Utility and industry participants striving to improve energy resourcefulness through edge intelligence-enabled applications

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce Tampa Electric Company (TEC) and Warren County Water District, Simpson County District, and Butler County Water System as recipients of its seventh annual Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards in collaboration with Itron. The awards, which were presented today at Itron Inspire 2022, recognize utilities and municipalities using innovative products and services to minimize electric, gas, and water waste.

Winner in the energy category, Tampa Electric Company has taken a highly strategic and methodical approach to executing a successful transition to clean energy. For example, TEC's Energy Planner Program is an automated price-based demand response program. These technologies consist of Itron's Gen™X load control switch, IntelliSOURCE^® Enterprise^™, and smart metering solutions. Customers can expect to see as high as 10 percent of savings on their electric bill while allowing the utility to shed as much as 3.1 kW during winter peak and 2.0 kW during summer peak since 2008.

"Parallel to this highly successful program, Tampa Electric Company is investing in the future by monetizing its $500 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) investment further by rolling out outcome-oriented distributed intelligence applications from Itron aimed at decarbonization and climate resiliency. All the apps are powered by distributed intelligence, which allows Tampa Electric Company to effectively use real-time data at the edge," noted Farah Saeed, Research | Director Energy & Environment Growth Advisory at Frost & Sullivan. "Roll out of these highly sophisticated IoT systems requires collaborating with a highly innovative technology solution provider such as Itron that not only has many decades of grid modernization projects under its belt but also holds the highest number of peer and customer recognized IoT-enabled platforms."

Winner in the water category, three counties in Kentucky comprising 40,800 residential, agricultural, commercial, and industrial customers throughout 2,110 miles of distribution main – Warren County Water District, Simpson County District, and Butler County Water – joined forces to improve water resourcefulness. According to a report produced by Kentucky Water Resource Information system (WRIS), non-revenue water loss in the state was about 24% in 2018, by far exceeding the national average of 16 percent. Causes for this level of loss consisted of water main breaks and leaks, inaccurate meter reads, and water line flushing, among other issues. To address this problem, the counties deployed automated meter readings (AMR) and AMI across their territories. 

"Parallel to this project, WSB also installed 13,600 Itron acoustic leak sensors that are seamlessly integrated with the AMR and AMI system," Saeed stated. "Since the commencement of this project, the three counties combined have been able to detect 371 leaks (equivalent to 76 million gallons of water) and have been able to notify 916 customers about leakage problems at the customer end. These would have otherwise gone undetected without investments in AMR and AMI. In return, savings from non-revenue water can used for financing further infrastructure development that will serve the community as a whole."

As part of the selection process, Frost & Sullivan conducted in-depth research and interviews and evaluated utilities against industry best practices and the decision criteria, including societal impact and business impact for each category. Indicators for societal impact included improving customer awareness and participation, enabling behavioral change to reduce waste through customer engagement and technology-driven programs, and yielding impressive waste reduction results that benefit the overall served community. Indicators for business impact included drafting a clear vision to address excessive waste through technology implementation, achieving operational effectiveness as a result of a successful strategy for sustainability, and strengthening a utility's brand image as a leader for sustainability.

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Contact:

Nicole Ryder
Corporate Communications
E: [email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan