ECG Communities in the News

Grid Modernization Deployment

Solution as a Service

The City of Norcross will be one of the first Georgia municipalities to invest in 'smart' enhancements to their electric system and they will be the first to deploy comprehensive Grid Modernization. The measure was approved at the November 2011 Norcross Council Meeting.

ECG has partnered with GE Energy and the City of Norcross to implement this Solution as a Service with the intention of extending the service opportunity to ECG Participants that may also benefit from these modernizations to the electric system. Many Participants will be familiar with a more general term for the new technology: Smart Grid.

Establishing Grid IQ™: Solutions as a Service has been an exciting process. This technology signals incredible advances for the 21st century electric system.

“We’re proud to help Norcross pioneer the future of energy in Georgia by teaming with GE, a trusted industry leader, to implement a better way to use and manage energy,” said Walter West, Executive Vice President of ECG. “The City of Norcross’ electric department is a community-owned asset that has been an investment in the local economy for the past 38 years. With these grid modernization technologies, they are continuing excellent stewardship of a thriving community asset.”

Norcross' deployment will include the following features:

Smart Meters
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
Meter Data Management System (MDMS)
Customer Information System Integration
Geospatial Information System (GIS)
Outage Management System (OMS)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Consumer Web Portal

Benefits to the community will include:

Access to more energy usage information

Faster response to power outages

Pre-payment options to better understand and control energy usage

Online portal access to an array of information, including home energy usage, patterns and billing

Automated meter reading

At ECG, we are always working to anticipate the common needs of our Participants. Your community may be in a position to easily integrate this new technology, or these changes could be further down the road for your electric system. Either way, if you have any questions about this technology, you can contact me or your Regional Manager, and we will help you determine the options available for your community.

City of Thomaston Utility Awarded System Achievement Award

System Achievement Award Celebration in Thomaston

The City of Thomaston was awarded the prestigious System Achievement award at the annual ECG Engineering and Operations meeting.

To be considered for this award, the city was recognized for several upgrades to their electrical distribution system.

These updates include:

Right-of-Way Maintenance: reduces the number of power outages

Pole inspection/Maintenance: reduces the cost of replacement and extends the life of the utility pole

Metering Testing: protects both the customer and utility to ensure fair rates

Conductor Upgrades: prevents overloading conditions

Thomaston has invested in its electric infrastructure over the past 10 years to ensure the delivery of reliable electricity to its customers.

“The City of Thomaston has done a tremendous job improving their utility system. The city takes its responsibility to provide reliable power to its customers seriously – and it shows through the major improvements they have made. Thomaston was an obvious choice to receive an ECG Utility System Achievement Award,” said Dan Thompson, ECG Senior Engineer.

Pictured above: Ellen Richardson, ECG Director of Engineering & Energy Services; Howard Kanour, ECG Regional Manager; Dan Thompson, ECG Senior Engineer; Cornelius Ivey, Thomaston Electric Superintendent and City of Thomaston Utilities Staff.

Save-A-Watt

Marietta Power and Water has inspired the Marietta School System to conserve energy by empowering its students. Save-a-Watt, Save-a-Lot is a recognizable phrase to students in Marietta, particularly those who attend Sawyer Road Elementary; they reduced their overall power consumption by more than 30 percent during the energy challenge.

The Save-a-Watt program encouraged reduced power consumption in city schools by placing posters and strategically-placed paper symbols of light bulbs to remind students and teachers to turn off lights, computers and whiteboards.

Classes that were particularly diligent in energy conservation were awarded a weeklong visit from “Greenie,” the school fish. The school as a whole was treated to two special assemblies with Marietta Power and Water and Apogee, maker of online energy efficiency applications. Apogee provided the results of the remote energy readings so that each school could see how they compared to 11 other participating schools in saving energy.

Marietta Power and Water’s effort to encourage the school system to save money resulted in an important lesson for the students: $ave-a-Watt, $ave-a-Lot!