Itron: A Global Leader in Technology & Services for the Utility Industry

“Founded in 1977, Itron is a world-leading provider of data collection, management, and application software solutions, with more than 8,000 utility customers in 100 countries worldwide.”

With nearly 40 years of experience serving the utility industry, a world-leading technology and services company with an extensive history of innovation, Itron, Inc. is uniquely positioned to provide solutions that leverage the Internet of Things to help utilities and cities better manage precious energy and water. Itron has been a trusted partner to the global utility industry with automation technologies that revolutionized the application of metering data for many decades. The company has brought advancements in hardware and software technology to customers to enable a transition from manual, labor-intensive processes to more automated and efficient systems that optimize utility operations and provide valuable meter data for a wide range of utility applications.

Today, Itron is positioned as a global leader in technology and services for the utility industry. Their technologies are built upon open standards and are designed to provide and open a platform for others to build upon.

Itron is a U.S.-based company with its headquarters in Liberty Lake, Washington, with key locations in France, Brazil, Germany and India, among others. They operate with nearly 8,000 directly employed staff across the globe in more than 36 countries, with employees in 70 locations, including 17 major offices of more than 100 employees

Highly Integrated Suite of Products & Services
Itron has a highly integrated suite of products and services to help utilities operate more efficiently, help businesses and consumers conserve water and be more energy efficient, and provide communities with a technology foundation to prosper and thrive in an IoT world. From technology solutions to managed services and cloud-based software as a service, the breadth and depth of Itron’s portfolio is unrivalled in the industry, spanning the entire energy and water value chain. Whether it’s collecting detailed energy and water data or putting that data to use with analytics.

Offering Excellence through ‘OpenWay Riva IoT solution’
Itron is driving innovation for the more resourceful manage­ment and use of energy and water. Itron’s next generation technology, ‘the OpenWay Riva IoT solution,’ combines a powerful distributed computing platform for edge devices with enhanced communications capabilities to enable new applications and use cases for electric, gas and water utilities and smart cities. These include applications to improve grid safety, efficiency and reliability; to maintain pipeline integrity; to accommodate more renewable and distributed generation onto the grid; and to drive improvements in customer-facing applications such as demand response, energy efficiency and water conservation. There’s no other solution in the industry with these combined capabilities.

Serving a Gigantic Client Base
Carrying a reputation for excellent customer service, Itron renders its service mainly to the global utility industry and city or municipal governments. In addition to traditional energy and water utilities, the company also serves third-party solar energy providers with monitoring and management technologies.

Itron’s OpenWay Riva IoT solution has modernized and transformed communications and smart grid applications for its customers. Clients that selected the OpenWay Riva solution for its adaptive communications technology and distributed computing power to support new smart grid applications include:

• Eletrobras in Brazil, which is Latin America’s largest electric company

• Tonga Power Limited deployed the OpenWay Riva IoT solution to Tonga’s main island in the South Pacific, which had limited energy resources

• Avista, an investor-owned electricity and natural gas utility serving some 680,000 customers in the Inland Northwest of the U.S

In addition to these clients, Itron’s key smart grid customers in North America include Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, CenterPoint Energy, BC Hydro,
FirstEnergy, National Grid and DTE Energy.

Client Speaks
BC Hydro has installed 1.93 million smart meters since 2011 and more than 99% of customers have a new meter. BC Hydro’s Executive Vice President, Transmission, Distribution & Customer Service Greg Reimer said the program, which is forecast to come in more than $100 million below the budget of $930 million, was developed to modernize BC Hydro’s 1950s-era grid.

The business case projected that energy theft reduction would peak at 75 percent in 2016 and now, BC Hydro is forecasting a reduction of 80 percent or more. The expected cost savings of the program have been embedded into BC Hydro’s rate applications since 2012, which means that BC Hydro customers have al­ready received lower rates as a result of the success of this program. This program will provide a net benefit to BC Hydro customers.

The new metering system is allowing BC Hydro to restore power quicker following major storm events, remotely check meters in an area to ensure power has been restored, allowing crews to move to the next outage sooner.

The Future Sight
For days ahead in business, Itron is focused on the expansion of its OpenWay Riva IoT solution for energy and water utilities, and smart cities. It is the next generation technology platform that provides the technology attributes and capabilities for an IoT-driven market.

“We are uniquely positioned to help utilities, businesses and consumers meet the significant challenges we face in managing our energy and water resources.”

Knowing the Key Executive

Philip Mezey, CEO – Mezey was appointed president and chief executive officer and named to Itron’s board of directors on January 1, 2013. He has served the company in several capacities during his career at Itron, most recently as chief operating officer for Itron’s global Energy segment, with responsibility for the operations of Itron’s electricity and gas businesses around the world. He also previously served as senior vice president and chief operating officer — Itron North America, group vice president and general manager, as well as senior vice president for Software Solutions. Upon Itron’s acquisition of Silicon Energy in 2003, Mezey joined the company as managing director of Software Development for Itron’s Energy Management Solutions group.