At Itron, we are dedicated to creating resourceful communities across the globe with our technology, growing portfolio and community outreach. This year, we continued this mission, working with our customers to ensure their success and helping improve the quality of life, ensure the safety and promote the well-being of people around the globe. Here’s a look at 2018.
Integrating New Smart City Technology and Networked Solutions
With the acquisition of Silver Spring Networks in January, we have been integrating Silver Spring’s solutions into our portfolio of innovative technology. By adding Silver Spring’s smart street light offering into our broad portfolio, we are continuing to deliver smart utility, smart city and industrial IoT solutions on an open, standards-based platform.
Demonstrating the excellence of our combined solutions, Itron was named a leader in the Navigant Research Leaderboard on smart street lighting. Itron was the only company in the leader category that does not primarily provide streetlights. According to the report, published in Q3 2018, Itron is “well-positioned to benefit from the growing acceptance among cities of the benefits of using smart street lighting as a platform for smart city applications.”
Launching Smart Meters for Water and Gas
This year, we launched two new smart meters in June. First, we announced our Itron Intelis water meter, which is Itron’s first ultrasonic water metering solution for North America that allows utilities to take advantage of the power of data. The new water meter operates on our OpenWay® Riva and Gen5 networks to securely manage water.
Later in June, we announced the launch of the Itron Intelis gas meter. With embedded intelligence, the meter is designed to increase safety for utility personnel, end customers and communities by enabling safety shutoff at all service points in a timely manner. This meter will also operate on both Itron networks to deliver near real-time data and post-processing analytics.
Enabling Smart Thermostats
To enable public power utilities to implement Bring-Your-Own-Thermostat (BYOT) demand response programs at a lower cost, Itron launched its Hands-free BYOT™ solution in June. The solution is cost-effective and requires no system integration. With this solution, utilities can include leading thermostat brands in their program, engage with their members and customers more deeply while providing them with new value and rewards and build out a new load control asset.
Improving Disaster Preparedness
As a result of the many natural disasters in 2018, utilities are beginning to implement technology that can address acts of god in real time. For example, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) signed a seven-year contract renewal with Itron to deploy new Gen5 network hardware and access points to support higher Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) speeds that are up to 24 times faster than previous generations. With this network modernization, FLP will be prepared for future natural disasters.
In the announcement, FLP’s President and CEO Eric Silagy said, “the unprecedented size and scope of Hurricane Irma last September tested every piece of equipment across our 27,000-square-mile service area. That said, we were able to restore service to 1 million customers before the storm even exited our system, and 2 million customers after one full day of restoration. In fact, smart grid technology not only enabled us to avoid more than a half million outages during the storm, it also allowed us to restore service to customers before it was safe for our trucks to roll.”
Connecting, Innovating and Transforming at Itron Utility Week
With more nearly 1,200 attendees, Itron’s signature customer-focused event took place in Scottsdale, Arizona. With thought-provoking keynotes from industry leaders, more than 90 breakout sessions and the introduction of the Itron Experience, the event was an incredible experience. We also announced the launch of the Itron Resourcefulness Report, which analyzed more than 1,000 utility executives plus more than 1,000 consumers.
Due to the great success of our volunteer event at Itron Utility Week in 2017, we kept up the tradition with a trail clean up at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Nearly 50 customers and employees woke up bright and early on Sept. 30 to pick up trash to keep Scottsdale beautiful.
Empowering More Resourceful Students
The importance of STEM education goes hand-in-hand with our resourcefulness mission. In October, we announced the launch of Conservation Station: Creating a More Resourceful World – a new initiative developed to engage and educate middle school students on the relationship between energy and water through the lens of conservation. Through our collaboration with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, this initiative will provide access to digital immersive and educational experiences for middle school students.
Itron is proud of the work we do every day, and we look forward to 2019 and the continued opportunity to make a positive impact on the communities and cities in which we live, work and play.
