This November, Public Utilities Fortnightly released its Top Innovators 2019, and recognized the collaboration between Itron, New Cosmos and Con Edison as one of the top innovations of 2019. This year’s Top Innovators recognized nearly 140 innovators from 46 qualifying nominations.

Itron, New Cosmos and Con Edison collaborated to develop and deploy nine thousand battery-powered smart natural gas detectors in New York. The smart devices were developed by New Cosmos with Itron’s Milli™ 5 battery-optimized communications module and operate on Con Edison’s Industrial IoT network from Itron.

Operating on Itron’s secure, standards-based network, the natural gas detector sounds an audible alarm if it detects natural gas in the atmosphere where the device is installed to alert anyone nearby. In the case of a leak, the device will also immediately communicate with the utility, which will respond with a crew(s) and notify the local fire department so they can respond and investigate. The alarm, which includes a voice recording that advises building occupants to evacuate, will continue to sound until the utility silences the unit. Learn more about the deployment in this video.

Itron is honored to be a part of this innovative collaboration with New Cosmos and Con Edison.