Greek electricity distributor Hedno is to use Itron’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio to modernise its electricity grid.

Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (Hedno) is the sole electricity distribution system operator in Greece and one of the largest in Europe. Itron will help Hedno improve its customers’ experience with enhanced energy consumption insights and modernise its electric grid to integrate more distributed energy resources and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Hedno will deploy Itron’s Enterprise Edition meter data management (MDM) system, which will manage 7.7 million meters, and Itron’s Utility IQ headend system to manage nearly a million new NB-IoT cellular smart meters designed and manufactured by Itron technology partner ZIV Automation (www.zivautomation.com). These should let Hedno improve operational efficiency while enhancing customer service through increased visibility into energy consumption, faster resolution of issues and flexible billing options.

Once deployed, Hedno will gain immediate access to entire meter datasets, enabling more accurate detection and measurement of technical and non-technical losses, improved revenue collection, asset management, secure data sharing, and predictive maintenance capabilities. The MDM system will connect with Hedno’s multiple headend and customer information systems, allowing the utility to collect, process, store and analyse smart device data, device events and alarms.

As hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS), Itron’s system ensures reliable availability, allowing Hedno to focus on business operations while realising operational and cost-saving benefits more quickly.

The future-proof installation will help Hedno easily adopt new grid edge use cases over time. The MDM is pre-integrated with Itron’s IEOS intelligent edge operating system, a platform-as-a-service that simplifies integration and establishes a foundation for advanced grid capabilities such as distributed intelligence, energy forecasting, distributed energy resource management and analytics.

Hedno, already using the Azure cloud, can also benefit from Itron’s collaboration with Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) to integrate generative AI technologies – starting with Microsoft Azure OpenAI, part of Azure AI Foundry – into Itron’s IEOS, further future proofing Itron’s offering.

“Smart metering is the most important project for the modernisation of the Greek electricity market,” said Anastasios Manos, Hedno (deddie.gr) CEO. “For the scope of this project, Itron has been assigned the supply of the meter data management system, which will serve as the central system for the collection, storage, processing and advanced analysis of data from all meters. This system, the most widely used globally for meter data management, will enable us to offer significantly enhanced digital service capabilities to electricity suppliers, consumers and prosumers. At Hedno, we remain committed to our promise of modernising the Greek electricity energy market.”

Don Reeves, senior vice president at Washington-based Itron (www.itron.com), added: “Itron is proud to be a part of this project to enable a modernised electric grid in Greece with our proven MDM and headend systems, which each manage more than 50 million endpoints globally. Together with Hedno and ZIV, we’re creating a scalable foundation to meet Hedno’s evolving operational needs. With Itron’s pre-integration and deep industry expertise, we’ll help reduce project complexity, accelerate deployment and lower total cost of ownership. We’re excited to support Hedno in realising the benefits of a smart, reliable and future-ready grid.”