Arkansas city Fort Smith to modernise water infrastructure with Itron’s solution

Fort Smith, a city of Arkansas, has announced its plans to modernise its water infrastructure with Itron’s OpenWay Riva smart water solution over the next two years.

Itron’s water communication modules will replace the city’s aging water infrastructure, almost 50% of which have exceeded normal life expectancy.

With the modules, the city will secure access to daily and hourly interval data for increased billing accuracy, decreased operational expense and better customer service.

Fort Smith will make use of Itron’s OpenWay Riva technology to upgrade its aging infrastructure. The city will deploy water communication modules and new meters to boost meter reading efficiency and lower operational costs.

The modules will enable the utility to gain access to detailed meter data, which will allow improved visibility into its operations.

Further, the modules also give the city the flexibility to automate meter reading today and prepare for tomorrow and the ability to expand the scope of system to include a multi-purpose network for smart water and smart city applications.

Fort Smith supervisor of metering Danny Kelley said: “With Itron’s solution, we will be able to streamline operational processes, reduce costs and enhance water usage visibility with detailed meter data.

“Itron’s experience in the water industry, focus on customer needs and continuous drive to create solutions that address key challenges in the industry gives us confidence in this solution.”

Itron’s Water business line president Gavin van Tonder said: “With Itron, Fort Smith will take advantage of mobile data collection to improve reliability for its customers today with the opportunity to easily migrate to a multi-purpose network to support smart utility and city applications in the future.

“We are excited to work with the City of Fort Smith to improve water infrastructure to provide safer, more efficient water delivery to customers.”