Ambient urges collaboration in smart grids

Ambient Corporation announced today it has signed a memorandum of understanding with meter manufacturer Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) to integrate Itron’s smart grid and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) services with its smart grid communications platform. The combination of the two companies will offer a complete suite of smart grid functionality for the utility industry, but it’s just one of many partnerships that Ambient has planned, according to President and Chief Executive Officer John Joyce.

“The way I see this is that Ambient has been working on this communication backbone, which is a non-proprietary, high-bandwidth network that enables advanced metering, so we have in the past worked with other advanced metering companies, and we look forward to working with others as well,” Joyce said.

Ambient’s latest agreement with Itron will integrate Itron’s AMI application for the smart grid, called OpenWay, with Ambient’s standard-based smart grid equipment and technology to connect legacy equipment and advanced smart energy apps to the nation’s power grid. Itron’s AMI is currently in use in both consumer and commercial deployments for energy and water utilities. The company serves 8,000 utilities worldwide with products ranging from electricity, gas, water and heat meters to data collection and communications systems to AMI and automated meter reading (AMR).

As many utilities with AMI already in place look to build out smart grid capabilities, they have experienced pushback from their state regulators on the stranded assets they already made available to their customer base, Joyce said. Partnering with Ambient will enable Itron to pull those older meters already in place onto the smart grid platform, thus not leaving them stranded, and give utilities and their states the opportunity to move from advanced metering to smart grids, he said.

According to Joyce, state regulators are looking for the utilities to submit proposals for obtaining regulatory approval to do smart-grid pilots in anticipation of federal funding. That being said, not all utilities are waiting for the stimulus funds. For example, Ambient works with gas and electricity provider Duke Energy, which has already received approval from the state of Ohio to go beyond pilots and build out its smart grid platform. He anticipates that the stimulus funds will only further drive utilities to move from smart metering to entire smart-grid launches.

“You might have many utilities planning on receiving those funds before proceeding, but there is a great deal of interest,” Joyce said. “There is no doubt the stimulus package will help to support the buildout of smart-grid platforms, and many state utilities and regulators are looking to how that will play out in the next few months.”