Real-time energy consumption tracking, two-way communication between consumers and electricity service providers, and integration with DERs for sustainable energy generation. These are few of the notable benefits provided by smart meters to both individual consumers and commercial businesses, as the uptake of smart meters is significantly rising across countries. The Indian smart metering market, for example, is set to grow at a rate of 25% through 2028. Smart meters are designed to portray accurate and real-time consumption, which makes them valuable not only for gathering insights into energy use but also for eliminating guesswork from billing processes.
That said, ensuring there are no hindrances to operational efficiency requires regular maintenance checks in smart metering projects. This is where Grid becomes a vital tool for utility providers in maintaining the smooth running of various components within the AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure).Focus will be laid on how the solution helps in mapping and scheduling of site visits, enabling utilities to manage multiple cycle visits without overlapping of information. This becomes important since optimizing these capabilities helps utilities to improve operational efficiency by automating the scheduling process and minimizing downtime. Moreover, platforms like Grid can help maintain compliance, since they simultaneously record who visited the site, and what work was performed.
How Grid Facilitates the Efficient Mapping and Scheduling of Site Visits
Maintenance scheduling
Here, senior site engineers used Grid’s mapping and scheduling modules to assign tasks to field operators and manage cycle visits.
Mapping worksheet: In this sheet, senior site engineers allocated tasks to individual field operators, including details such as:
- Senior site engineer name
- Name of the site (end-consumer company name)
- Location
- User ID of field coordinator
- Time of uploading the task
Scheduling worksheet: Once the field coordinators are allocated tasks, these tasks are then included under specific JMR(Joint meter reading) cycles. Joint meter readings refer to a coordinate where multiple meters are read simultaneously within a designated timeframe. This becomes essential for accurate billing as well as ensuring transparency in energy transactions. The scheduling worksheet includes information like:
- Name of assigned site engineer (field coordinator)
- JMR period under which the task is assigned
- Additional site visit (if required)
- User ID of the assigned coordinator
Scheduling dashboard
Grid’s reporting and dashboarding capabilities allows the intricate visualization of the scheduling and maintenance in solar projects. Senior managers were able to create a site scheduling report that provided detailed insights into:
- Name of site engineers
- Total number of sites they were allocated
- Total number of visits that came under specific JMR period for each engineer
- Number of entries done under each JMR period
- Pending entries under each JMR period
In this manner, Grid’ frontline app enables a seamless flow of communication between stakeholders (senior engineers and field operators). This combination of a standardized data collection approach with increased transparency into site maintenance results in greater reporting accuracy, reducing misreporting and operational discrepancies.
Conclusion
With Grid’s advanced mapping and scheduling capabilities for O&M, managers can allocate tasks to field operators in real-time and ensure no designated tasks overlap with each other. This becomes significantly important to improve operational efficiency, reduce manpower redundancies and allow for better communication between stakeholders.
Contact our team or talk to one of our experts and experience how Grid transforms solar projects, ensuring greater efficiency and operations management.
