2019: Our Year in Review

At Itron, we're dedicated to creating a more resourceful world. Together with our customers, we work to improve the quality of life, ensure the safety and promote the well-being of people around the globe.

This year, we continued our work toward our mission with many key initiatives – and while there’s a lot to be excited about in 2020, let’s reflect on our achievements in 2019.

Mitigating Natural Gas Leaks
Methane gas detection is a hot topic for utilities. This year, New York City utility Consolidated Edison (Con Edison) is deploying 9,000 smart natural gas detectors – the ML-310, from New Cosmos on Itron’s multi-purpose Industrial IoT (IIoT) platform – to proactively identify natural gas leaks and improve safety for its 10 million customers. Watch this video to learn more.

In other gas news, our Intelis gas meter was selected as the winner of the “Public Safety Solution of the Year” award from IoT Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global IoT sector today.

Xcel Energy Collaboration
 

Xcel Energy plans to deploy distributed intelligence-enabled smart meters from Itron across its territory over the next five years to improve reliability, efficiency and security for its customers. Together, Itron and Xcel Energy will engage and empower the utility’s customers with a new generation of efficiency and services for years to come by utilizing innovative distributed intelligence applications running on meters. Xcel Energy also aims to improve customer control with the ability to optimize the effectiveness of load control, demand response and dynamic pricing programs.

Water Wins
 

Water is our planet’s most precious resource. To reduce water loss and improve system visibility, Itron will deploy its water management system for the Department of Water and Sewage (DAE) of Americana in São Paulo, Brazil. Responsible for 80,000 water and sewage connections, the utility serves the city of Americana, which reports losses of up to 40%.

Louisville Water Company, which serves more than 1 million people in Louisville, Kentucky and the surrounding areas, will deploy Itron’s OpenWay Riva IoT solution, including replacing nearly 280,000 meters with the OpenWay Riva water communication modules, a new type of communication technology that allows usage to be captured electronically and communicated in real-time.

Inaugural Smart City Challenge
 

This year, we announced our first-ever Smart City Challenge, which invited IoT solution providers to compete for the chance to work with Glasgow and the City of London to deploy breakthrough solutions to address specific challenges defined by the cities. Instrumentation Technologies (I-Tech) and Noesis.Network were selected as the winners of this inaugural event.

The winning solution from Noesis features cost-effective acoustic sensors to address noise pollution and mitigate traffic in Glasgow. Noesis proposes deploying sensors on lampposts in areas with anticipated noise pollution from events and related traffic to identify, localize and quantify noise.

Due to the life-threatening nature of people entering the River Thames, the City of London sought solutions to improve river safety and address public health priorities. I-Tech designed a two-step solution to allow London to monitor lifebelts and pinpoint the location of a person in need of rescue support.

A New CEO Takes the Helm
In August, Tom Deitrich stepped into his new position as president and chief executive officer at Itron. Deitrich served as Itron’s executive vice president and COO since 2015, and succeeds Philip Mezey, Itron’s president and CEO since 2013.

During his time as COO, Deitrich played a major role in shaping the company’s strategy to partner with cities and utilities to build secure, reliable, connected communities that can offer a multitude of new services. He architected the company’s innovation and product strategy, created the product business units and global commercial and customer enablement organization, and enhanced our overall operations.

Resourcefulness Insight Report
 

As disasters are becoming more frequent, the Itron Resourcefulness Insight Report – revealed at Itron Utility Week 2019 – summarizes key findings from more than 500 consumer utility ratepayers and 300 utility executives across the United States. The report reveals perceptions on an array of topics relating to disaster preparation, response and recovery, exposing a shared and heightened worry about a disaster striking today compared to five years ago.

First-Ever Itron Innovator Award
 

During the general session at Itron Utility Week, ConEd was announced as the winner of the first inaugural Itron Innovator Award for its deployment of natural gas detectors. The award recognizes an Itron customer for driving excellence in innovation and taking advantage of Itron’s partner enablement programs to deliver value from concept to consumer.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide
 

We were recently named a Visionary in Gartner Inc.’s Magic Quadrant for Managed IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide (formerly the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed M2M Services, Worldwide) for the fourth consecutive year.

According to Gartner, “The Managed IoT connectivity service market enables connectivity, data collection, and analysis and additional decision services that are necessary for connected solutions.” The report stated that, “Gartner’s coverage of managed IoT connectivity services focuses on providers that bundle connectivity, technology and technology services that facilitate key business processes and related business outcomes.”

Itron is committed to inventing new ways for cities and utilities to work together including the ability to cost-effectively use the same reliable, intelligent infrastructure to deliver multiple services and applications serving all of their customers.

We look forward to continued collaboration in 2020.  I can't wait to see what we can achieve together.

Happy New Year, everyone!