PG&E and Itron Expand Collaboration to Enhance Customer Experience and Improve Grid Management with Distributed Intelligence
OAKLAND, Calif. and LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., Feb. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Itron are embarking on the next phase of their collaboration to transform the energy landscape, enhance the customer experience, reduce wildfire risk and create a more reliable and flexible grid. Building on the companies' existing EV Connect collaboration, PG&E is further integrating and deploying Itron's Grid Edge Intelligence solutions to help:
- Make home electrification easier and more affordable for customers
- Reduce operations and maintenance costs by getting more value and performance from its existing electric infrastructure, helping drive down customer rates
- Strengthen its ability to detect and predict grid conditions—reducing wildfire risks and speeding outage response
"This collaboration is about innovating to improve the lives of California's families and businesses," said Mike Delaney, Vice President, Strategy & Innovation, PG&E. "By using grid-edge technology and real-time data, we can make it easier for our customers to charge an EV at home and for us detect potential problems with equipment early, allowing PG&E crews to investigate the issue and prevent outages or wildfires before they happen."
"This collaboration between PG&E and Itron is paving the way for a more resilient and adaptive grid," said Don Reeves, senior vice president, Outcomes at Itron. "By leveraging peer-to-peer communications within our distributed intelligence platform, we're enabling devices to work together locally, making real-time decisions that improve safety, reliability and customer experience. This approach not only accelerates electrification but also empowers utilities to optimize operations and respond faster to changing grid conditions."
Making Customer EV Charging and Home Electrification Easier and More Affordable
Today, many customers who want to install a fast Level 2 EV charger at home require major electrical upgrades first. These upgrades can cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete. Grid edge intelligence changes that.
Using distributed intelligence, Itron grid edge devices can connect directly to a compatible Level 2 charger. The device then automatically adjusts charging speeds based on the home's electrical limits and local grid conditions. This protects the customer's electric panel and helps avoid the need for costly upgrades.
For many customers with smaller panels, especially those under 150 amps, this technology could remove one of the biggest barriers to owning an EV.
While the first use case focuses on EV charging, this program could eventually support other home appliances—like heat pumps or electric water heaters—without requiring panel or service upgrades, helping make home electrification more affordable.
Leveraging distributed intelligence, PG&E and Itron can coordinate energy use inside the home and across the grid. This approach unlocks more value from existing infrastructure and helps customers electrify their homes at a lower cost.
A Smarter, Safer, More Flexible Grid
This strategic collaboration also brings new capabilities that help PG&E operate the grid more safely and efficiently including:
- Real-time grid awareness: Distributed intelligence applications running on Itron's grid edge devices can respond to changes on the grid in less than one second. So, if a tree branch hits a powerline or equipment begins to fail, the device detects the change right away and sends an alert back to PG&E. This gives PG&E a near‑real‑time view of what's happening on the grid, allowing crews to spot issues faster, reduce outage times, and adjust before small problems become bigger disruptions for customers.
- Wildfire mitigation: The devices can capture waveforms and with the distributed intelligence application can identify unusual electrical activity that could signal equipment problems. This early warning helps PG&E investigate and address potential issues sooner, reducing the risk of electrical equipment contributing to wildfires.
- Better load management: The grid edge devices help PG&E better balance electricity demand as more customers adopt EVs, heat pumps, and other electric technologies. By using data to provide more granular visibility, PG&E can optimize its existing grid assets and limit the need for additional grid upgrades—helping to keep costs down and maintain reliable service over time.
A Collaboration Built for Innovation and Scale
PG&E intends to install up to 1,000 new Itron devices through 2026 with plans for scaling to hundreds of thousands of devices. These deployments will help shape PG&E's long-term advanced metering infrastructure plans.
This collaboration is partially funded through PG&E's electric R&D budget under the public purpose program Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC). EPIC enables California investor-owned utilities to demonstrate new technologies and evaluate how they support safety, reliability and affordability, environmental sustainability and equity objectives for the benefit of all California electric customers. For more information about PG&E's R&D and innovation efforts, visit www.pge.com/innovation.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than sixteen million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
About Itron
Itron is transforming how the world manages energy, water and city services. Our trusted intelligent infrastructure solutions help utilities and cities improve efficiency, build resilience and deliver safe, reliable and affordable service. With edge intelligence, we connect people, data insights and devices so communities can better manage the essential resources they rely on to live and thrive. Join us as we create a more resourceful world: www.itron.com.
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