Glendale Water & Power has announced the award of a $4.2 million contract to Utility Partners of America to replace existing electric and water meters with smart meters for GWP customers starting this year.

Part of GWP’s larger move to a smart grid, smart meters will help customers conserve energy and water by allowing for two-way communication between customers and the utility, and for the first time providing customers with real-time electricity usage data.

UPA, one of the nation’s largest utility service contractors, is scheduled to begin installing smart meters in selected demonstration areas in Glendale this spring. Full-scale installation for all GWP customers is scheduled for late summer/early fall.

UPA will install Itron, Inc.’s OpenWay Smart Grid technology for GWP’s 84,500 electric customers and Itron’s Water SaveSource for 33,400 water customers, plus the wide-area network to facilitate communications between GWP and the individual meters. In addition, UPA will install leak-detecting sensors, also from Itron, that will be used to continuously monitor GWP’s entire water system.

To further support the smart meter initiative, project management and technical support are being provided by KEMA, Inc.