CTC offers strong industry experience with Smart Grid and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology analysis, business planning development, design and engineering.

CTC’s core strengths are:

• Our subject matter expertise in Smart Grid and AMI technologies
• Our energy and communications engineering (and business planning) capabilities
• Our extensive experience with government and municipal utility clients
• Our independence and objectivity—we do not work for AMI vendors/manufacturers and do not bid on implementation contracts
• Our commitment to local governments and public utilities—CTC works exclusively for public and non-profit clients, with a particular focus on assisting local communities and their public utilities

CTC has performed evaluative and critical analysis of a wide range of AMI technologies for our government customers. We know and understand the AMI equipment available on the market today, as well as its capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages. We believe AMI technologies and implementations are in the early development stage, but that interest and demand in the systems are growing rapidly, and that the capability and incremental cost of the technology is evolving quickly. We have a keen understanding of the Smart Grid and AMI industry’s maturity in regard to standards development, security, the need for specialized communications systems, and the interface between AMI equipment and user requirements.

Complementing our AMI experience, CTC has over 26 years of experience in the planning, designing, and engineering of advanced communications networks. These communication systems are, and will continue to be, critical elements for building and managing Smart Grid Infrastructures to meet federal government policy requirements and other energy and green-related mandates and objectives. Our staff holds a unique mix of power engineering and communications engineering capabilities; we have licensed Professional Engineers and degreed engineers specializing in both fields.

On a strategic-planning level, CTC has advised large electrical users like government entities on the extent to which infrastructure initiatives and new practices can improve their energy consumption and produce cost savings or carbon abatement benefits. We are also acutely aware of what the future holds for large electricity customers, based in part on our knowledge of electric rate structures. Specifically, we understand the infrastructure modifications necessary for those large organizations to comply with time of use (TOU) pricing, electricity conservation measures, and distributed generation (wind, geothermal, solar) requirements.

With this broad range of knowledge—coupled with our unparalleled abilities in strategic planning, visioning, and presenting written documentation—we have provided groundbreaking consulting services to state regulators who have to decide whether or not to approve AMI proposals, and to the boards of unregulated municipal power and telecommunications utilities that must make similar decisions in the public interest.

CTC has conducted Smart Grid projects for the Maryland Public Service Commission, Norwich (CT) Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, and Pulaski (TN) Energy Services, among others. We recently advised the Tennessee Municipal Electric Power Association (TMEPA) on how to approach the federal Smart Grid grant programs, and we will be advising the members of the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) on AMI issues.

In Norwich, CTC team members assessed the development status of Smart Grid and smart meter technologies, the fit to NPU’s short- and long-term objectives, and the costs for pilot and full implementations.

For the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), CTC provided objective guidance to the staff as it evaluated AMI applications submitted by three of the state’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Our contract represented the first time the PSC staff had asked a consultant to advise them on technology—a reflection of the current lack of standards in the Smart Grid arena, and the magnitude of the investment that the regulated utilities were proposing.

In addition to this experience, CTC team members can draw on direct knowledge of and professional association with people involved in current initiatives underway in the utility and regulator community. Ongoing discussions with utilities and equipment manufacturers involved in those and similar initiatives also provide CTC with insight about AMI experiences in many states.