Note: This is the fifth and final part of Copper’s blog series about how an AMx framework can help energy utilities accelerate decarbonization. Transitioning to a net-zero or carbon-free energy system will be complex and expensive for electric and gas utilities, requiring significant upfront capital investments, expanded research and development initiatives, and rapid growth…
Note: This is the fourth part of Copper’s blog series about how an AMx framework can help energy utilities accelerate decarbonization. An AMx metering framework allows utilities to access more granular, timely data from existing electric and gas meters—including both AMI and AMR systems—and realize true meter interoperability. As a result, it offers substantial…
Note: This is the third part of Copper’s blog series about how an AMx framework can help energy utilities accelerate decarbonization. As the electric grid shifts to more intermittent renewable generation amidst rapid load growth (due both to AI-driven loads and to growing electrification efforts), and as the gas system sees emerging demand and…
Note: This is the second part of Copper’s blog series about how an AMx framework can help energy utilities accelerate decarbonization. For electric and gas utilities currently exploring territory-wide decarbonization pathways, there’s a clear and urgent need for better consumption data. Not only can better data help more precisely inform potential grid impacts associated…
Decarbonization requires new, data-driven ways of thinking about the evolution of the electric and gas grids, customer engagement and education, utility incentive programs, and load flexibility. By unlocking higher-resolution, apples-to-apples consumption data from a wide range of existing meters—both gas and electric—and enabling a more flexible approach to new infrastructure investments, an AMx framework is…
At Copper, we unlock better data from electric, gas, and water meters, and use that to help utilities better engage with their customers in a variety of different ways. One particular area of growing focus is natural gas load flexibility, and we recently wrote a forward-looking paper in collaboration with Robbie Johnson, a lead analyst…
Many utilities view smart meters as an essential investment that can streamline operations and allow them to access the kind of data that’s increasingly essential to meet a diverse array of needs, from customer experience to outage management and decarbonization planning. But they’re only partly correct. While granular, timely meter data is indeed essential, smart…
There’s a dirty secret in the utility metering world: most smart meter communications networks are single-use, expensive, and proprietary. This outdated networking approach is leading to vendor lock-in for utilities that reduces choice and cost-effectiveness, and to reduced meter functionality through unnecessarily slow data transfer speeds. The good news is that a modern AMx strategy…
According to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “roughly 27% of all U.S. households … have had difficulty paying energy bills or have had to keep their homes at an unsafe temperature because of energy cost concerns.” And energy bills continue to increase in many regions. Utilities are ramping up efforts to improve…
Reducing water waste is more important than ever with historic climate change-induced droughts (like the Colorado River’s megadrought). Even without these dire circumstances, we don’t want to waste resources and customers don’t want to pay for water they’re not using. According to the EPA, 10% of homes leak more than 90 gallons of water per…