Verizon has announced Grid Wide Utility Solutions, a new Internet of Things (IoT) platform that provides utility companies with an integrated system for smart metering, demand response, meter data management and distribution monitoring and control.
Grid Wide comes with a range of cloud-based applications intended to help utility companies drive incremental revenue, reduce operating costs, increase efficiency and improve customer experience.
According to industry estimates, at least 60 percent of utility companies only become aware of outages as a result of customer notifications. With Grid Wide, the utility’s smart meter communicates its meter data over Verizon’s wireless network, through Verizon’s private network and then to Verizon’s cloud environment. Pre-configured data and analytics dashboards then provide timely information regarding outages and abnormal usage patterns.
Grid Wide enables utilities to solve their problem areas on a per-month, per-meter cost basis rather than needing to change out their entire meter population, Verizon said.
