The three-year AMI implementation program will convert nearly all of the current power meters in Idaho Power’s service area to a technologically advanced model, or “smart meter” that will allow for both present and future benefits to the company and its customers.

Those immediate benefits include fully automated meter reading and an improved outage management system.  Additionally, the new metering infrastructure provides a foundation for future customer programs and pricing choices.

“AMI is a platform from which Idaho Power can launch other customer benefits,” said Idaho Power Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Ric Gale. “But additional investments will be required before wide scale pricing and other applications can become a reality.”

The company estimates the project will cost up to $71 million over the three-year deployment schedule. However, Idaho Power stressed that today’s filing does not seek a change in customer rates at this time, but that rate impacts will be addressed in a subsequent proceeding after a deployment plan is approved by the IPUC.

Idaho Power proposes to install AMI throughout its service area through a systematic three-year deployment schedule starting in January 2009 and concluding in 2011.  The schedule would start with the company’s Capital Region that includes Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, in 2009. In 2010 customers in the Canyon and Payette Regions, including Nampa, Caldwell, Payette and Ontario will convert to AMI.  The project will conclude in 2011 in the Southern and Eastern Regions that are comprised of Twin Falls, Hailey, Jerome, Pocatello and Salmon.

The actual meter exchanges will take place on a carefully planned schedule that follows meter reading routes and progresses route-by-route and substation by substation until all of the required hardware is installed throughout the grid system.

Background

One of the many interests spawned during the western energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 was the idea that new metering technology, along with time-of-use (TOU) pricing could become part of the solution to future energy concerns.

As a result, the IPUC ordered Idaho Power to evaluate and subsequently report upon the viability of TOU metering programs and the deployment of Automated Meter Reading (AMR) technology.

Since that time the term AMR has evolved into the more inclusive term AMI, which includes not only the metering devices, but also the hardware, software, communications equipment, customer associated systems, and data management software.  Although the term has changed, the concept remains the same.  On August 31, 2007, the company filed, pursuant to commission order, an AMI implementation plan.  Today’s filing seeks approval of that plan.

About Idaho Power

Formed in 1996, IDACORP, Inc. is the holding company for Idaho Power, a regulated electric utility with operations beginning in 1916. Today, Idaho Power employs approximately 2,000 people to serve a 24,000 square-mile service area in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. With 17 low-cost hydroelectric projects as the core of its generation portfolio, Idaho Power’s nearly 485,000 residential, business and agricultural customers pay some of the nation’s lowest prices for electricity. To learn more about Idaho Power or IDACORP, visit idahopower.com or idacorpinc.com.