Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI 2.0) brings together a growing set of use cases, including meter reading, firmware management, distributed intelligence (DI), and grid operations, each with different performance and service level expectations. Cellular networks and AMI 2.0 headends provide a rich set of Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic management capabilities that enable traffic differentiation and prioritization. These mechanisms form an important foundation for supporting AMI 2.0 communications at scale, and understanding how to apply them effectively is a key part of designing networks that deliver predictable behavior across diverse utility applications. This session presents an architectural view of how cellular QoS and application layer traffic orchestration can be used together to make efficient use of network resources while meeting the service level requirements of AMI 2.0 use cases

Utilities have invested heavily in communications networks to support metering and grid operations. But what if that same infrastructure could deliver value beyond the meter?

Join industry experts as they explore how AMI communications networks are being leveraged to support connected safety applications that help protect workers, improve situational awareness, and strengthen operational response. Through real-world examples and deployment insights, attendees will learn how utilities can extend the value of existing network investments to support lone worker monitoring, emergency response, field visibility, and other critical safety initiatives.

This session will examine the technology, business considerations, and lessons learned involved in expanding AMI infrastructure beyond traditional metering use cases, while demonstrating how utilities can improve safety outcomes, enhance operational efficiency, and maximize the return on their communications investments.

Attendees will leave with practical insights into how connected safety solutions can become a natural extension of a utility's broader AMI and digital transformation strategy.

The future of the grid edge won't be defined by a single technology, vendor, or standard, but by how effectively the industry works together to make them interoperable.

Join representatives from GEISA, OMA, and Itron for a discussion on the evolving standards landscape and the collaboration required to advance grid edge interoperability. Explore how industry initiatives are working together to address utility needs, where progress is being made, and what challenges remain.

Learn how emerging standards can support scalable grid edge solutions, why cooperation across standards organizations is essential, and what utilities should consider as they plan for the next generation of grid modernization efforts.

Join utility leaders from Southwest Gas, Peoples Gas, and Spire for an interactive panel discussion on how utilities are evaluating, prioritizing, and justifying investments in Gas Edge technologies. Hear firsthand perspectives on connecting safety, operational efficiency, methane management, and gas system modernization to measurable business outcomes.

Panelists will share lessons learned, challenges encountered, and strategies for gaining stakeholder support, securing funding, and demonstrating long-term value. Learn how leading utilities are positioning Gas Edge investments to reduce risk, improve operational performance, and support evolving regulatory, infrastructure, and customer expectations.

Attendees will leave with practical insights and real-world examples to help strengthen the business case for Gas Edge initiatives within their own organizations.

Join a panel of utility leaders as they discuss how they built support for smart water investments within their organizations. This interactive discussion will explore how utilities are defining value, prioritizing investments, navigating funding and risk, and gaining stakeholder buy-in.

Panelists will share candid lessons learned, including what worked, what didn't, and how they connected operational benefits such as water loss reduction, improved asset visibility, operational efficiency, and customer engagement to a compelling and fundable business strategy.

Attendees will leave with practical insights and real-world examples to help strengthen the business case for smart water initiatives at their own organizations.

Utilities own thousands of streetlights across their service territories—an everyday asset hiding in plain sight. What if that same infrastructure could close one of the most persistent visibility gaps at the grid edge?

Join this utility leadership panel as we build the case for transforming streetlights into a powerful new layer of grid intelligence. AMI has unlocked tremendous value at the meter, but blind spots remain between the meter and the substation—right where extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and rising reliability expectations are hitting hardest.

Hear directly from utility leaders on how Networked Lighting Controllers (NLCs), deployed as Grid Edge sensors, turn existing streetlights into a real-time source of voltage anomaly detection, early outage indication, hyperlocal weather, and sharper situational awareness. The takeaway: a practical, low-cost path to a more reliable, resilient grid—and smarter, safer cities - built on assets you already own.

