energy management products, recently announced that it has initiated an advanced load management program in association with Colorado Springs Utilities to reduce the load on distribution system assets during peak power consumption.  

The officials said that Colorado Springs Utilities will use smart thermostats, equipped with Gridstream communications technology, to enable load shedding on specific feeder circuits to protect transformers and other distribution equipment. The thermostat will communicate with sophisticated load management software through the utility's existing smart grid network.

The software will determine the number of customer thermostats to control with the help of load information. In case of a customer withdrawal, the software would automatically find a replacement load curtailment to ensure load shedding requirements are met. The customers will also be able to monitor thermostat settings and make decisions about participation.

Landis+Gyr’s Gridstream technology combines metering, communications, network management, software, grid and consumer applications, and professional services in a single secure and integrated platform. It can deliver vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently, allowing access to rich, granular data that can be used to better understand and manage distribution networks.  This unlocks new levels of command and control and delivers greater value for both utilities and their customers.

"This is an excellent example of the added benefits utilities are realizing from advanced metering infrastructure," said Prasanna Venkatesan, Landis+Gyr's Executive Vice President for the Americas. "The foundation is there to address challenges like distribution infrastructure capacity in a creative and efficient way."

In related news, Landis+Gyr has led the roll out of smart metering systems to 98 percent of Finland's households. This development places the country as one of the most advanced in Europe in terms of ability to meter electricity consumption at the residential level. To date, Landis+Gyr has delivered over one million smart meters to a number of Finnish energy companies – the equivalent of delivering a smart meter to every third Finnish household in a country with approximately 3.2 million metering points.