"Every 15 sites that I check something is wrong.  The Bird Dog Plus CT tester paid for itself in 2 months!"

Meter Department Supervisor

CT Testing with the 5000 Bird Dog Plus--Ratio & Burden Testing

1. The Bird Dog Plus Return on Investment

2. Examples of Return on Investment

3. The Easy-to-Use Bird Dog Plus

4. The Opportunistic Testing Method

1. The Bird Dog Plus Return on Investment

The Edison Electric Institute estimates $4 billion in electrical revenues are lost to theft each year in the U.S. Staggering as this figure seems, industry experts believe it doesn’t come close to revenue loss due to:

• Errors from installation

• Loose connections

• Wrong ratio, dual ratio, or overburdened circuit

• Environmental problems

• Corrosion – resistance buildup

• Wind – loose connections

• Lightning – magnetized, shorted, or opened CT's--See enclosed flyer on the Demagnetization Circuit

• Manufacturer’s defect

• Incorrect labeling of the CT’s nameplate (ratio or rated burden)

• Wrong placement of polarity dot

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2. The Bird Dog Plus: Examples of Return on Investment

By readily identifying metering circuit problems, the Bird Dog Plus can save your company millions of dollars. Lightweight and portable, it’s easy to handle, as well as easy to use, fast, and highly accurate. That is why we say the Spinlab Bird Dog is truly the best friend of meter-men and the most competitive tool for utility companies. Here’s  a sampling of our customer feedback:

• A Northeastern utility company found over $10 million in lost revenue in over four years time using Spinlab’s analyzers. The return on investment (ROI) was reported to be $16 to every dollar spent on its revenue testing program.
• A utility company in the South reported the discovery of nearly $1 million in lost revenue in one year.
• Using Spinlab analyzers, a utility company in the Caribbean found over $200,000 in lost revenue in two weeks That’s over $14,000 of lost revenue per day.
• A utility company in California found over $1 million each in lost revenue at 2 different sites--that's a total of over $2 million.

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3. The Easy-to-Use Bird Dog Plus

When the meterman leaves his truck with the Bird Dog Plus at his side, he has everything he needs.

Here’s how easy it is to take a reading from a metering circuit using the Bird Dog Plus:

• First, turn on the unit.

• Next, hook up the probes.

• Now, scan through two screens.

• Finally, look at the information displayed on the screen.

• In less than one minute, the Bird Dog Plus can tell you if the wiring is connected correctly, the ratio is correct, or the circuit is overburdened.

• The information is then stored in the Bird Dog Plus’s memory for uploading to a personal computer.  It’s fast, easy and highly accurate.

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4. Opportunistic Testing

Drawing on our 50 year history in testing technology together with the shared knowledge of our many customers, Spinlab has developed this concept of opportunistic testing to address several evolving changes in the electric utility industry:

• Increased profitability pressures have intensified the need for detecting metering inaccuracies caused by inherent failure modes and tampering.
• Growing service base and broadened scope of activities have heightened the pressures on meter-men.
• Budget forces have pushed for downsizing the electric utility workforce --- further constraining meter departments. Hence, the ability to dedicate manpower specifically for testing is being severely reduced, if not eliminated, at the same time that the need for testing has increased.

We designed the Bird Dog Plus to help facilitate opportunistic testing:

MENU DRIVEN FORMAT with help screens, graphs and diagnosis screens where needed.

UNIT WEIGHS ONLY 6 POUNDS 

VERY COMPETITIVELY PRICED.

Opportunistic testing is the solution for proactive utilities in this changing environment of deregulation and very limited manpower.

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Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc. / 3110 Henson Road, Suite A1 / Knoxville, TN  37921

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