Itron, a provider of smart metering solutions for the energy and water industry, has signed a contract with Peoples Natural Gas to provide smart gas solution.
Peoples provides natural gas service to approximately 700,000 customers in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The solution will enable Peoples to operate more efficiently and ensure overall system integrity, while paving the way for future smart city applications.
As a part of the contract, Itron will install approximately 460,000 OpenWay Riva gas communication modules over the next five years.
The modules give Peoples the flexibility to automate meter reading today with the ability to expand the system in the future to include a multi-purpose network for smart gas and smart city applications and an increasingly diverse ecosystem of meters, network devices and distributed assets.
With the solution, Peoples can streamline operational processes, reduce costs and enhance customer service levels with detailed meter data. This data will give the utility greater visibility into system operations and customer consumption patterns so it can improve reliability.
Peoples will also take advantage of mobile data collection to eliminate estimated billing and the need for field workers to enter the customer premise, improving worker safety and customer privacy.
“Itron’s smart gas solution gives us the technology we need today to improve our operations while preparing us for the future,” said Ruth DeLost-Wylie, senior vice president and CIO at Peoples Natural Gas.
“At Itron, we are working to create more insightful utilities, smarter cities and a resourceful world. We are glad to be able to help Peoples Natural Gas achieve its goals of improved operational efficiency and customer service,” said Tony Spiritoso, Itron vice president of sales for Gas in North America. “Whatever the challenge, Itron has the solutions to help our customers achieve the business outcomes they need.”
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com