Schlumberger Optimizes Receiver Location for Automated Meter Reading

In its efforts to provide automated meter-reading services to the utility industry, Schlumberger faces the problem of deploying receivers efficiently. In a geographic region, the problem is to install the minimum number of receivers on existing utility poles so that all wireless meters in that region can transmit their readings to at least one. Schlumberger first encountered this large-scale problem in a project it ran for Illinois Power. It found solving this problem manually very time consuming, and it had no ability to evaluate the robustness of the resulting solution. We proposed and implemented an optimization-based approach that reduced the duration and cost of implementations. In addition, we gave planners the ability to answer what-if questions.