Itron announced partnership with New Cosmos Electric (New Cosmos), a supplier of gas detection equipment, to improve gas safety for utilities with methane detectors from New Cosmos.
Through Itron’s developer program, New Cosmos was able to incorporate the Milli 5 communications technology into its methane detector and integrate into Itron’s multi-application utility network to improve safety for natural gas utilities.
New Cosmos’ battery-powered methane detectors, which will be deployed by a northeastern utility, are equipped to take advantage of the utility’s existing Itron network to provide greater safety to customers.
Enabling greater awareness of potential problems in the gas distribution system, the methane detectors can identify gas leaks and communicate to the network remotely from a utility’s command center.
“With our methane detectors, utilities will be able to detect natural gas leaks in their territory and respond quickly to mitigate potential problems,” said Yoshinori Nishiue, senior director of engineering at New Cosmos.
“This project is a great example of the power of our developer program. New Cosmos was able to integrate our communication technology with its methane detector to connect this potentially life-saving technology to our network,” said Todd Thayer, technology partner enablement executive at Itron.