# Keynote Case Study: Itron — Energy Was Becoming Connected, Intelligent and Localized
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Itron brought me in to open its annual leadership meeting with a strategic look at the future of the energy utility sector. The title captured the transition: Connected. Intelligent. Localized. The utility industry had been built around a relatively straightforward architecture. Large centralized generation. A one-way grid. Customers at the end of the system. That model was beginning to change. Renewable energy costs were falling. Battery technology was improving. Microgrids were emerging. Electric vehicles were becoming part of the energy system. Smart-city infrastructure was expanding. Sensors and connectivity were creating real-time visibility across the grid. And consumers were slowly becoming participants in energy production rather than simply buyers of electricity. For Itron, the strategic issue went beyond what utilities were doing. Its customers were changing. That meant what Itron sold had to change as well. The traditional model of selling infrastructure products increasingly gave way to something closer to a service model — an ongoing relationship built around data, intelligence, connectivity and performance. Six themes framed the discussion: Grid Decentralization. Energy generation increasingly moves closer to the customer through distributed solar, storage and local systems. Microgrids. Communities, facilities and campuses gain more ability to manage their own energy generation and resilience. Renewable Acceleration. Falling technology costs continue to reshape the economics of generation. Electric Vehicles. Transportation becomes part of the energy infrastructure, creating new demand and new grid-management challenges. Smart-City Infrastructure. Connected lighting, meters, sensors and municipal systems create new layers of data and service opportunity. The Shift From Product to Service. Utilities and their technology partners increasingly create value through ongoing intelligence, optimization and outcomes. This transition matters because once a product becomes connected, the relationship with the customer changes. A meter is no longer simply a meter. A grid component is no longer simply hardware. A connected device becomes a source of data. Data becomes insight. Insight becomes a service. And service becomes an entirely new business model. That was one of the most important messages I brought to the Itron leadership team. The future of utilities would not simply involve replacing old infrastructure with new infrastructure. It would involve changing the very nature of the system. The grid would become more distributed. More intelligent. More dynamic. More predictive. And increasingly local. For companies that provide technology into that system, the strategic opportunity is significant. But only if they evolve at the same speed as their customers. When the grid changes, every company connected to the grid must change with it.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2019/06/keynote-case-study-itron-energy-was-becoming-connected-intelligent-and-localized/