Landis+Gyr reports that Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Association (REA) has signed an agreement to deploy Gridstream PLX, Landis+Gyr's next-generation power-line carrier system for advanced metering and grid management.
Based in Sidney, Mont., Lower Yellowstone REA is a distribution cooperative that serves residents of northeastern Montana and parts of North Dakota. The utility has used Landis+Gyr's first-generation TS1 system for meter reading since 1999. Landis+Gyr says Gridstream PLX will provide the two-way communication capacity to run smart grid applications and will allow the utility to retrieve interval data from commercial and industrial accounts for load profiling and power-quality monitoring.
"Our service territory is really booming,” says Corey Candee, electrical IT manager at Lower Yellowstone REA. “We've added a couple of new substations and are averaging 30 new meters a month. By updating to Gridstream PLX, we will be able to take advantage of engineering and customer service data that wasn't available to us before and really position the utility to better manage growth.”
Lower Yellowstone REA plans to start deploying the new technology this spring.
