Barbados Light & Power Selects Landis+Gyr for Advanced Metering and Grid Management Project
Landis+Gyr announced it has been selected by Barbados Light & Power for a comprehensive smart grid technology project that includes advanced metering and data management solutions.
A full-service generation and distribution utility for the independent island state, Barbados Light & Power is deploying Landis+Gyr’s Gridstream® AMI solution and meter data management.
“We hope to gain a number of operational and customer service advantages with advanced metering and the tools to effectively use the metering data,“ said Charles Harris, Senior Manager Business Solutions at Barbados Light & Power. “We see this technology as the key to reaching our goals for improving efficiency, power quality and reliability.“
Barbados Light & Power is installing E350 FOCUS® AX-SD and E650 S4x polyphase advanced meters, and plans to add distribution automation devices, all operating on Landis+Gyr’s RF network. The utility’s grid management priorities include improved outage response, line loss reductions, and solar integration from both solar farms and rooftop installations.
“A growing challenge for us is integrating intermittent renewables and balancing load to reduce generation costs,“ Harris said. “An advanced metering network is a first step to being better able to balance these energy sources, while being able to respond to changes in peak demand. Furthermore, the Landis+Gyr network will allow Barbados Light & Power to meet its long-term goal of establishing a 100-percent clean energy power grid across the island by 2045.“
The Gridstream AMI solution connects utilities with data from critical points across the distribution system, and interfaces with existing utility systems and applications to more effectively manage billing, operations, engineering and customer service. The network enables two-way communications with meters, sensors and switches to provide interval load and voltage data, and enable net metering, outage management and remote service connection capabilities.
“Barbados has a number of strong business cases to support smart grid technology,“ said Abe Ortega, Vice President of International Sales and Marketing at Landis+Gyr. “This project demonstrates how the Gridstream solution goes beyond advanced metering to support widescale grid management efforts.”