The Minnesota utility is the first to adopt the enhanced TUNet platform with integrated demand management
RALEIGH, NC – June 5, 2018 —Tantalus Systems, a technology company that helps utilities make smart decisions, announced today that Minnesota-based Crow Wing Power will implement TUNet® – the Tantalus Utility Network, a multi-application smart grid platform, for its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and integrated demand management capabilities. The electric cooperative will be one of the first utilities to utilize the new TUNet Insight, a state-of-the-art user experience and analytics platform.
Crow Wing Power serves 37,000 members across Crow Wing, Cass and Morrison counties in the Brainerd Lakes area of central Minnesota. Like many other electric utilities across the upper Midwest, Crow Wing Power relies heavily on a variety of load management systems to control demand surges during the extreme temperature differences from winter to summer. The utility sought new technologies capable of seamlessly transmitting low-latency granular data from meters to a utility operation center to streamline internal processes, enhance grid reliability and improve customer satisfaction.
“We are proud to have Crow Wing Power join our growing user community that now includes over 150 utilities across North America,” said Peter Londa, CEO of Tantalus. “Tantalus welcomes the opportunity to partner with forward-thinking utilities, such as Crow Wing Power, to leverage technology in building a sustainable utility business model. As electric distribution grids become increasingly complex, utilities’ goals and customer service expectations are becoming more challenging. TUNet’s robust computing platform and analytic capabilities enable utilities to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics and customer requirements.”
TUNet’s unique communication infrastructure will deliver energy consumption data from across the Crow Wing Power distribution grid to utility managers up to every fifteen minutes, as opposed to the industry-standard: one to four times a day via batched delivery. The near-immediate accessibility of this data, through TUNet Insight, will significantly improve the utility’s ability to garner actionable management insights and make real-time decisions, simplifying utility operations and improving customer service.
In addition to AMI and advanced load management solutions, the Crow Wing Power deployment will include TUNet Insight’s integrated outage management functionality which will improve service interruption detection and analysis throughout the utility’s service area.
“With the robust capabilities of Tantalus’ TUNet technology, the Crow Wing Power team will be able to better serve our membership and service territory,” said Patrick Goff, Power Quality and Metering Manager of Crow Wing Power. “The ability to rapidly address the changing dynamics of our distribution network will increase the level of service our members receive, while enhancing the reliability and profitability of our operations. We are confident that TUNet is the right solution that combines powerful AMI capabilities and a unique demand management solution.”
The Tantalus TUNet solution gives Crow Wing Power access to a robust multi-application network and technology platform that provides market-leading distributed computing power at every edge device. By combining the company’s distributed computing endpoints and network capacity for transmitting near-real-time interval data, Tantalus empowers utilities like Crow Wing Power to gain better visibility and take control of local energy consumption quickly and efficiently.
