The combination will also increase reliability, efficiency and security of the electric grid. The gateway technology will be built upon standards such as distributed network protocol (DNP) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C12.22.
“Digi complements OpenWay by bridging common technology standards toward the advancement of Smart Grid adoption,” said Russ Vanos, Itron vice president of marketing. “We’re thrilled to expand Itron’s growing portfolio of Smart Grid solutions with Digi’s industry-leading expertise in device networking.”
OpenWay is an AMI solution that uses smart electricity meters and advanced two-way communication networks between the utility and each meter. OpenWay features operational efficiency, allows all customers to participate in energy management and conservation, and connects utilities to the Smart Grid.
“Digi’s Drop-in Networking architecture was designed to accommodate a wide range of industry standards,” said Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International. “Leveraging Itron’s standards-based OpenWay solution will further strengthen our ability to establish long-lasting partnerships with utilities, distribution automation equipment providers and applications integrators.”
The Drop-in Networking family of Digi includes the ConnectPort X family of gateways and XBee family of radio modules. This enables the gateway to connect wirelessly to local devices using a wide variety of radio protocols including ZigBee to improve the flexibility of Smart Grid architectures.
