New deal to equip 29,000 South Carolians with smart meters

December 13, 2018

US utility Black River Cooperative has selected Texas Meter & Device (TMD) to implement an advanced metering infrastructure project in South Carolina.

The project will include the installation of smart meters for some 29,000 customers in 2019.

The cooperative is replacing an existing power line communication system with radio-frequency communication to provide connectivity to the smart meters.

The metering system will provide prepaid billing, time-of-use rates, consumer real-time energy usage and accurate data which they can use to improve their energy efficiency.

The project will last for 10 months as from March of 2019 for 29,000 of its 32,000 customers.

James Moye, VP of Engineering at Black River Cooperative, said:  “We are impressed with TMD’s flexibility especially because of the way we need to move data back and forth. We are asking TMD to collect quite a few pieces of information while installing the new advanced metering technology, and they are willing to do that as a standard service with each exchange. TMD is providing a high level of detail which is valuable to us,” states BREC’s VP of Engineering,

“We knew eventually we would change out our system and didn’t want to sink a lot of money into new meters that we would just turn around and take out,” says Moye. “TMD’s recertified meters were the most practical option due to cost and availability. Plus, the lead time was a lot shorter.”

From Smart Energy