Itron is collaborating with Utilismart to bring end-to-end smart metering technology to Canadian and US utilities.

Washington-based Itron is working with Canadian firm Utilismart, a provider of meter data management-driven analytics.

Cooperative and municipal electric utilities can benefit from Utilismart’s turnkey offering that consists of project management, cellular data and meter data reading services, and secure customer web portals.

The collaboration bridges the gap between automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Combining Itron’s electric cellular meters with Utilismart’s turnkey offering, utilities or consumers can benefit from the collaboration with the following use-cases:

• Utilities with an existing AMR system that does not provide the data necessary for complex industrial billing, such as interval billing data.
• Utilities with commercial and industrial customers who require daily consumption usage data and the presentment of those data for operational decisions.
• Utilities with AMR or AMI systems without voltage measurement capability who are implementing a conservation voltage reduction or volt-VAR optimisation programme by dropping in bellwether meters for near real-time voltage information needed for system control.
• Industrial users who wish to sub-meter their processes and have those data collected and available in a presentment tool. As an example, a utility with a large campus facility or processes that operate as cost centres under a single utility billing meter. With sub-metering, they can enable cost allocation by cost centre.

“This collaboration fills the gap that small-sized utilities are facing between AMR and AMI and offers an alternative, fully hosted and operated meter reading and data presentment model that also addresses growing submetering needs,” said Miro Karlicic, vice president at Utilismart. “Now, utilities will have complete data management that can support automation of business processes and present the information for enhanced business decision-making. Our work with Itron broadens our offerings, deepens our expertise and ensures that utilities have consumption data from each point of their distribution network.”

Tammy Zucco, area vice president of the America’s at Itron, added: “Itron is committed to collaborating with industry leaders like Utilismart to better equip small-sized utilities with detailed analytics on their energy consumption that will guide future decisions as well as assist in streamlining operations. The combination of Itron’s electric cellular meters with Utilismart’s platform presents utilities with options to use this technology, especially for those who have fewer AMI metering endpoints. We are looking forward to offering this to our North American customers.”

Utilismart’s digital utility platform provides utility analytics tools that help distribution utilities embark on their digital transformation journey and transform them into distribution systems operators and energy services companies.