JEA has signed a five-year extension of its services agreement with Landis+Gyr for management of the utility's advanced metering network. The new agreement extends the contract from 2016 until 2021.

JEA's advanced metering program for electric and water meters has operated under a managed service agreement with Landis+Gyr since 2001. Under this agreement, Landis+Gyr deploys, maintains and operates the advanced metering network and provides data management services for the utility.

JEA's network collects daily metering data from 730,000 electric and water endpoints. In April of this year, the utility began adding Gridstream infrastructure to its network to provide full two-way communications with endpoint devices. Among other benefits, Gridstream allows the utility to add more energy efficiency and payment options, such as prepaid metering, while enhancing reliability with automated outage detection.

Landis+Gyr offers the option of network and data management services to utilities as part of its smart grid solutions business. The company currently manages advanced meter networks for 20 utilities representing 15 million electric, gas and water meters.

JEA owns and operates the largest community-owned utility in Florida and the eighth largest in the United States. The utility's electric system currently serves more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent counties. JEA's water system serves more than 305,000 water customers and 230,000 sewer customers in Northeast Florida.