Itron, Inc. has announced the integration of Itron Riva technology into its OpenWay smart grid solution. By integrating the distributed intelligence and adaptive communications of Itron Riva technology into its OpenWay smart grid solution, Itron is delivering a revolutionary communications technology along with new computing capabilities for meters and other grid devices at the edge of the network. The OpenWay Riva solution has been developed for global application with early deployments planned or in process in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.
With the OpenWay Riva solution’s adaptive communications technology, utilities can now deploy a single network solution that incorporates three communications technologies – radio frequency (RF), power line carrier (PLC) and Wi-Fi – working in concert on the same chip set. The technology automatically utilises the most reliable and fastest communication path and most efficient modulation scheme based on its location, network operating conditions and the nature of the application or data. This capability reduces network planning, design and implementation time, significantly flattening the cost curve for field area network deployments and on-going network management, while accelerating the time-to-value for smart grid applications. The OpenWay Riva solution provides a single communications solution with quality of service network management capabilities for both dense, urban environments and lower-density areas, reducing total cost-of-ownership.
In addition, using the Itron Riva edge intelligence platform on the OpenWay smart grid network enables data analysis and action to take place at the edge or at any point of the network rather than solely in the utility back office. This capability allows the delivery of business outcomes to utilities that could not be practically solved by simply providing back office data analysis. Key to this opportunity, Itron’s OpenWay Riva solution delivers three core edge intelligence capabilities: self-defined and refreshed locational awareness of edge devices, support for multiple communication or application protocols in and between devices, and unprecedented processing power at the edge of the low-voltage network. These capabilities will allow utilities to push numerous smart grid apps to the edge, including demand response and distributed generation coordination at a sub-transformer level, improved outage detection and analysis, transformer load management, and revenue assurance and theft detection.
The OpenWay Riva solution builds on the Cisco IPv6 multi-application smart grid reference architecture, which was jointly developed with Itron and provides plug-and-play interoperability for devices and applications running on the network. Itron Riva technology can also be easily embedded in third-party devices to run on the OpenWay network.
“Itron’s OpenWay Riva solution is a true differentiator for Itron in the smart grid space. By extending Itron Riva edge intelligence to our OpenWay smart grid solution, we are providing reliable and high-performance smart grid communications coupled with processing power to support edge application and analytics, all at an optimised cost that is competitive with other network offerings. The solution fundamentally changes utilities’ financial and technical calculus when determining their smart grid strategies,” said Mark de Vere White, president of Itron’s electricity business unit. “Building on our legacy of innovation, Itron continues to seek ways to help our customers better manage energy resources to create a more resourceful world. Our OpenWay Riva solution is a significant step forward in grid communications technology and opens up many new possibilities.”
The technology will be showcased at European Utility Week in Amsterdam, Nov 4-6, in Itron booth 1.D16.
