Utility generates incremental revenue stream by providing billing data to the neighboring utility operated by the City of Oliva, MN
BURNABY, BC – April 28, 2022 – Tantalus Systems (TSX: GRID) (“Tantalus” or the “Company”), a smart grid technology company focused on helping build sustainable utilities, is pleased to announce that Kandiyohi Power Cooperative has deployed and validated the capability of the Tantalus Utility Network (TUNet®) to capture, integrate and present consumption and flow data from licensed Neptune R900® water endpoints.
Kandiyohi has partnered with the City of Olivia, MN, which had previously invested in water system automation by deploying R900 RF water endpoints that were being read monthly via a drive-by data collection solution. By leveraging the TRUScan™ capability embedded within Tantalus’ TUNet smart grid platform, which uniquely enables utilities to access and enable data from a diverse set of endpoints that rely on different protocols across one smart-grid network, Kandiyohi has demonstrated the ability to integrate smart meter data along with daily water consumption and critical alarm data from the city’s deployed Neptune R900 endpoints. As a result of the successful validation, Kandiyohi is now able to provide the city with a path to a more resilient, digitized distribution network at a fraction of the cost of a stand-alone full deployment.
“Like many public power utilities, Olivia has made previous investments in the automation of their water system with the deployment of the drive-by Neptune R900/R900i water solution. Since those Neptune endpoints communicate via a licensed protocol, their ability to integrate those devices into a broader multi-commodity smart grid deployment would have previously required that we rip and replace those drive-by water endpoints with an entirely new AMI water endpoint solution,” said Chad Straus, AMI Administrator at Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, MN. “We are excited that Tantalus and Neptune have solved this problem by integrating Neptune R900/R900i endpoints into a single multi-commodity TUNet smart grid platform. The combined solution allows the city to preserve citizens’ investment in Neptune’s water devices while simultaneously migrating the electric distribution system to a more resilient smart grid network.” Kandiyohi owns and operates the Tantalus smart grid network that provides the Neptune water meter data along with electric meter data to Olivia for monthly billing.
“In 2021, Tantalus announced a license agreement with Neptune to integrate their water endpoints onto TUNet, thereby expanding the total available public power market for Tantalus’ solutions,” said Peter Londa, President & CEO of Tantalus Systems. “Tantalus is excited to work alongside Kandiyohi and the City of Olivia as the first of many public power utilities to demonstrate the power of this integration. We look forward to scaling this solution to more utilities and helping them take advantage of the economic and environmental benefits created through the integration as we remain committed to delivering purpose-built solutions designed to improve the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the utilities we serve.”
