Advent Design worked closely with the member utilities and
the State Public Service Commission to gain final acceptance
of the new meter random sampling plan. Advent Design developed
and presented technical and statistical data to State statisticians
and regulators to insure that the program was understood
and accepted. A one year pilot implementation period was
successfully completed in January, 2002. The random sampling
program has now been approved for all utilities.
In order to quickly and accurately evaluate the performance
of gas meter groups using the random sampling program, Advent
Design developed a new and unique Access based software
program for the member utilities. The program calculates
the number of annual meter samples that are required, randomly
selects the meters from the installed population, and then
calculates the performance statistics using actual meter
test data. The calculated statistics are use to determine
whether a meter groups is performing within acceptable limits.
The program also prints the required reports that must be
to the Public Service Commission.
Impact
The new random sampling program is being used as an alternate
in-service test program to evaluate the performance of in-service
gas meters in most meter types and categories. The new program
will annually identify the meter groups that are not performing
up to required standards so that member utilities can take
corrective action, leaving satisfactorily performing meters
in service. The new random testing program has resulted
in annual savings of nearly $8,000,000 for the member utilities.
The random sample software has been successfully installed
in four major utilities and has produced highly accurate
results. The software is being used extensively to track
meter performance and has accurately identified meter groups
that are not within acceptable State standards. |
