Itron, Siemens, Verizon instrumental in utility water usage program

Verizon has teamed up with CH2M Hill, Itron and Siemens to work with Envision Charlotte and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility Department (CMUD) on a public-private initiative that leverages sustainability for economic growth as a model for all communities. The initiative involves the launch of a water measurement and efficiency program called Smart Water Now. Smart Water Now comes of the heels of a similar and successful program, Smart Energy Now.

The program will aggregate information on the city's total uptown usage, which will be used to establish awareness and prompt action to lower operational costs, improve sustainability and engage occupants. CH2M hill will manage the project. Verizon will gather the water usage data from an M2M network of devices and transport real-time information utilizing its 4G LTE network. Itron is providing water communication modules, the network infrastructure, cloud services and data aggregation. Siemens is providing project support.

The program should be in place in the fall of 2012.

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