1. 30 December 2016 | www.tdworld.com
InstallationStrategy
AMI Deployment
Reaches New Heights
ComEd created a one-of-a kind strategy
for Chicago’s Loop to ensure successful
installations in high-rise buildings.
By Schereina Howton, Commonwealth Edison Corp., and Chris Collins, Exelon Corp.
T
he central business district in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.,
is a dense, concrete jungle made up of thousands
of concrete buildings, some of which stretch high
enough into the sky to create concrete valleys for pe-
destrians below. Often referred to as the Loop, this 4-sq-mile
(10-sq-km) area is recognized as the second-largest central
business district in the U.S. (next to New York) and features
hundreds of high-rise buildings — some built in the 1800s —
for residential and commercial use.
Achieving effective cell phone or radio coverage in areas
of the Loop can prove challenging. This was the challenge for
Commonwealth Edison Corp. (ComEd) in 2016 when it began
installing smart meters in Loop-area high-rise buildings.
How does a utility create an infrastructure that enables
nearly 100,000 smart meters to communicate with its advanced
metering infrastructure (AMI) on behalf of customers? And
how does it successfully achieve this when no template or pro-
cess exists to identify and address potential issues for a dense
urban environment? ComEd had to answer these questions as
it defined its strategy for installing smart meters in the Loop.
Soft Launch
Prior to deploying smart meters in Chicago’s
Loop area, ComEd developed a soft-launch
plan that began in early 2015. The soft
launch gave the utility an opportunity
to test its meter deployment processes
and network radio connectivity in a
sampling of Loop-area buildings. The
plan involved the installation of smart
meters in 31 Loop-area buildings, fol-
lowed by installations in another 2000
buildings by June 2016.
A cross-functional team was estab-
lished to build and execute the Loop
plan. The team included representation
from ComEd’s AMI deployment, AMI
IT network, AMI operations, distribu-
tion engineering standards, meter engineering standards and
external affairs/large customer solutions groups, along with
representatives from Silver Spring Networks, which provided
the technology for ComEd’s smart grid project.
Among the first buildings to receive smart meters was Chi-
cago’s Presidential Towers, a set of four buildings with a to-
tal of more than 2300 meters. To ensure a premier customer
experience with tenants in the building, an education booth
was set up in the building lobbies, and ComEd representatives
attempted to knock on the doors of every unit in the buildings
and leave a door hanger to confirm smart meter installation
had been completed. The team completed all installations in
two days, which was two days sooner than planned.
The success of the soft launch provided ComEd a number
of benefits: a better understanding of how to educate custom-
ers, what preparations were necessary for the exchange of me-
ters, how to execute AMI exchanges efficiently and effectively,
and how radio propagation penetrates within and between
some types of high-rise construction methods.
Full Deployment
The soft launch provided ComEd with small
networks of smart meters within the high-rise
area that communicated with the rest of
ComEd’s AMI network. However, these
networks were not enough to ensure
ComEd would achieve communication
with every smart meter required in the
high-traffic central business district.
Because customer satisfaction is a
high priority for ComEd, the utility
needed a plan to maintain the level of
service its customers had come to expect
while addressing the following issues:
• A communications infrastructure
to replace the building of distribution
poles with access points (APs) — or de-
vices that help to facilitate communica-
ComEd’s Chicago Loop strategy included
deployment of nearly 100,000 smart me-
ters at more than 2000 high-rise buildings.

2. 31www.tdworld.com | December 2016
InstallationStrategy
ComEd’s Chicago Loop strategy included deployment of nearly 100,000 smart meters, similar
to that above, across more than 2000 high-rise buildings.
tion from smart meters to the ComEd
network — and tools to install APs
and take line-side power (not custom-
er power)
• Solutions to enable successful
smart meter communications within,
through and outside 2000 varieties of
buildings in Chicago’s Loop
• A way to assess effectively how
well the smart meters communicate
in every building
• A minimized number of APs and
Silver Spring MicroAPs to manage
both ongoing costs and the amount
of capital needed in full deployment
to develop and maintain the AMI
network
• An ability to deploy approximate-
ly 87,000 smart meters within a 6- to
9-month installation window as well
as a triage process to identify and cor-
rect quickly smart meters that did not
communicate with the network.
