TWACS partnership provides convenience for members
As a Touchstone Energy® Cooperative, Capital Electric
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Information travels from the meter through the power line to the injection substation, like the Ward Delivery Substation pictured above. From there, data is sent on radio waves and telephone lines back to co-op headquarters. |
doing business with integrity, accountability, innovation and commitment to community.
For this story, we’d like to focus on innovation and how it allows our cooperative to use technology to make life more convenient for our members.
If you appreciate not having to read your meter on a blustery cold day, you’re not alone. More than 11,000 Capital Electric members have their meters read automatically each month, thanks to TWACS technology. TWACS, or the two-way automatic communication system, reads meters, reports outages and controls load controllers for load management.
TWACS works by sending information to and from our members’ meters, says Rich Dunn, engineering assistant at Capital Electric. The TWACS computer sends meter identification out to the injection substation by phone line and radio waves, which then sends the signals through the power line to each meter being read. The meter hears its name and responds to the substation through the power line, and the reading is transmitted back to cooperative headquarters in Bismarck by telephone and radio waves. This all happens in about 20 seconds!
Currently at Capital Electric, TWACS reads a total of 11,116 meters four times a day. In addition, employees Jim Siirtola, Doug Jahner, Donald Hausauer and Myron Mosset travel a reading route to record 3,836 meters each month. Finally, 1,242 meters are still read by consumers who report those numbers back to our cooperative. If you currently read your meter, we want to thank you for your time and effort. We are always updating and upgrading technology at the cooperative, and plan to have TWACS read the majority of our members’ meter by the end of 2007.
If you’re currently one of the 11,116 members hooked up to TWACS, did you know your water meter can be read through the electric line if you receive rural water? In a cost-share venture between Capital Electric and the South Central Regional Water District (SCWD), a wire is hardwired from the water meter to the electric meter, or by a wireless device in hard-to-reach areas, which is read and reported by TWACS.
“We serve the same people,” says Doug Neibauer, executive director of SCWD. “It’s quite a benefit for the community that we pass that cost-savings on.”
Neibauer says SCWD plans to convert its system so that every meter is ready by TWACS in the next four years.