All of these opportunities—making our energy and water infrastructure more efficient, more reliable and less wasteful, and making our cities more vibrant, economically viable and sustainable—are within reach once the right technology is applied, in the right places, to approach problems in new ways in the Internet of Things (IoT) age.

At Itron, we call this the Active Grid. It’s much more than smart metering and it’s even more than the smart grid. It encompasses electricity, gas, water and smart cities—and opens up an entirely new frontier for better management of energy and water resources. The Active Grid is a new level of situational awareness that leverages machine to machine communications and learning within the system—whether that’s the electrical grid or gas and water distribution networks. The Active Grid results in better business outcomes for energy and water providers.

There are four key aspects that define the Active Grid:

• Distributed intelligence, which optimizes data analysis, decisions and control—from devices in the field all the way to back office, enabling real-time problem solving.
• Assured connectivity and network reliability through multiple, adaptive communication technologies like radio frequency (RF), power line carrier (PLC), WiFi and cellular.
• An open application ecosystem that enables the development of innovative, new distribution system applications—from a variety of sources and secured to the highest standards.
• A unified, interoperable and multi-purpose network to empower new smart utility and smart city uses and applications.

These technologies come together in Itron’s OpenWay Riva™, an IoT solution for smart utilities and cities. OpenWay Riva enables true interoperability and distributed intelligence, delivering business outcomes for utilities and smart cities like never before—and helping to create a more resourceful world.

Learn more about OpenWay Riva for electricity, gas and water.