WVPA's Andrew Horstman, manager of load response, receives the Leadership Award for Innovation from eMeter CEO Lisa Caswell.

eMeter, a Siemens company, recognized Indianapolis-based Wabash Valley Power Association (WVPA) with a Leadership Award for Innovation at the eMeter Leadership Conference in San Francisco CA. WVPA is eMeter’s first customer to go live with the new Siemens Demand Response Management System (DRMS) solution, which complements eMeter’s EnergyIP® meter data management system platform (MDMS).

“We’re thrilled to have been recognized for this Innovation Award,” said Andrew Horstman, manager of load response at WVPA. “Wabash Valley was selected from a pool of almost three dozen companies from around the world.”

Cooperatives have a long history with demand response programs and for years have been using simple radio communications to manage peak load reduction. One-way radio signals do not provide a way to measure accurately load reduction achieved, however.

The Siemens DRMS and the eMeter MDMS provides WVPA the ability to shed load and collect meter readings across multiple distribution systems that currently use several different Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The DRMS will also verify load shed, calculate baselines and automate customer billing and settlement.

A multi-state Generation and Transmission cooperative (G&T), WVPA supplies power to distribution cooperative members located in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri. WVPA and Siemens collaborated with the distribution co-ops, each of which uses a different AMI system  and customer information system, to develop the new demand response programs and system integrations.

 “The DRMS and MDMS give WVPA the ability to measure and verify every demand response event, all the way down to the individual participant.  This level of verification provides WVPA with better load forecasting and allows us treat demand response as another asset in our power supply portfolio.  WVPA can now avoid the need to purchase traditional peaking power,” says Horstman.