Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc. has signed a contract with East Coast utility Nation Grid to help that company with its meter reading capabilities.

Based in London and doing business in three northeastern U.S. states—New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island—National Grid provides utility service to more than 20 million customers, says Alison Mallahan, a senior public relations manager at Itron.

Terms of the contract weren’t disclosed as part of the agreement, Mallahan says.

Deployment of Itron’s “Wholesale Settlement Solution” at National Grid will begin soon. Itron has developed software designed specifically for National Grid that will help the utility automate data aggregation, calculation, and Independent System Operator reporting, she says.

National Grid is faced with the challenge of reporting to both the New York Independent System Operator and the Independent System Operator New England, according to an Itron press release.

Itron’s software centralizes the collection, processing, storage, and analysis of smart device data, device events, and alarms.

“The wholesale settlement solution will equip National Grid to meet regulatory obligations with each Independent System Operator, while avoiding manual intervention,” Itron’s senior vice president of outcomes Don Reeves says in a release.

To enable National Grid to settle all energy transactions across its 5,000 wholesale settlement points, Itron developed a software module to enable the utility to meet its wholesale settlement requirements.

Mallahan says energy settlement is the process of reconciling the differences between actual energy consumption and contracted energy generation.

In the context of wholesale, the settlement points are the generation facilities.

“We are capturing the load that was generated, or the load that crosses territories within the grid,” Mallahan says.

The software also is equipped with a user interface that will allow National Grid to customize parameters and monitor key activities.

Itron, a spinoff of Spokane-based Avista Corp., formerly Washington Water Power Co., was founded in 1977. Headquartered at 2111 N. Molter, the company has 474 employees in Spokane County, as of Nov. 1.

At close of business on Dec. 15, Itron’s stock (NASDAQ: ITRI) was trading at $87.59 a share, near its 52-week high of $88.32 a share and well above a 52-week low of $40.48.