Xcel Energy and Itron collaborate to transform customer experience and utility operations
Sharelynn Moore of Itron
Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, and Xcel Energy entered an agreement to secure smart meters that will allow for collaboration to improve customer experience and utility operations using the distributed intelligence capabilities of Itron’s IoT solution.
Xcel Energy provides electricity and natural gas service to millions of customers in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.
Xcel Energy plans to deploy distributed intelligence-enabled smart meters 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 utilising innovative distributed intelligence applications running on meters. Xcel Energy also aims to improve customer control with the ability to optimise the effectiveness of load control, demand response and dynamic pricing programs.
Xcel Energy will take advantage of its existing standards-based, interoperable network from Itron along with Itron’s comprehensive distributed intelligence platform to manage edge applications from an open ecosystem of solution providers. Coupled with Itron’s ecosystem of partner applications and devices, the utility will manage changing grid conditions to better serve its customers.
Brett Carter
In addition, Xcel Energy and Itron will deploy a distribution automation solution on the same platform to improve grid reliability and reduce operating costs by extending monitoring and control capabilities to a broad range of distribution devices on Xcel Energy’s electric system. The utility will gain greater visibility into the health and performance of its grid that will improve outage management and restoration responsiveness.
“This collaboration is exciting because we’re not just developing the next generation of smart meters,” said Brett Carter, Xcel Energy’s chief customer and innovation officer, and executive vice president. “Combining forces with Itron allows us to work together on new applications to benefit our customers and build the advanced electrical grid of the future.”
“Itron’s proven solution connects millions of devices to deliver real-time solutions to today’s challenges,” said Sharelynn Moore, senior vice president of Networked Solutions at Itron. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Xcel Energy to improve customer experience by harnessing the connectivity and intelligence of the Industrial IoT to deliver smarter solutions.”
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