2020 Forecasting Meetings – Registration Now Open!
The 18th annual Energy Forecasting/EFG Meeting will be in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 22 – April 24 with optional one-day training workshops on…
Inspiring a Day of Generosity with #GivingTuesday
At the core of Itron’s mission and purpose as a company is a commitment to resourcefulness and community impact. We believe that the way we manage…
Rooftop Solar and Short-Term Models – Advanced Methods
Under a California Energy Commission (CEC) study, Itron evaluated alternative approaches to incorporating forecasts of behind-the-meter solar PV…
Improving Efficiency and Accuracy with Forecasting in the Cloud
In today’s increasingly dynamic energy market, it is important for utilities to have access to accurate and timely energy forecasts. Whether…
Public Utilities Fortnightly Recognizes Itron Among Top Innovators in 2019
This November, Public Utilities Fortnightly released its Top Innovators 2019, and recognized the collaboration between Itron, New Cosmos and Con…
Itron Recognized for 20 Years of DLMS Membership
In 1997, Itron was one of three founding members of the Device Language Message Specification (DLMS) user association, an organization created with…
Natural Disasters and Technology for Resiliency
Itron recently released our report on utilities’ current state of disaster preparedness. As many of you have experienced or may already know,…
Itron LAM Awarded for Innovation
More than ever, utilities and communities are looking for sustainable and efficient solutions to better serve their customers and conserve resources…
It’s a DER World, We’re Just Living in It
If you’re reading this and you’re a load forecaster like myself (or know a thing or two about load forecasting), then you are well aware of the…
The Importance of Modern-Day Innovation
For those of us who grew up with the Space-time continuum as defined by Dr. Emmett Brown (Doc Brown) in the Back to the Future trilogy, we know that…
The Self-Generation Incentive Program: Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage Evaluation Results
The Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) evaluation found that behind-the-meter (BTM) storage provides tangible benefits – load reduction during…
2019 Benchmarking Survey
The end of October brings something for everyone. Fall foliage for adults, Halloween candy for children and Itron’s Annual Benchmarking Survey…
Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery—Tackling Our New Reality
Since 1970, the number of disasters worldwide has quadrupled to around 400 a year. In the U.S., The Economist reported: “According to the UN’s…
Empowering Women in Utilities
At Itron Utility Week 2019, we once again celebrated the women who contribute their time and talent to the utility and smart city industries.…
IUW 2019 Day Two: Promoting Purpose
The general session for day two at IUW 2019 was just as encaptivating as day one. Afdhel Aziz, one of the world’s leading experts in marketing…
Getting to Yes: Helping Utilities Make the Case with Regulators
During the Big Picture Session on Monday at Itron Utility Week, NARUC President Nick Wagner and Itron’s VP of government affairs, Dan Pfeiffer,…
IUW 2019 Day One: The Power of Community
We kicked off Itron Utility Week (IUW) with a compelling general session lead by a strong lineup of speakers to get the Knowledge Conference…
Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Pepco Holdings and Carlsbad Municipal Water District with Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards at Itron Utility Week
Frost & Sullivan honored utilities for their societal and business impacts on their journey to reduce energy and water waste at the opening…
What to Explore at IUW 2019: Knowledge Center Spotlight
Flights are booked, our solution and product demos are prepped, and the sunscreen is packed – it’s time for Itron Utility Week (IUW) 2019. This…
Saving Sea Turtles with Streetlights
Every year in Florida, baby sea turtles scurry from their nests at night and make their way to the ocean. Thousands of nests are laid every year on…
Creating a More Resourceful World…Together
At Itron Utility Week (IUW) 2019, we are focusing on the power of community. Our partners play an important role in that community, and together we…
Delivering Intelligent Connectivity: Unlock the Potential of the IIoT
Communities and utilities have a lot to consider when choosing a partner for a digital transformation initiative. Here at Itron, we are critical…
Prep List: Time to Get Ready for IUW 2019
Itron Utility Week (IUW) 2019 kicks off on Oct. 11 with pre-conference trainings and hits full steam on Oct. 13 with the Knowledge Conference. As…
Improving Sustainability at Commercial and Industrial Companies: It Begins with Measurement
As I read the news of those who hit the streets for the climate strike, I reflected on my own habits. I consider myself an environmentally…
Averaging the Weather First or Averaging the Energy Forecast
There is a question that has long vexed me: If we calculate a normal series of weather variables by averaging them first and running them through a…
IUW 2019: Connecting Our Community
Itron Utility Week (IUW) kicks off next month with a focus on the power of community—because our power to transform the industry lies in community.…
Big Thinking Abounds in Idaho
This past weekend, I took part in the Think Big Festival located in Coeur D' Alene (CDA), Idaho – just a short drive away from Itron’s headquarters…
Ensuring Safety and Preventing Theft with Itron Revenue Assurance
When you hear the word “theft,” you likely picture people in ski masks carrying electronics, jewelry and piles of cash out of a home, but you…
Innovation and the Inception of Itron Idea Labs
Nine out of 10 Fortune 500 companies in 1955 disappeared from the list by 2016. The average tenure of a Fortune 500 company decreased from 33…
Will an Electric Vehicle Be Cheaper than a Gasoline Vehicle?
