Itron Smart Water Solutions

Who is Itron?

Itron is the leading provider of energy and water resource management solutions for nearly 8,000 utilities around the world. Itron delivers advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and automated meter reading (AMR) solutions to help water providers better manage and conserve precious water resources. Itron's innovative products easily interoperate with existing multi-platform water meter technologies, offering smart solutions to help utilities better serve to their customers and meet critical business objectives.

With nearly 10,000 employees doing business in more than 130 countries, Itron since 1977 has empowered utilities to responsibly and efficiently manage energy and water resources with end-to-end solutions, including:

• Electricity, gas, water and heat measurement and control technology
• Communications systems
• Analysis Software
• Professional AMI/AMR Deployment and Product Support Services

What's Driving Smart Water?

We view the following as key economic, social and political drivers for a smarter water infrastructure:

• Water Conservation
  • Water quality and water scarcity problems are real—by 2050, half the world will live in water stressed environments.
• Water Loss
  • Water loss due to undetected leaks wastes water—17% of U.S. water is lost due to leaks in aging pipes. That's 7 billion gallons a day.
• Government Regulation
  • Regulation and enforcement issues are increasing in North America. Water providers are seeking companies who, like Itron, can help them deploy proven technologies that will help them meet regulatory water-loss targets.
• Aging Infrastructure
  • Huge capital investments in water infrastructure are required to mitigate "water stress". In North America alone it will take an estimated $600 – 700 billion over 20 years to upgrade our water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure.

Itron's Innovative Technology

Water sustainability is everyone's concern, consumers, water providers and technology companies. With our solutions approach, we are helping solve some of the toughest challenges water providers are facing, including aging infrastructure and supply shortages. Our technology takes customer engagement beyond delivery of service and a bill to empowering users to view water consumption and change behaviors to save money. Water providers can increase system integrity to help mitigate water losses and conserve source water, and improve overall operational efficiency.

A smart solution for water providers is more than metering—it's an end-to-end solution. Itron's water offering combines meters, intelligent, rugged and reliable water ERT® communication modules, leak detection technology and robust data collection and analysis software to collect the data water providers need to enhance service, promote conservation and increase efficiencies.

Itron's water solution components:

• Communication Modules—Itron's U.S. made 100W water modules are coupled with Itron's Choice Connect™ data collection system to deliver interval data to the utility via two-way communications. Our radio-based 900 MHz ERTs are offered with different power levels and communication options to meet specific deployment requirements. Accurate and cost-effective, Itron's 100W offers water providers proven reliability with an unmatched 20 year battery life. They are rugged enough to withstand and perform effectively even the harshest pit environments. Itron water ERTs are easy to install and compatible with all leading water meter manufacturers.
• Collection devices—Transmitting data from the ERT module back to the water provider requires one or any combination of the following: an Itron fixed network system (collectors and repeaters), handheld computer, or a mobile data collector that is mounted in a utility van.
• Data collection software—Itron's feature rich software applications allow the utility to easily manage routes, assignments and data collected using handhelds and mobile collectors. Commonly used interfaces allow these systems to be easily integrated with customer information and billing systems and meter data management systems.
• Analysis software—Collecting massive amounts of data can be meaningless unless utilities have a means for interpreting it and acting based upon it. Itron's meter data management and analysis software supports a true end-to-end advanced solution, as well as other business processes, including data collection, data validation and estimation, data management and calculations. Usage and variance reports offer comparative assessments of current and historic consumption to address customer issues. Trending reports spotlight usage patterns to better understand who is using how much and when. Web presentment tools empower customers to understand their water usage and support conservation.

Benefits of an Itron Solution

Itron is focused solely on the utility industry and our proven, reliable, future-proof products and technologies help utilities:

• Conserve precious resources
  • Detect behind-the-meter leaks
  • Reduce utility liability
  • Deliver proactive customer service
  • Enable practical and manageable conservation programs
• Improve operational efficiency and reduce water loss
  • Reducing truck rolls by automating meter reading processes
  • Manage the demand for water by analyzing historical time-synchronized granular monthly, weekly and daily usage data
  • Detect leaks to minimize water loss
• Monitor distribution systems
  • Mitigate distribution leaks by remotely collecting and analyzing acoustic leak data
  • Maintain distribution lines for event avoidance
  • Deliver actionable data
    • Hydraulic modeling
    • Flow and usage analysis
    • Reverse-flow detection
    • Meter right sizing
    • Tamper detection
• Enhance Customer Service
  • Real-time bill reconciliation
  • Communicate consumption data to customers over the phone
  • Identify non-revenue water
  • Monitor inactive accounts
• Flexible AMI/AMR data collection architecture
  • Walk-by
  • Mobile AMR
  • Fixed Network AMI
  • Hybrid Combination: AMR/AMI
• Professional AMI/AMR Product Support
  • U.S. based customer service call center
  • Comprehensive product and technology systems training
  • Secure hosting and cloud computing solutions
  • Customer-facing communication services

Itron Professional Support Services

Itron is committed to providing comprehensive, best in class product support offerings and to ensuring the highest possible level of customer success and satisfaction. All support services professionals are rigorously trained on our products, the underlying technologies, and industry leading technical problem-solving methodologies. Itron is proud to offer a variety of value-add professional support services to maximize the ROI when deploying its solutions. These include the following:

Project Management Services. From start to finish, Itron project managers can help customers manage the day-to-day activities of a project while controlling project scope, resources and costs according to the customer's business objectives. This best practices approach includes the following disciplines:

• Standard Project Management Methodology
• Implementation of Best Practices; Continual Improvement
• Solution Deployment Experience
• System & Integration
• Integrated Project Plan
• Integrate into Utility's Current Operations
• Commitment to Schedule and Budget
• Project Reporting aligned with Contracts
• Risk Mitigation through Data Analysis
• Focus on End Result Quality
• Local Support Staff
• Direct Access to Itron's Technical and Operational Staff
• Systems Delivered to Expectations

Business Consulting Services. Together with the project manager and subject matter experts, Itron consultants can help define key business objectives and processes.

Implementation and Installation Services. Our consultants provide business solution analysis and design; technical architecture planning; system installation, fixed network and water loss management propagation analysis and recommendations system configuration and testing; and more—to successfully deploy Itron products.

Integration & Custom Development Services. Working with business process stakeholders and developers, Itron consultants can design and implement customizations and integrated system solutions critical to achieving business objectives.

Education Services. From traditional classroom training to web-based sessions, Itron delivers the knowledge utilities need to maximize investment in our solutions.