Itron Inc. has signed a comprehensive automated meter reading (AMR) contract with Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (Montana-Dakota) for approximately 277,000 electric and gas meters in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. The contract includes Itron solid-state electric meters, gas AMR modules, Itron Fixed Network 2.0, mobile data collectors, Itron Enterprise Edition Meter Data Management software solutions, project management and installation services.
Montana-Dakota has chosen to deploy Itron’s integrated AMR solution to improve customer service and reduce operating costs. In addition to the fixed-network system, Montana-Dakota is implementing Itron’s Meter Data Management (MDM) software enterprise-wide to provide enhanced data analysis and to provide flexibility for future system changes. As a long time customer, Montana-Dakota has used Itron’s handheld meter reading and offsite meter reading (OMR) systems for years. The utility will now saturate the majority of their meters with AMR technology and use Itron mobile AMR and Fixed Network systems to read those meters. In addition to cost-effective and accurate meter reading, Montana-Dakota is deploying fixed-network technology for outage management capabilities and off-cycle reads to enhance customer service.
“We were looking for an advanced fixed network system that featured a flexible and economic design that allows for future growth,” said Bruce Imsdahl, president and CEO of Montana-Dakota. “We also wanted to deploy meter data management software to take full advantage of the detailed data provided by that network and use it across our organization.”
Itron’s end-to-end solutions include solid-state electric meters and gas meter modules to back office software to support, data analysis and outage management. Because Montana-Dakota’s service territory covers such extensive terrain and rural/urban service areas, Montana-Dakota chose to implement the most economic data collection method for each area.