If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, chances are you have thought about the possibility of an electric car. They’re all over the news and…
My Friend Went 100% Solar. . . Indirectly
I was speaking with one of my friends recently and they were proudly telling me that they signed up for their utility’s 100% solar rate plan. I…
Annual Forecasting Benchmark Survey Results
Our third seminar of the year reveals the results of our annual benchmarking survey. This survey has been conducted since 2012 and presents a broad…
Fort Collins Utilities Reaches Milestone with Itron DEM Program
Fort Collins Utilities, a municipal distribution utility in Colorado, launched the Peak Partners program in June 2014 in partnership with Itron.…
Spring Cleaning: Organizing the Impacts within the Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage Closet
Electric utilities are increasingly promoting and adopting distributed energy technologies as an opportunity to modernize the electric grid and…
Where Did Durbin and Watson Go Wrong?
I’m sure you have all been there—the spot where you mention autocorrelation and the Durbin-Watson statistic. I saw this recently in some testimony…
Introducing Itron’s New President and CEO
Today, Tom Deitrich steps into his new position as president and chief executive officer at Itron. Deitrich has served as Itron’s executive vice…
Is My Smart Home Really Smart?
I am a smart home geek. I have all the “smarts”: voice assistant/speaker, security cameras, lighting, fans/air purifiers and a thermostat. My home…
Itron and Discovery Education Awarded for Global Sustainability Leadership
Today, the Business Intelligence Group named Itron and Discovery Education, the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources,…
Holidays Are No Vacation for the Load Forecaster
Summer has arrived. While your friends are frolicking at the beach, you are struggling in a darkened cubicle to ensure that the load forecast…
Dates and Serial Numbers: Might As Well Leap
In Excel and MetrixND, dates are actually serial numbers. This is obvious in Excel when you format a cell containing a date as a number. In the…
Seeing Climate Change First-Hand
I just returned from a stirring expedition to the frozen Arctic, the fastest-warming place on earth. During the trip, I witnessed first-hand what is…
Itron at IEPEC in August
The International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC) is the premier conference for energy program implementers; evaluators; local, state,…
Itron Rings Closing Bell at Nasdaq
On June 26, Philip Mezey, Itron president and CEO, and members of Itron’s leadership team joined Nasdaq in Times Square for a ceremonial ringing of…
The Front Door for Cleantech Innovation in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s La Kretz Innovation Campus is the front door for cleantech innovation in Los Angeles. The campus…
Resiliency in the Wake of Hurricane Season – Using IIoT Applications to Prepare for and Mitigate Natural Disasters
The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season has officially begun. From June 1 to Nov. 30, NOAA predicts a range of 9 to 15 storms to occur. With hurricane…
Itron Releases 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report
When it comes to making a difference, few companies have the good fortune to align the three most important ingredients to making a positive,…
When is the R² Not the R²?
A recently received support email contains a riddle. “When I build a regression model in Excel and remove the intercept, I get a different R²…
The Smart Home Study
The vision of a smart grid is based on distributed energy resources dynamically interacting to create smart homes and smart loads that automatically…
Welcome to the New Itron.com
Today, we unveiled our new global website, which serves as the front door to our company and allows visitors like you to quickly understand who we…
Itron Goes Arctic
It’s summer, and many of Itron’s employees are taking summer vacations to sunny destinations, but one employee will spend the next 12 days on a…
Rooftop Solar PV and Smart Streetlights Survey
Itron recently surveyed the load forecasting community concerning the possible impact of rooftop solar PV installations on utility operations. There…
IoT for Impact: How Smart Devices are Preparing Communities to Respond to Disasters and Save Lives
Smart metering networks can be leveraged to support a host of complimentary Industrial IoT applications to improve the performance, reliability and…
Accepting Nominations: 2019 Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards
In partnership with Frost & Sullivan, Itron is now accepting nominations for the 2019 Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards. Presented on Oct. 11…
The Mile-High 2019 ISO Forecasting Summit
They have a saying in Denver – “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” While that is clearly an exaggeration, it’s not too far off from…
Itron Collaborations Recognized at IoT World Awards
Last week at IoT World, Itron was shortlisted for its nomination of Con Edison’s methane detectors for the Best Industrial IoT Solution Award and…
Itron Showcases the Potential of Intelligent Streetlights and Smart City Use Cases at LIGHTFAIR International
Cities around the world are beginning to implement smart city solutions to ensure greater safety, efficiency and convenience for their citizens. For…
Improving Financial Analysis with AMI Data
Smart meter data is more granular and more timely than monthly billing data. Access to this data supports a paradigm shift in forecasting processes,…
Unlocking Action at the Edge: Announcing Itron’s New Developer Tools for Distributed Intelligence Applications
The frontier of smart grid innovation is continuing to accelerate with more devices and applications proliferating across the electricity…
Industrial IoT Takes Center Stage at IoT World 2019
Next week, Itron heads to the IoT World Conference and Exhibition hosted May 13-16 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. Throughout…
Methane Detection on Itron’s IoT Network
During this year’s AGA conference, we’ve been discussing natural gas safety. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the role of methane detection in…
Enabling the Active Network for Natural Gas
Continuing our blog series on natural gas safety, in this blog we will discuss the role of the Active Network in improving the delivery of gas.…
Ensuring Safety in Natural Gas Delivery Amid Natural Disasters
For cities and utilities, it can be challenging to ensure the safety of citizens especially when natural disasters occur. Incidents such as…
A Few Thoughts on P-Values
I recently read an article about P-Values that led to some discussion with my Itron colleagues, along with some thoughts on the matter. In the…
2019 Annual Energy Forecasting Meeting
Two pre-conference classes. Three conference days. Eighteen industry presentations. Forty-nine companies. Sixty-nine attendees. These are…
Five Ways to Be More Resourceful This Earth Day
At Itron, we’re all about resourcefulness. Our technology connects people, devices and insights to better manage energy and water resources, all…
DistribuTECH 2019: The Full Itron Experience
Participating in the Itron Experience strengthened my understanding of Itron’s vision for smart cities—and provided an important visualization of…
Innovation in the Age of ‘Smart’ Tech
Recently, I had the honor of speaking at the National Governors Association (NGA) winter meeting. For those who are unfamiliar with the NGA, it is a…
Developing Net Load Uncertainty Forecasts to Support System Operations
Today, the deep penetration of renewable generation resources system operators are requiring new tools to place reasonable confidence bands around…
Empowering the Next Generation
I became a Girl Scout when I was 9 years old, and I was an active volunteer when my two daughters were Girl Scouts. In 2011, I was fortunate to join…
It’s All the Same, Only the Names Will Change
Last year, Itron was contracted by a small utility (about 11,000 customers) to construct a 10-year-ahead load forecast for capacity planning. I was…
Smarter States, Smarter Communities
Itron President and CEO Philip Mezey recently spoke to the importance of creating smarter communities at two national conferences: the National…
Bringing Innovation to Life: Caltech’s FLOW Rocket Fund
Itron is proud to be a corporate sponsor of the FLOW Rocket Fund at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which is now accepting…
Capped vs. Uncapped Degree Days
In energy modeling, we often utilize spline variables to capture the non-linear relationship between consumption and temperature. These variables…
DistribuTECH Insights: Blockchain in Energy and Intelligent Streetlights
