Itron Inc. announced that City of Baltimore (Md.)’s board of estimates has awarded Itron the contract for its advanced metering infrastructure and water meter system installation program. The program will upgrade the city of Baltimore and Baltimore County’s water metering infrastructure with the goal of improving customer service and billing accuracy for all of the bureau’s water customers. Baltimore City’s Bureau of Water and Wastewater is the supplier of water to 1.8 million people in the Baltimore Metro Area.
Baltimore aims to improve customer service through the elimination of estimated bills, better management of billing disputes and provision of accurate and timely water-use information to customers so that they might better regulate their own water consumption. It will also streamline operations through the elimination of the bureau’s manual meter reading process.
As a part of the contract, Itron will provide its advanced water metering solution, including fixed network architecture, more than 400,000 water communication modules, Itron Analytics and network software. Itron will also provide its mobile collection system for use in rural areas of Baltimore County. The technology will be installed over a three-year period.
“Itron’s technology will help us meet our main program objectives of improved customer service, improved water meter accuracy and elimination of manual meter reading,” said Rudy Chow, deputy director of Public Works and head of the Bureau of Water and Wastewater.
