Frankfort Plant Board

Frankfort Electric and Water Plant Board (FPB) is implementing an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution to increase operational efficiencies and improve customer satisfaction.

VASS Solutions’ personnel utilized its significant experience in combined electric and waste water AMI business cases to help FPB develop a Business Case that justifies an AMI solution investment.  Upon FPB Board approval of the business case, VASS Solutions facilitated FPB’s procurement of an AMI solution and of Endpoint Installation services. VASS Solutions developed an overall strategy and implementation plan, developed and published RFPs for AMI and for Endpoint Installation Services, developed and facilitated the evaluation of vendor proposals. Evaluation included scoring, vendor cost comparison, short-listing, interviews and demonstrations, and reference checks. VASS Solutions facilitated the final selection of the AMI solution and the Endpoint Installation vendor, and supported contract development and negotiations. 

In August, 2020, FPB’s Board approved proceeding with deployment of the AMI solution. VASS Solutions guided the FPB Team through the execution of a proof-of-concept that verified that the AMI solution met its technical operating specifications and affirmed confidence in the selected technology. Furthermore, the Pilot provided an opportunity for FPB to understand the system and began planning for the necessary changes to its future business operations. 

Full system wide deployment of the AMI solutions for 17,000 water metered and 21,500 electric metered customers began in August, 2021 and continues with the installation of 1,750 electric and water AMI endpoints per month. Commensurate with deployment, FPB has been moving validated AMI meters from manual meter reading to AMI Over-the-Air billing and is taking advantage of the data and capabilities offered by these newly installed endpoints

VASS Solutions is assisting FPB with the implementation of the AMI solution including:

• Providing program management services.
• Creation and execution of a solution implementation plan including solution architecture, solution integration requirements, deployment planning and overall project management.
• Deployment and acceptance testing of implemented solutions.
• Development and implementation of a plan to transition the solution to steady-state operations.

The Frankfort Plant Board provides electric, water and cable/telecom services to customers in the city of Frankfort and Franklin County, KY, and portions of Shelby and Woodford counties. The electric department serves approximately 21,500 electric customers, consisting of 17,000 residential, 4,000 commercial and 500 large power/industrial customers. The water department serves approximately 17,000 meters.