We are happy to be a part of this year's Utility Week on October 14-21 in Orlando, Florida, since Cisco has been a partner with Itron for many years.This year's theme ofResourceful Solutionsfocuses on how to make the most out of what we have. Now more than ever utilities recognize the relationship with their communities and how the vital resources they provide such as water and electricity are being utilized while delivering customers more efficient service.

Utilities are being increasingly challenged with the transition to a more distributed system that includes renewables, while also keeping electricity affordable for customers. These challenges are nothing new for utilities who often have to deal with multiple disparate systems. Past solutions lacked the visibility and efficiency needed to deliver on promising solutions like AMI, Distribution Automation, and DER, etc.

The communication network soon became the catalyst to enableresourceful solutions. Now utilities can securely access data in real time with technologies like fog computing that allow the processing of data in the field. This drives better monitoring, analysis, and control while driving more efficiency across current infrastructure.

Cisco and Itron have demonstrated how the network underpins the solutions in our work with BC Hydro.

The solutions here featured the deployment of an open standards based mesh FAN network that manages automated metering infrastructure (AMI), distribution automation (DA), and other grid based applications. As more intelligent devices connect to the network, assets can be managed more effectively to increase productivity while improving life cycle management in the field.

If you are in Orlando, join our break out sessions where we'll be discussing emerging technologies, security, and network solutions.

Learn more about Cisco's Connected Grid solutions here: