Its products include electricity, gas, water and thermal energy measurement devices and control technology, communications systems, software, as well as managed and consulting services.

Itron, a spinoff of Spokane-based Avista Corp., formerly Washington Water Power Co., was founded in 1977 in Hauser Lake, Idaho when a small group of engineers wanted to build a more efficient way to read utility meters.

[9] Within the same year, Itron and Cisco formed an alliance to deliver Internet Protocol (IP) communications to the smart grid market thus changing networking capabilities for utilities.

Various utilities have worked with Itron to deploy smart meters, advanced communications technology, analytics software and other resource management.

[14] The city of Copenhagen, which sees the heavy use of bicycles, has enlisted Itron's help to deploy traffic management capabilities with its smart streetlight infrastructure.

[15] The city of Paris plans to deploy sensors with its smart streetlights to monitor moisture levels in soil for water conservation.