Comprehensive Assessment Center Pre-Implementation Build-Out Schedule:
Building a comprehensive Assessment Center certainly is a major undertaking for any utility operating in the Smart Grid environment; nevertheless, it is something that IGSolutions recommends enthusiastically to its clients for the following reasons:
- It allows each utility to establish a complete field assessment of various hardware (HW) and software (SW) suppliers to gain a more accurate picture/measurement of field performance;
- The typical field assessment center would cover approximately 10K - 15K homes and have 2-3 different AMI manufacturers to ensure a sufficient baseline for operations management; and
- This partial deployment would keenly parallel a full AMI deployment plan by defining specific work processes and uncovering any potential pitfalls and/or obstacles that would have to be addressed prior to an all-out implementation.
IGSolutions has a detailed and well-defined methodology called “Assessment Center in a Crate” which is divided into 5 major phases, each with defined schedules and appropriate sub-tasks:
- Discovery and Engineering
- Planning and Preparation
- Construction and Network Verification
- Vendor Assessment
- Network Operation and Performance Monitoring
IGSolutions has created and fined-tuned this process after many experiences building-out various types of Assessment and Demo Centers for its previous utility clients. The following information provides a more detailed look at the specific dimensions and issues linked to our five main functions within our "Assessment Center in a Crate" package:
Phase I – Discovery & Engineering
The first phase captures the base elements for a successful installation, including selection of the implementation site, an analysis of potential radio interference at the site, the design of the fiber optic backbone, and the design of the architecture for the communications network.
Phase II - Planning/ Preparation
The second phase involves the planning and preparation efforts and includes the generation and production of plans for both the construction of a network backbone and all of the elements that make up the AMI network.
Phase III – Construction and Network Verification
This phase consists of the actual network build-out, Assessment Center lab build-out, and complete network testing/verification tasks.
Phase IV – Vendor Assessment
This is where each HW and SW vendor will be tested and evaluated on their suitability on several previously-designated testing criteria.
Phase V – Network Operation and Performance Monitoring
This final phase encompasses all day-to-day operations surrounding the AMI systems and networks and consists of 24 x 7 monitoring of all AMI devices, such as meters and collectors; it also monitors the actual network, on both the AMI- and the back haul-sides. All updates, upgrades and trouble-shooting for the AMI system and equipment are addressed during Phase V as well.
