Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of energy-management equipment and systems, says Southern California Gas Co. will install nearly 1.5 million of Itron's natural gas meters and more than 600,000 of its gas regulators.

Southern California Gas, often referred to as SoCalGas, will use the Itron equipment as part of the utility's multiyear program to build advanced metering infrastructure.

Itron spokeswoman Alison Mallahan says the company declines to disclose the value of its contract with SoCalGas. The utility plans to install the meters beginning in the fourth quarter of 2012, Mallahan says.

Mallahan says the Itron meters will replace older meters in SoCalGas' service territory.

The contract includes a minimum of 1.2 million residential gas meters, 200,000 residential curb meters, and 50,000 light commercial meters for measurement of gas usage.

It also involves 500,000 regulators and 105,000 regulators that are located along with gas meters in curbs outside a structure. Gas regulators are safety devices for reducing gas pressure from the line coming from the street to a lower pressure for the home

Itron designed the meters and regulators for curb locations to meet SoCalGas' specifications. She adds that in areas of larger cities, curb meters along with regulators are installed under sidewalks with metal plates over them. Itron developed an improved design for the curb meters, she says.

In 2010, SoCalGas announced that the California Public Utilities Commission approved $1.05 billion for the utility's advanced metering infrastructure program from 2010 through 2017. Under the program, SoCalGas reported plans for replacing and retrofitting an estimated 6 million natural gas meters with wireless communication modules throughout its service territory beginning in 2012.

SoCalGas claims in its documents to be the nation's largest natural gas distribution utility, providing service to 20.9 million consumers connected through nearly 5.8 million meters in more than 500 communities. The company's service territory covers about 20,000 square miles throughout Central and Southern California, from Visalia to the Mexican border.