Nation's Sixth Largest Electric Coop Chooses Strategic Migration Over Time

Carina Provides Head-Start Solution Until the Grid Gets "Smarter"

CONTACT:
Laura Pepper
Carina Technology, Inc.
Phone: 866.915.5464
Fax: 256.704.0366
lpepper@carinatek.com
www.carinatek.com

Huntsville, AL- September 9, 2009 - Carina Technology and Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (MTEMC) have partnered to put a new perspective on building the Smart Grid.  Instead of trying to tackle the energy crisis with one large, expensive, and uncertain step, MTEMC has chosen to join Carina’s nationwide customer base by strategically deploying Carina’s award-winning Universal Metering Device (UMD™) for energy data collection, management, and control.  For MTEMC, the ability to solve a real problem today while leaving room to migrate towards AMI and the Smart Grid was critical. 

While standards and technology continue to develop, a tangible energy and financial crisis is here today.  According to industry research, in 2008, over 9 million residential customers failed to pay their energy bill on time which resulted in more than 8.7 million disconnects and billion dollar costs associated with truck rolls, debt write-offs, and fees.

“With such a large and rural customer base, our service call cost per customer is high,” said Chuck Barber, Marketing/Key Accounts Coordinator at MTEMC. “We thought we were asking a lot when we said that we wanted a solution that would improve customer service, reduce costs, increase efficiency, was itself cost-effective, and was quickly and easily deployable.”

MTEMC will immediately utilize the UMD™’s integrated remote disconnect/reconnect functionality to reduce operating costs associated with disconnect activity while simultaneously benefitting from this effective head-start solution for additional AMI features. The unique design of the UMD™ allows for communication over a variety of existing backhaul networks including digital cellular and ethernet in an effort to utilize existing open communications infrastructures.  This allows the utility to avoid the capital costs and delays involved in building proprietary fixed networks exclusively for AMI metering applications. 

MTEMC will also deploy the UMD™ in strategic locations to collect voltage and power quality data, outage notification, and line loss information – effectively creating an immediate and scalable enhancement to existing Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems at a fraction of the deployment time and cost.
Barber comments on MTEMC’s approach, “We looked at all of the options for smart meters and AMI and we looked at where the industry is heading.  It’s all heading towards how much information you can get and how often – a full blown, traditional AMR system didn’t make sense for us.  It didn’t make sense for
us to sit here and wait either, so we’re taking a different approach.”  Barber adds, “With Carina, we liked their customized view to Smart Grid instead of a ‘one size fits all’ strategy.  When we’re ready for the next step and as technology changes, we’ll be able to build on what we already have in place instead of starting from scratch.” 

Another concern for MTEMC was training and guidance through the migration process, which differs from utility to utility.  Barber says, “One of the biggest surprises is the level of hands on support for training and deployment that Carina has provided.  It has been above and beyond the call of duty compared to other companies.  That, in our minds, speaks volumes to receive that type service.”

Echoing MTEMC’s view on tackling the Smart Grid, Carina’s philosophy has been to work directly with utilities to identify their most urgent needs and then map solutions to a realistic timeline.  Reducing many operational costs and involving consumers in joint energy efficiency efforts are easily implemented first steps.

“Carina welcomes the opportunity to work with innovative problem solving utilities,” said Mike Smalley, COO and VP of Business Development for Carina.  “There are many players in the smart grid space, and being chosen by MTEMC supports Carina’s view that a strategic migration approach has significant advantages over the limitations of a fixed meter reading system.   Carina focuses on providing immediate deployment, immediate performance feedback, and immediate payback – months instead of years – all while positioning the utility to be prepared for future applications.  We want to put the power of intelligent energy analysis in our customers’ hands today and help them figure out what ‘Smart Grid’ will mean for them in the future.”

Since launching the UMD™ earlier this year, Carina has increased its focus on facilitating open communication and data sharing between providers, consumers and communities while providing centralized solutions for a variety of energy-related functions such as demand response, prepaid electricity and in-home networking for providers as well as consumers.

About Carina Technology:

Carina Technology, Inc. is an information technology firm that provides Energy Intelligence (EI™) Solutions primarily to the U.S. utility and energy industries.  Carina enables energy providers to manage operations more efficiently and create new revenue streams through real-time hardware and software applications such as interactive GIS, Energy Data Management, prepaid energy, remote meter reading, demand response, and power quality management. 

EI™ is centralized and designed to fully collect, store, and interpret energy data to provide interactive visibility for grid management.  To maximize interoperability and speed deployment, EI™ utilizes open standards, integration into multiple utility operating systems over a variety of communications infrastructures, and database-driven architecture.  Carina also specializes in building and integrating custom software interfaces to existing CIS, GIS, and OMS systems.  Learn more about Carina at www.carinatek.com .

About MTEMC:

Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation distributes electricity to about 180,000 residential and business members in a four-county area directly south of metropolitan Nashville.  MTEMC's customers are members because the organization is a cooperative, meaning each customer has part ownership. Formed by farmers and homeowners in 1936, MTEMC has grown to become the state's largest electric cooperative and the sixth largest in the United States.

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