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PSC Staff Issues Next Generation AMI Report
On August 31, 2026 Staff of the Michigan Public Service Commission filed an Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) technical conference report.
Among other things, Staff “requests for next generation AMI technology implementation should only be made once the utility can demonstrate how the technology can improve reliability and resiliency of the grid, support DERs, and lower costs over the long term,” and recommended to the Michigan Commission to require:
(1) “utilities to provide justification and quantification for each benefit it claims as part of next-generation AMI including the assumptions that support the expected quantified benefits”
(2) “utilities to provide an analysis of alternative technology or solutions to achieve the benefits claimed by AMI 2.0”;
(3) “utilities to provide specific use cases and customer benefits for DER-related next-gen AMI capabilities and identify areas of functional overlap between next-gen AMI investments and other DER investments”;
(4) “utilities to provide justification for each AMI network component, as well as information about the useful life and any obsolescence concerns for each component”;
(5) “utilities to provide plans to minimize costs and stranded assets while transitioning to next-generation AMI”;
(6) “utilities to provide evidence that a vendor is retiring technology essential to the AMI network when requesting recovery for an AMI transition due to that retirement”;
(7) “utilities to provide a roadmap for AMI infrastructure plans for at least the expected useful life of the chosen meter technology,” including “the timing of the purchase and replacement of all hardware and software that will be a part of the metering infrastructure”; and
(8) “utilities to provide a cost-benefit analysis comprising all software and hardware components that make up the next-gen AMI system.”
