Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and OGE Energy Corp., the parent company of Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), Oklahoma’s largest electricity provider, announced today that a seven-year smart-grid program contributed to demand reduction targets by automating control devices using digital technology. The Integrated Volt Var (IVVC) program is part of OG&E’s strategy to drive efficiencies and customer savings that have helped defer investments in power plant capacity.

Accenture Consulting provided project management, distribution planning, and evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) services for the IVVC project. The Accenture team helped select equipment and circuits, plan circuit changes, and create deployment packages. OG&E and Accenture recently completed the seventh, and final, year of IVVC deployment designed to achieve a two-percent peak voltage reduction and a proportional reduction in peak demand.

“We have worked with Structure, now part of Accenture, over the years to reach this point of ongoing savings for our customers by optimizing voltage and reducing demand,” said Cristi Killian, manager of advanced grid operations and planning for OG&E. “In addition, we now have much greater visibility into the everyday operations of our distribution network so that our employees can provide even better customer service as we continue our smart grid journey.”

The IVVC project has enabled real-time voltage readings through telemetry from multiple devices including load tap changers, capacitor banks and voltage regulators as well as near real-time voltage readings from customer meters for operational validation. This has provided OG&E personnel in engineering, customer service, and operations insight into system voltage allowing for additional benefits, such as identifying and resolving customer voltage issues and saving customers money by reducing line-losses.

“OG&E continues to set the standard in creating the smart grid of the future with the IVVC project,” said Mario Marchelli, managing director who leads Accenture’s intelligent grid operations practice in North America. “This project has been very rewarding for everyone involved, and I thank the entire team for the close collaboration by our companies to drive improved grid reliability through automation.”

OG&E began working with the Structure Group in 2009, and continued to work with Accenture after it acquired Structure in 2015, to help transform the distribution operations with an integrated smart grid solution. The two companies focused on integrating distribution automation, advanced metering, demand response, cyber security and compliance.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 435,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About Oklahoma Gas & Electric

Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, a subsidiary of OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE:OGE), is Oklahoma’s largest electric utility. For more than a century, we have provided customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas the safe, reliable electricity needed to power their businesses and homes at rates below the national average. Our employees are committed to generating and delivering electricity, protecting the environment and providing excellent service to our more than 836,000 customers. OG&E has 6,700 MW of electric generation capacity fueled by low-sulfur coal, natural gas, wind and solar. OG&E is recognized as a leader in smart grid technology, leveraging this platform to provide customers with the award-winning SmartHours® program and setting the stage for an electric vehicle program that will include some level of public charging infrastructure, and advanced LED street and security lighting. OG&E employees live, work and volunteer in the communities we serve. For more information about OG&E, visit us on the Internet at http://www.oge.com or follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ogepower and Twitter: @OGandE.