Lower Yellowstone REA Selects Gridstream PLX for Advanced Metering Deployment

ATLANTA, GA. – Feb. 18, 2013 – Landis+Gyr announced that Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Association has signed an agreement to deploy Gridstream® PLX, Landis+Gyr’s next generation power line carrier system for advanced metering and grid management.

Gridstream PLX offers a large increase in data capacity over legacy PLC systems, delivering 15-minute interval data continuously from each meter on the network. The system’s increased capacity improves the performance of over-the-wire firmware upgrades and data encryption for enhanced security.

Based in Sidney, MT, Lower Yellowstone REA is a distribution cooperative that serves residents of northeastern Montana and parts of North Dakota. The area has seen substantial growth from oil drilling and transportation activities on the Bakken oil fields. The utility has used Landis+Gyr’s first generation TS1 system for meter reading since 1999. Deploying Gridstream PLX provides the two-way communication capacity to run the latest smart grid applications and will allow the utility to retrieve interval data from commercial and industrial accounts for load profiling and power quality monitoring.

“Our service territory is really booming. We’ve added a couple of new substations and are averaging 30 new meters a month. By updating to Gridstream PLX, we will be able to take advantage of engineering and customer service data that wasn’t available to us before and really position the utility to better manage growth,” said Corey Candee, Electrical IT Manager at Lower Yellowstone REA.

Gridstream PLX builds upon Landis+Gyr’s 20 years of history developing PLC networks for advanced metering. By adding the capacity and fast response times required to meet the smart grid demands of today and tomorrow, Gridstream PLX is better able to deliver data and connectivity required for the most advanced applications.

Lower Yellowstone REA plans to start deploying the new technology this spring.