ComEd met these challenges with a one-of-a-kind solution:
installing APs at six of its substations within the Loop high-
rise area. Each substation was strategically identified across
the Loop so they were, to the extent possible, equally spaced
across the affected high-rise area. Antennas were placed on
substation rooftops where APs were installed.
These substations, together with the small networks of
communicating smart meters within the high-rise areas, cre-

3. 32 December 2016 | www.tdworld.com
InstallationStrategy
ated a base communications network that enabled ComEd
to start smart meter deployment. From these base locations,
ComEd’s meter deployment team looked at installing smart
meters within high-rise buildings in the immediate vicinity
of each base location, starting closest to the base stations and
moving out radially.
Central to the success of ComEd’s smart meter deployment
plan was early education and outreach to the manager of every
high-rise building in the Loop area. Each building was treated
as a community, and building management was viewed as the
equivalent to municipal leadership of that community. This
close partnership with building management ensured optimal
tenant communication and enabled incorporation of build-
ing-management feedback.
Walk-Down Process
Because more than 2000 buildings make up the Loop
high-rise area in Chicago, it was impractical for ComEd crews
to test communication coverage before and after every smart
meter was installed. Instead, the utility tested communications
at buildings with 250 meters or more installed, prior to ex-
changing the smart meters.
During these walk downs, which were arranged with the
cooperation of building managers, ComEd reviewed how well
newly installed meters might communicate within the build-
ing and, when necessary, determined what network solutions
were needed to ensure radio communication from the smart
meters within the building once they were installed.
To help building managers understand the process,
ComEd’s deployment team contacted building and property
managers to inform them of the upcoming installation of
smart meters in their buildings. This also provided the de-
ployment team with an opportunity to discuss the benefits of
smart meters for tenants and high-rise management as well as
to describe the upcoming walk-down process. After confirm-
ing an appointment for a walk down, an email was sent to the
property manager as another reminder.
On the day of the walk down, the ComEd team arrived
on the premise to take notes of the meter room location and
condition, and conduct a communications analysis to ensure
all meters would communicate during the meter exchanges at
the time of the appointment.
A list of building details could include notes and pictures
on the presence of dogs, parking options (available on prem-
ise or in the surrounding area), occupancy makeup (for ex-
ample, senior or student living, or commercial tenants), and
if there were any conjoining premises with different addresses
whose meters may be in the same locations as the high-rise
building meters.
At the end of the walk down, the work planner met with
the property manager or chief engineer to share the results
of the walk down and discuss the planned meter exchange
time frame. During most visits, appointments were scheduled
on-site. The work planner left the property manager with a
custom mark-your-calendar appointment business card and
requested business cards from the building contacts. This
information was used to generate appointment confirmation
emails and appointment reminder emails (48 hours prior to
the appointment date) as well as provided immediate contacts
in the event more information was needed.
Site-Specific Designs
ComEd also used the information to develop property fact
sheets, which were leveraged to create a deployment design
for each building. This design was the key factor in execut-
ing a successful plan during the deployment meter exchange
appointment. The design would determine the number of
days needed to exchange all meters, the number of installers
required to complete the meter exchanges, whether support
would be needed from other departments during the appoint-
ment, as well as special resources, parking and staging options,
and network design communications instructions.
The importance of a well-designed plan helped to ensure
everyone involved in the meter exchange process had the
same information on building objectives and how the installa-
tion process would be accomplished.
ComEd’s deployment strategy for Loop-area high-rise
buildings was to complete each building in its entirety during
an appointment. To do this, the ComEd work planner worked
closely with the ComEd field supervisor to confirm all neces-
sary resources would be available from building, installer and
network perspectives (that is, the installers’ attendance, meter
inventory, transport and parking solutions). If the building
had a meter count greater than 500 meters, the building was
staged one day prior to the appointment.
This staging process consisted of ComEd employees ar-
riving at the building to prepare the meter closets for the ar-
rival of the installer on the following day. Meter closets were
Access points and antenna installed at ComEd’s Ontario substation.

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InstallationStrategy
ComEd developed a collection of property fact sheets to ensure the success-
ful installation of smart meters in more than 2000 high-rise buildings.
stocked with the required number of smart meters needed for
each closet exchange, exchange stickers were placed on meter
banks, and areas around meter banks were reviewed to ensure
the installers could complete the exchanges safely.