The last day of DistribuTECH 2019 last week prompted an engaging discussion about the impact of IoT and blockchain on current and future energy…
Itron Idea Labs at the Cleantech Open Global Forum
I recently represented Itron Idea Labs at the Cleantech Open Global Forum held in Los Angeles at LACI, the Itron-sponsored Los Angeles Cleantech…
Leveraging a Waterfall Approach to Explain the Load Forecast
Our first brown bag seminar of the year is entitled “Leveraging a Waterfall Approach to Explain the Load Forecast”. This session introduces a…
The Importance of Grid Reliability
While we enjoyed balmy weather at DistribuTECH 2019 in New Orleans this week, the recent polar vortex much of the country experienced last week…
Itron and Cisco: Connecting the Dots in Utility & City IIoT Strategies
Itron and Cisco have a long history of working together to revolutionize the utility industry and sharing a vision of what we can achieve together.…
Shaping the Future of Energy: DistribuTECH Day 1 Recap
The Itron team kicked off DistribuTECH yesterday with a compelling welcoming address from Itron President and CEO Philip Mezey on shaping the future…
A Lot of Buzz Around Revenue Assurance at DistribuTECH 2019
Non-technical losses are a major concern for all utilities, and it never ceases to amaze me what some people will do to try to cheat a utility out…
The Itron Experience at DistribuTECH: The Journey Continues
Itron was created by utility executives and engineers who, back in the 1970s, were looking for a better way to collect meter data—one with improved…
Itron at DistribuTECH 2019
Itron will be showcasing its industry leading technology and smart city solutions next week as the premier sponsor of DistribuTECH 2019, the utility…
The Recipe for Smart Cities: How Utilities are Paving the Way for Resourceful Communities
The digital transformation of the utility industry is proceeding apace, with many utilities extending beyond their traditional offerings and…
Itron Named Among World’s Most Sustainable Corporations
Corporate Knights, which includes the business and society magazine Corporate Knights and a research division that produces rankings based on…
Itron and Utilidata to Demo Grid-Edge Meter Application at DistribuTECH 2019
Itron and Utilidata will showcase the power of grid-edge meter applications at DistribuTECH, the utility industry’s leading transmission and…
2019 Forecasting Conferences – Register Today!
The 17th annual Energy Forecasting/EFG Meeting and Training will be hosted in Boston, Massachusetts on April 3-5 with optional one-day training…
Itron Recognized as a Leader for the Sixth Time in 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meter Data Management Products
Itron is excited to announce we have been named a Leader in Gartner Inc.’s Magic Quadrant for Meter Data Management Products [1] for the sixth…
Itron and Blockchain at CES 2019
Itron was among a number of companies highlighting blockchain technology and applications at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019. A…
Drones, Robots and More – Oh My
My first visit to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) left my head spinning – figuratively and literally. To begin with, I was intrigued by the mass…
Sensory Overload: CES 2019
As my first CES event, sensory overload might be a good way to describe my initial visit to the showroom floor. I suppose because I've spent my…
Stranger Things at CES 2019
It is never boring at CES, from a technologies and products point of view. This year, I thought I would pay attention to strange things rather than…
A Consumer’s Perspective – Residential Solar with an Electric Vehicle
Recently, I wrote a blog on residential solar. In it, I mentioned that I needed at least a 6 kW system, but I installed a 7.25 kW system with 25…
A Brighter Future for a Nepali Village
In November, representatives and volunteers from Itron had the great opportunity to travel to Nepal to help with the Mohari Project, a project…
Our Year in Review
At Itron, we are dedicated to creating resourceful communities across the globe with our technology, growing portfolio and community outreach. This…
When Does Humidity Make the Meter Spin?
For anyone that has tried to improve a model by changing the specification, you know it is very much a trial and error process. You create variables…
Bring Your Smart City Solution to Life with Itron
Itron has invited IoT developers to submit their solutions to the inaugural Itron Smart City Challenge. The Smart City Challenge will bring together…
Itron Named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed M2M Services, Worldwide
Itron recently announced that it has been named a Visionary in Gartner Inc.’s Magic Quadrant for Managed M2M Services, Worldwide for the third time.…
A Practitioner’s Guide to Short-term Load Forecast Modeling
Over the years, numerous clients have requested a “recipe book” for building powerful short-term load forecast models. This guide to Short-term Load…
Itron Idea Labs Attends LA CoMotion Leadership Conference
As an entrepreneur-in-residence for Itron Idea Labs, I was excited to be able to represent our organization at the recent LA CoMotion Leadership…
Short-term Load Forecasting: A Practitioner’s Handbook
Our final brown bag seminar of the year—hosted on Tuesday, Dec. 4—is entitled “Short-term Load Forecasting: A Practitioner’s Handbook.” Ever wonder…