CenterPoint Energy has successfully completed a field test of Itron’s OpenWay advanced metering technology.

CenterPoint Energy deployed approximately 10,000 new OpenWay CENTRON solid-state meters in its service territory this past spring and tested the system’s performance and reliability against a variety of benchmarks and functionality requirements in an operational environment.

“We evaluated the OpenWay system in a real-world environment and we’re pleased with the system’s performance,” said Tom Standish, group president for regulated operations at CenterPoint Energy. “This test was an important step toward a potential larger deployment of this technology in our service territory.”

OpenWay by Itron is a highly adaptable, open-architecture AMI solution that features full-two way communication to every meter and is designed to meet the broad set of advanced metering, communication and control technology requirements that utilities will face in the years to come.

In its field test of OpenWay, CenterPoint Energy focused on several capabilities and requirements central to the utility’s advanced metering evaluation. Those requirements included:

• The ability to deliver 15-minute interval data and on-demand reads from every meter
• The ability to maintain very high overall system read reliability
• Load-limiting remote disconnect and reconnect functionality for each meter
• The ability to remotely download new firmware to each meter
• ZigBee home area network communication with other meters, smart thermostats and load control devices to support energy efficiency and demand response applications .