On the day of the appointment, ComEd installers were
briefed by their field supervisors on the details of the build-
ing in which they were assigned. For larger projects, installers
were sometimes transported as a team by bus. Once on-site,
the installer began working on the highest floor as-
signed to them. During the exchange, legacy meters
were placed in the meter boxes from which the new
smart meters were delivered. ComEd employees then
followed behind the installer to remove the legacy
meters and clean up the meter room. In this way, the
process of meter installation proceeded as efficiently
as possible.
When a meter closet installation was complete, the
installer would secure the meter closet and report to
the next assigned floor. The same process continued
throughout the building until the deployment was
completed in its entirety. Before exiting the building,
a supervisor or installer would check the doors of all
meter closets to ensure they were locked and secured
before the ComEd team left the premise.
Communications Solutions
When the walk-down analysis showed solutions
would be necessary to aid in the communications of a build-
ing’s smart meters, ComEd’s meter standards team developed
one-of-a-kind standards and tools that enabled APs and Mi-
croAPs (meters that serve a dual purpose as small APs) to be
installed within buildings and take line-side (non-metered)
power. Examples included adapter sleeves placed in the meter
sockets and meters placed on top of the sleeves, which had a
power cord extending from them to power the APs; hardwir-

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InstallationStrategy
ing the power connection within transformer-rated meters;
and passive meter sockets used to power MicroAPs.
ComEd also used meter patch antenna couplers, which en-
abled the installation of a secondary antenna on a meter to
improve communication in hard-to-reach locations, such as
metal enclosures, meter rooms or meters located in isolated
areas. ComEd used this tool to extend the communications
reach of its smart meters within high-rise buildings. The tool
involved using conductive tape to attach an antenna to the me-
ter’s glass or plastic cover. From this tape, ComEd attached co-
axial cable, which extended to an outside hallway or room, to
a small salt-shaker-sized antenna to facilitate communications.
When any of these options were necessary, ComEd dis-
cussed them with the building managers and kept them in-
formed as solutions were developed. Going forward, ComEd
used the knowledge gathered through the walk-down and
deployment processes to develop standards for new structures
being built in the utility’s downtown area. These standards
provided developers with installation and construction guid-
ance for designing indoor electric meter rooms that would en-
sure an efficient and effective communication network.
These requirements addressed below-grade and multiple
above-grade meter rooms to ensure the successful installa-
tion of ComEd smart meters and a good experience for both
building managers and tenants. Provisions were designed for
both commercial and residential buildings as well as single,
multiple or indoor meter rooms to ensure successful commu-
nication access and performance.
In the end, ComEd’s first-of-its-kind solution helped to pro-
vide premier customer service by ensuring the timely installa-
tion of smart meters in Chicago’s Loop high-rise buildings,
effective communication across thousands of buildings, and
outreach and education to building managers of Loop-area
buildings.
For more information:
Commonwealth Edison | www.comed.com
Silver Spring Networks | www.silverspringnet.com
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank ComEd’s Tom Domin-
guez, senior marketing specialist, marketing; Chris Gubala,
senior engineer, system metering standards; and Susie Hoft-
iezer, manager, AMI deployment, for their contributions to
this article.
Schereina Howton (schereina.howton@comed.com) is an
advanced metering infrastructure deployment business analyst
responsible for planning and deployment of smart meters
throughout Commonwealth Edison’s service area. As project
manager, Howton planned the deployment of smart meters
in the Chicago Loop Business District. Howton has a master’s
degree in accounting, is Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certified and
is enrolled in the PMP certification program at DeVry University.
Howton and Collins are valued contributors to the Innovation
Award-winning Breaking RF Barriers team.
Chris Collins (christopher.collins@exeloncorp.com), an Exelon
Corp. project manager, is responsible for engineering and
deployment of smart grid network infrastructures at BGE
(distribution automation) and Commonwealth Edison (advanced
metering infrastructure and distribution automation). In 27 years
with ComEd and Exelon, Collins managed numerous telecom
platform deployment projects, Exelon’s network operations —
including data, firewall, fiber, synchronous optical networking
and voice systems — and was an electrical engineer at Exelon’s
Dresden nuclear station and nuclear corporate offices. Collins
holds a BSEE degree and a master’s degree in telecommunica-
tions, and is PMP certified.
To ensure communication of smart meters at Willis Tower, ComEd installed an AP antenna (shown to the left of Willis Tower in the left photo),
which communicates with the access points at ComEd’s Plymouth substation in Chicago (right).