Rob Scarffe, Veridian’s Executive Vice President, and Kevin Myers, the company’s Manager of Wholesale Settlements, lead one of Ontario’s larger and more complex smart metering and time-of-use (TOU) rollouts but used the initiative to transform Veridian’s business operations.

As the province’s seventh largest local distribution company (LDC), Veridian was one of the first LDCs to work with the Smart Metering Entity and formally test its systems with the Meter Data Management and Repository (MDM/R).* Still, for Veridian’s smart metering project team, there were other unique aspects to the company’s TOU implementation.

Veridian serves nine wide and dispersed municipalities that are comprised of residential, urban-based and seasonal, rural-based customers. It has opted to transition all of those customers – more than 100,000 – from quarterly to bimonthly billing as it implements TOU rates. Veridian’s business departments must also be able to adapt quickly to allocate resources and share services since the company has two distinct market participants registered with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), and operates from multiple office locations.

To ensure continued achievement of the company’s ongoing business, smart metering and TOU implementation objectives, Myers and Scarffe brought together a cross-functional team that would complement the dependencies between internal departments and drive business improvements. Last month, the team enrolled the balance of Veridian’s smart meters in the MDM/R, marking a major step in Veridian’s TOU implementation and ending nearly two years of MDM/R integration activity.

Veridian’s project team includes a substantial cross-section of the company’s business functions.  What is the rationale behind the team’s structure and how did you form it?

Myers:  Given the scale and impact of this initiative, we knew that this project would require various skill sets. We have just over 200 employees and many of us wear different hats so we cannot have every person involved in the rollout working on it full-time.

Early last year, we identified the people within the company who were already working on the TOU rollout and brought them together with the external contractors who were assisting us. We then developed a project plan by assessing the resource requirements we would need at each stage of implementation. Using the plan, we formed agreements within the team that identified the percentage of time each member should contribute.

Scarffe: To add to Kevin’s point, because of the diverse backgrounds of our team members, we invested heavily in training and we have made sure it is available the team on an ongoing basis. We developed numerous training programs and job aids from scratch, and involved managers and staff from other departments.

Would you say that there are core business functions that should be involved in any LDC rollout?

Scarffe: It depends on the LDC. Some small LDCs may not have the resources and staff to take the same approach we did. I would say that, regardless of an LDC’s size, the project team must communicate and work with as many functions and stakeholders that are affected by the change as possible, from the very beginning.

Some people assume that MDM/R enrolment in particular is a straight IT project, which isn’t the case. A number of our departments use MDM/R data on a daily basis. The people who use it need to understand how the MDM/R factors into their work even before the TOU migration process begins. AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) and CIS (Customer Information System) vendors also play a significant role in enrolment testing, so they should be at the table from the get-go as well.

How has the rollout and MDM/R integration changed the way Veridian does business?

Myers:  With the MDM/R, you are taking systems and business functions that have traditionally worked independently to process meter read data and inserting a channel that allows them to work together more effectively.

Our team found that when you have an existing process for a system that once worked independently, you can’t apply that same process to the system, and expect it to work well with the others, once it is connected with the MDM/R.

We have created nearly 30 business processes across different departments like Metering, Billing, Collections and Wholesale Settlements. Now, consistent processes are applied to the data we receive through our AMI and the MDM/R at any given time. It has improved how we control and manage the large volume of meter data we receive on a daily basis.

Scarffe: We also introduced different workforce and project management tools. Three years ago we launched a mobile workforce management tool to help us manage the paperwork associated with changing over 100,000 meters.  Along with that, we launched trouble ticket and report brokering tools. They allow us to track and easily analyze the work that is generated from data exceptions and MDM/R reports.  Operationally, it has given us a better view into the work being done in other areas of the company and also helped us to define and coordinate Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between departments.  

All of Veridian’s smart meters are now enrolled in the MDM/R and you are migrating customers to TOU. If you could give one key recommendation to an LDC that is working toward its TOU targets, what would it be?

Scarffe: You need a champion within the organization. For Veridian, it was Kevin. As the project manager, he made sure that the right people were aware of the company’s responsibilities and that key timelines and milestones were being met.

The success and length of an LDC’s TOU project hinges on a companywide buy-in from the top down.
This is a significant undertaking for our industry but everyone involved should know that it can be used to their company’s advantage.

Myers: Rob is right. We approached this as a long-term program that would involve and benefit the entire organization.  Rob has been the key to us securing that buy-in. He has been very involved and has kept the rest of the executive management team up-to-date about every aspect of the project.

Visit the Workshop Presentations page to learn more about Veridian’s smart metering and TOU implementation as well as those of other LDCs.

* Veridian is the seventh largest municipally owned electricity distributor in Ontario.