Liberty Lake, United States – Itron, Inc., has announced that it has signed a contract with Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), a multi-service utility owned by the US city of Gainesville, to modernise the utility’s infrastructure with Itron’s multi-purpose industrial IoT (IIoT) network solution. This includes smart Gen 5 500W water and Gen 5 500G gas communication modules and Gen 5 Riva Distributed Intelligence enabled electric smart metres.
The utility will also take advantage of Itron Enterprise Edition Metre Data Management as a Software-as-a-Service to manage metre and sensor data. These solutions will allow GRU to improve operational efficiency, data collection accuracy and enhance customer service. The utility plans to deploy Itron’s solutions across Gainesville and surrounding areas.
Itron’s flexible, extensible solution will enable GRU to execute its data management vision and strategy as it undergoes digital transformation and upgrades its metering infrastructure. Upon completion, GRU’s electric, gas and water operations will leverage Itron’s multi-purpose communications network to receive more accurate data, enabling the utility to act on insights that will help improve service reliability and reduce operational costs.
Through Itron’s solutions, data is collected electronically daily as opposed to manually every month. This eliminates the need and costs associated with physically accessing the homes and businesses of customers to collect read metres. In addition, Itron’s solutions can help GRU’s customers lower their utility bills since they can now monitor usage from an online account.
“Our core business principle at GRU is to seek ways to enhance our customer’s experience and reduce the impact of our operations on the environment,” says Chad Parker, energy measurement and regulation manager at GRU. “Modernising our infrastructure with Itron’s IIoT network solution gives us the opportunity to streamline metre reading and improve services to our customers such as providing accurate and reliable billing. With Itron’s solution, it lays the foundation for future applications like Distribution Automation, Street Lighting Controls and other Smart City advanced capabilities.”
“Working together with GRU, the fifth largest municipal electric utility in Florida, to deploy Itron’s unified IIoT solution will enable the utility to enhance the quality, safety and reliability of the services that they delivery to their customers,” says John Marcolini, senior vice president of networked solutions at Itron. “We look forward to working together with GRU to meet the changing demands in energy and water service delivery and better manage the planet’s most precious resources.”
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