Create Your Intelligent Infrastructure

iiDEAS: Enabling the Municipal

Smart Grid Hybrid Network
One Unified Network By Aclara

One Unified Network By Aclara

As a smart buyer and the guardian of your citizens best interests, you are fully aware of the risks
and costs of investing in Advanced Metering Infrastructure. You know that network deployment and
application integration both can be a big undertaking. Aclara knows that you need a reliable partner
in creating a solution that will pay for itself and continue to add value over many years.
Aclara offers a unique combination of hardware, software,
and services to help you overcome these barriers and
begin to reap the many benefits of AMI.
Heres how:
Aclara solutions are more cost-effective to deploy
and operate than many competing AMI solutions.
Ask your Aclara representative about our Total Cost
of Ownership modeling to learn more.
Aclaras new iiDEAS business platform offers the
industrys most open solution for eliminating data silos
and making AMI data more accessible and meaningful.
By leading your AMI
conversion with Aclaras
new iiDEAS business
platform, Aclara lets you
minimize disruptions
affecting your consumers
and business processes.
By deploying iiDEAS first,
using it to import and manage
the data you collect today with
AMR, AMI or handheld walk-by systems, you can centralize data collection and streamline existing back-office
business processes before undertaking the AMI rollout.
Because iiDEAS treats data from different sources the
same way, the rest of the transition to AMI goes smoothly.
Make the transition as rapid or as gradual as you choose.
Aclara makes the costs and benefits crystal clear
Reading meters is only one of the jobs your Aclara
AMI can do
With the iiDEAS platform in place, you can choose
to emphasize high-value initiatives in distribution
automation that increase reliability and cut costs,
even before your full AMI rollout is complete.
Emerging applications that have grown out of basic AMI
and distribution automation are tipping the cost-benefit
balance in favor of making the leap into AMI. For municipalities facing stretched budgets, changes in technology,
and evolving public policy, iiDEAS gives you the power to
lower costs while improving service levels. Lowinvestment iiDEAS modules such as:
Loss Analysis
Voltage Monitoring
Power Billing

A typical municipal service area with high, low, and

provide immediate savings through revenue assurance, peak-load management, and enhanced ability to
negotiate and cooperate with major commercial and
industrial accounts.

iiDEAS Applications Do Double Duty

They help realize immediate returns in operational

efficiency and customer satisfaction

They help quantify the potential return on
additional investment in infrastructure and
capture value when deployed

One early adopter of the iiDEAS Loss Analysis

Module reported that it paid for itself in just three
months. And then it just kept on paying!

repository that can serve as a foundation for everything you

do, sharing data, events, and control. Look at the options the
iiDEAS open platform provides:
Converting all or only part of your service area to AMI
Changing AMI vendors, if needed for for new service
areas only
Offering expanded service levels to commercial and
industrial clients to enhance these critical relationships
Extending the utility of the data collection network with
new applications such as CVR, Volt/VAr optimization,
demand management, and recovery management
Improving and optimizing municipal services such as security
lighting, water and energy management for public spaces

Any Location, Any Network

Aclaras iiDEAS platform can support AMI for all your
environments, including:
Ultra-high density urban areas
Suburban areas
Sparsely populated or remote rural areas

medium-density neighborhoods.

Aclaras AMI solutions leverage existing infrastructure, such as

electric power lines, cellular networks and future technologies
for transporting data. Even in complex, mixed-density service
areas where the best solution requires more than one AMI
communications technology iiDEAS brings the whole system
together. It minimizes technology differences and maximizes
synergies using interfaces based on standards like TCP/IP,
MultiSpeak, and CIM.

Seamless Integration
The iiDEAS platform samples, stores, and correlates data
from many sources, including electric, gas, and water AMI,
SCADA meters and data feeds, outage management systems
(OMS), weather feeds, and geospatial information systems
(GIS). This enriched meter data delivers valuable insights into
the factors and conditions that affect demand, service quality,
and all aspects of your distribution systems performance.
iiDEAS integrates networks and software from other vendors,
including legacy AMR systems. Regardless of your level or
stage of AMI adoption, iiDEAS provides a central data

An iiDEAS Solution to Fit Your Needs

Because its engineered for convenience, Aclaras
iiDEAS platform helps you create efficiencies, improve
reliability and save time at an affordable cost, and
with surprising simplicity.

A robust suite of professional services means that Aclara can

ensure your success with managing other data sources and
the growth of your AMI network.

Learn more at www.Aclara.com or call 800-297-2728.

Aclara can install iiDEAS on a server in your data center and iiDEAS will
automatically integrate with your Aclara network. A library of application and
network adapters facilitates integration with third-party data collection and
data-processing systems.
Or, Aclara can host your iiDEAS software in Aclaras secure data center and
simplify operations further with our Smart Infrastructure Service options. In this
model, Aclara shoulders the burden of IT administration, data management, and
application availability. Your data resides in its own virtual environment, entirely
separate from other hosted utilities. Data and applications reach your desktop
and mobile computers via a virtual private network (VPN) connection.
Customer
Service

Consumer
Engagement

TWACS

Metrum
Cellular

Planning &
Capital Mgt

3rd-Party
Applications

iiDEAS

CIS

SCADA

Operations

STAR

3rd-Party
Networks

The iiDEAS platform integrates with multiple applications to support

critical activities, such as:
Operations
Customer service
Planning, forecasting,
Customer engagement
and capital management
Meter to cash and
prepay systems

To learn how Aclara can help your organization reap the benefits
of AMI through best-in-class iiDEAS, Metrum Cellular, TWACS, and
STAR_select network technology, visit www.Aclara.com, contact
info@aclara.com, or call 800-297-2728.
Current customers,
please visit us at:
https://aclaratech.force.com/login

Aclara
945 Hornet Drive
Hazelwood, MO 63042

Aclara Technologies LLC is a world-class supplier of smart infrastructure technologies

to electric, gas and water utilities globally. Over 500 utilities in nine countries rely on
proven Aclara solutions to connect with their customers. Aclara Technologies LLC is
owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners. Visit www.Aclara.com. Follow us on
Twitter @AclaraSolutions.

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