Itron Inc., of Spokane Valley, has landed two new contractsone that involves providing a Kingston, Ontario, municipal utility with automatic meter-reading equipment and one through which it will deploy energy-management software to a Baltimore-based energy company.


Itron declines to disclose the value of the two contracts.


The Ontario contract involves providing Utilities Kingston, which is operated by the city of Kingston, with Itrons fixed-network automatic meter-reading equipment and Centron-brand electricity meters. The system initially will allow the utility to read 1,500 electricity, water, and gas meters with one Itron fixed network, Itron says. Utilities Kingston says it hopes to expand its fixed-network system to cover a total of 27,000 electric meters as well as 34,000 water meters and 14,000 gas meters.


Utilities Kingston is one of five Ontario utilities that have deployed Itrons fixed-network automatic metering technology, Itron says.


Mima Scarpelli, Itrons vice president of investor relations, says Ontario is expected to be a growth area for Itron in the coming years.


Theres a real push driven by the government there to get smart-metering technology in place, Scarpelli says.


The switch to the advanced technology throughout the province is supposed to happen within five years, she says.


Itrons other recent contract is with Constellation NewEnergy, a Baltimore company that provides electricity, natural gas, and energy-related services to commercial and industrial users throughout North America. Through that contract, Itron says it will provide Constellations customers with Itron Customer Care 5.0 software, which is intended to help companies manage their energy usage and costs.


The software generates cost-analysis reports so Constellation NewEnergy customers can compare various rate and demand scenarios. Also, the software tracks and reports energy consumption at multiple sites for customers.