Power quality instrument with voice-mail-like user interface: a novel technology assists customers, utility marketing executives

Utility "key account executives" need immediate access to power quality information, but are typically equipped only with a cellular phone and a pager. A new power quality instrument includes a speech synthesizer and a telephone tone decoder. Utility marketing executives, and their customers, can retrieve power quality information through a voice-mail-like interface directly from the instrument. Utility engineers can extract power quality event signatures from the same instrument. The instrument can also communicate power quality events directly to numeric and alphanumeric pagers. EPRI-directed field-testing is under way at 9 utilities.