Smart Grid as a Service Provides One-Stop Resource for a Colorado Utility

Overview

United Power, a rural electric company that provides service to nearly 70,000 homes and businesses along Colorado’s Front Range, awarded SAIC a 10-year contract for a 10,000-meter pilot project of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solutions and implementation of SAIC’s Smart Grid as a Service (SGS) offering.

“With SGS, we will be able to modernize our infrastructure and replace obsolete equipment while working with SAIC’s experts for implementation and support. This will be a winning combination for United Power customers.”
- Mitzi Rea, United Power

SAIC’s SGS provides a comprehensive, affordable, and integrated one-stop resource for United Power, and will enable the organization to better manage the risks associated with implementation of the technology. SGS’s provides a turnkey solution for United Power and integrates a fully compliant system to leverage existing hardware and software. Additional services provided by SAIC include:

• Program management, implementation, system integration, and business process and change management
• Full life-cycle service support and operational oversight
• 24-hour service support desk with a fully redundant data center
• Future expansion capabilities such as deployment of electric meters, addition of water and gas meters in support of other utilities, additional functionality for prepaid, time of use (TOU) rates, demand response, and load management
• A hosted solution, managed by SAIC that will allow United Power to defer staffing increases

Additionally as part of the SGS project, SAIC is assisting United Power with refining their business processes and driving the culture change necessary to fully derive the benefits of SGS. We will provide the direct advantage of on-demand meter reads, as well as improved billing accuracy and more detailed outage information, and the capability for United Power to offer customers a Web portal to view and manage energy consumption.

“SAIC’s SGS offering enables our organization to operate more efficiently, improve system reliability, analyze more timely information for making business decisions, and enhance our customer service,” said Mitzi Rea, manager of information services at United Power. “With SGS, we will be able to modernize our infrastructure and replace obsolete equipment while working with SAIC’s experts for implementation and support. This will be a winning combination for United Power customers.”