Massachusetts-based Sense’s real-time home intelligence will be available as an application for Itron’s latest smart meters.

The collaboration should expand real-time insights through the Sense app to millions of consumers across the USA.

Sense has joined forces with Itron, which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, as a distributed intelligence (DI) partner. The Sense app runs on Itron’s DI-enabled smart meters and takes advantage of Itron’s DataHub, a secure, scalable, cloud-based platform that will allow consumers to use the Sense mobile app seamlessly without purchasing additional hardware.

The Itron announcement builds on Sense’s existing partnerships with smart meter and hardware manufacturers. By embedding intelligence as updatable software, these core components of energy infrastructure can adapt over time and connect to the evolving set of smart devices that consumers are adopting, all without replacing hardware.

“Sense was built to make homes safer and more efficient,” said Mike Phillips, Sense CEO. “We’ve always known that the fastest path to market adoption is to put our core technology into the infrastructure of homes. We’re thrilled to collaborate with Itron and leverage their innovative DI-enabled smart meters to empower consumers with real-time data and the engaging consumer applications they need to manage household energy, lower their energy bills and accelerate greater efficiencies and electrification of their homes.With over 65 million-meter upgrades expected by 2027, Sense is poised to grow to more than a quarter of the residential homes across the USA.”

Led by pioneers in machine learning, Sense’s mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by making homes smart and more efficient. Sense uses high-resolution waveform data, machine learning and AI to provide real-time, engaging consumer applications that give people insights into how energy is used in their homes and will increasingly be used for automation as appliances in the home become connected. By integrating this technology with meters, Sense is allowing utilities to provide a real-time detailed view of energy use across all customers.

Itron’s DI platform allows innovators to build open, interoperable, value-driven applications on Itron’s secure platform that evolve with market and consumer demands. To date, Itron has shipped more than five million DI-enabled meters integrated with Itron’s DI platform. The Sense application will be available on Itron’s DI platform by the end of Q3 2023.

The rapid adoption of smart meters will build intelligence into millions of homes. According to Guidehouse, the global penetration of smart meters will climb from approximately 44% at the end of 2020 to 56% by the end of 2028, resulting in over 1.2 billion devices globally. Investments in inside-the-meter analytics will grow at a CAGR of 13.3%, and demand-side management and energy efficiency products will grow from approximately $1.6bn in 2021 to nearly $5.4bn in 2030.

Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine-learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behaviour, even for devices that are not smart. Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.