Itron Expands Smart Grid Project in Austria with Edge Intelligence and Adaptive Communications

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.—May 20, 2015—Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), a world-leading technology and services company, announced today that Salzburg AG, energy supplier for 260,000 customers in the province of Salzburg, Austria, has expanded its smart grid contract with Itron. In the second phase of its smart grid pilot project, Salzburg AG will upgrade its OpenWay smart grid solution with Itron Riva edge intelligence technology, enabling adaptive communications technology along with computing capabilities for meters and other grid devices at the edge of the network. The OpenWay Riva solution builds on the Cisco IPv6 multi-application smart grid reference architecture installed at Salzburg AG. This is the first pilot of OpenWay Riva technology in Europe.

Salzburg AG will utilize the solution's adaptive communications technology, which combines two communications technologies — radio frequency (RF) and power line carrier (PLC) — on the same chip set. The technology automatically utilizes the most reliable and fastest communication path and most efficient modulation scheme based on its location, network operating conditions and the nature of the application or data.

With the smart grid solution, Salzburg AG will test smart grid use cases, including remote service switch capabilities, on-demand meter reading and network resiliency. The OpenWay Riva solution will also give Salzburg AG the ability to perform data analysis and take action at the edge of the network. Action at the edge reduces network traffic, eases the burden of transmitting high volumes of data back for analysis and minimizes human intervention to perform tasks that can be automated.

"In this next phase of our smart grid pilot, Salzburg AG looks forward to benefiting from Itron's OpenWay Riva solution. The solution's adaptive communication technology could give us the flexibility we need to switch between RF and PLC communications for assured connectivity at the highest possible speeds," said Thomas Rieder, head of smart metering at Salzburg AG. "We are highly interested in evaluating the benefits of a robust, secure, multi-service smart grid network and smart grid applications in the field."

"Itron is excited to bring our OpenWay Riva solution to Europe as a part of Salzburg AG's smart grid pilot. Our OpenWay Riva solution answers Salzburg AG's need for reliable, flexible communications while enabling various smart grid applications that increase network resiliency and quality of service," said Mark de Vere White, president of Itron's electricity business unit. "Itron is constantly innovating to meet the needs of our customers and OpenWay Riva is the latest example of that. We look forward to helping Salzburg AG benefit from the solution's revolutionary communications technology and edge computing capabilities."