Itron Launches the Next Generation Platform for Smarter Energy, Water and Cities

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Feb. 2, 2016 — Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), a world-leading technology and services company dedicated to the resourceful use of energy and water, announced today the launch of its new OpenWay Riva communications platform, which delivers true interoperability and distributed intelligence over the Cisco network. The platform drives new applications and decision-making to the edge to take action in near real time, enabling the active grid for utilities and smart cities. The communications platform, which will be featured at DistribuTECH, Feb. 9-11, in Orlando, is now available for gas and water utilities and cities in addition to electric utilities.

"The OpenWay Riva communications platform redefines the smart network. Utilities require a network that does more than collect reams of data for back office analysis. The OpenWay Riva communications platform enables decision-making at the edge, optimizing analytics where they need to happen, enabling utilities to run multiple applications in edge devices, creating capabilities not available before in the industry while opening the door for new revenue opportunities," said Simon Pontin, Itron’s chief technology officer. "The OpenWay Riva platform has the power to transform utility operations and deliver new value in distribution system efficiency, reliability and safety. This next generation platform is available across commodities, providing new and differentiating capabilities for utilities and smart cities. It is already changing the strategy and financial calculus for our utility customers in their grid modernization efforts."

The OpenWay Riva communications platform features a unified, secure, multi-service network for smart energy, smart water and smart cities applications and more. With distributed computing power for analysis of high-resolution data throughout the network, the platform delivers business outcomes to utilities that cannot be achieved by simply providing back office data analysis. Key to this, the OpenWay Riva platform delivers three core distributed intelligence capabilities: self-defined and refreshed locational awareness of edge devices, support for multiple communication and application protocols, and unprecedented processing power at the edge of the low-voltage network. These capabilities allow utilities to push numerous smart water, gas and grid apps to the edge, including revenue assurance and theft detection, leak detection, high impedance detection and other safety diagnostics, outage detection and analysis, transformer loading, and demand response and management of distributed generation at the sub-transformer level.

In addition, the communications platform features Adaptive Communications Technology, which brings an innovative new approach to grid communications that integrates radio frequency, powerline carrier and Wi-Fi to deliver assured connectivity. 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. For electric utilities, the network solution also includes Itron cellular communications to bring a broad array of communication options to ensure comprehensive coverage in the most challenging environments at a low total cost of ownership. This capability reduces network planning, design and implementation time, significantly flattening the cost curve for field area network deployments and ongoing network management, while accelerating the time-to-value for smart grid applications.

The OpenWay Riva platform will be showcased at DistribuTECH 2016 in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 9-11, in Itron booth #1301. For more information, visit www.itron.com/dtech.