Delivering a UIQ AMI Head‑End System is complex under any conditions—but doing so alongside a major SAP S/4HANA CIS upgrade significantly heightens integration and delivery risk. Eversource is addressing this challenge by implementing a greenfield UIQ AMI integration framework designed to remain stable, scalable, and secure despite overlapping timelines, shared resources, and regulatory constraints.

This session highlights how Eversource advanced UIQ AMI integration blueprinting, design, and data governance while CIS SMEs remained focused on CIS delivery. Attendees will learn practical strategies such as reusable integration patterns, phased rollout of high‑risk interfaces, and early cross‑system dependency alignment. Eversource will also share lessons learned and early outcomes, including improved data quality, reduced manual workarounds, and more predictable delivery of UIQ AMI integration milestones.

Deploying AMI is only the beginning. The real value comes from how utilities use the technology to improve operations, enhance customer service, and drive measurable business outcomes.

Join Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) as they share their modernization journey following the deployment of a unified AMI platform across electric, water, and gas operations. Learn how the utility navigated implementation challenges, streamlined business processes, and transformed AMI data into actionable insights across the organization.

The session will explore key lessons learned, operational and organizational changes required to maximize value, and the measurable benefits achieved in areas such as efficiency, customer engagement, system visibility, and financial performance. Attendees will also hear how GRU is leveraging its AMI investment as a foundation for future innovation and smarter utility operations.

Whether you're planning an AMI deployment, in the middle of an implementation, or looking to maximize the value of an existing system, this session will provide practical insights from a utility that is turning modernization goals into measurable results.

What does it take to move from a promising AMI proof of concept to a practical deployment strategy?

Join Southwest Gas as they share their journey from an SBAP demonstration project to evaluating a scalable hybrid AMI approach. This session will explore how the utility assessed technology performance, validated business value, and translated pilot results into a long-term modernization strategy.

Attendees will gain insight into the lessons learned during field testing, key deployment considerations, and the tradeoffs involved in balancing network coverage, operational requirements, customer needs, and future scalability. The discussion will also highlight how Southwest Gas is using real-world data and experience to shape its path forward, improve system visibility, increase operational efficiency, and build a flexible foundation for the next generation of gas operations.

Whether you're just beginning to evaluate AMI or planning your next phase of deployment, this session offers practical guidance on turning pilot programs into actionable modernization plans.

This session is dedicated to Itron’s Gen5 Riva solutions and products for utility customers. It provides a forum for open, collaborative discussions where customers can share key use cases, address operational challenges, and identify improvements and best practices for the Gen5 Riva endpoint. 

These conversations foster peer support across the utility community and offer valuable input that helps guide the evolution of Itron’s future products and solutions.

 Key Topics:

• Product Roadmap Update
• Open Discussion

Utility priorities are changing. As resiliency, grid modernization and operational efficiency take center stage, utilities are looking for new ways to gain visibility into parts of the distribution network that traditional grid assets can't see. In this session, discover how Itron's Grid Edge Lighting solution transforms streetlight infrastructure into a strategic source of grid intelligence. Learn how Networked Lighting Controllers (NLCs) can provide metrology, outage insights, location awareness, environmental sensing, and AMI network expansion—all while continuing to support lighting operations. Explore how utilities, municipalities and cooperatives are leveraging existing lighting infrastructure to improve grid visibility, strengthen resiliency and unlock additional value from their AMI investments. Specific use cases discussed will include outage monitoring, grid weatherization hardening, etc.

Join utility leaders from Fort Wayne City Utilities, DC Water, and Jacobs for a panel discussion on the realities of deploying AMI in complex urban environments. Indoor installations, challenging RF conditions, and hard-to-reach locations can expose the limitations of traditional network designs, making hybrid approaches increasingly important.

Panelists will share firsthand experiences with hybrid AMI deployments that combine fixed-network and cellular communications to improve coverage, reliability, and operational performance. Hear what worked, what didn't, and the lessons learned along the way. The discussion will explore deployment strategies, network design considerations, operational impacts, and how utilities can balance multiple connectivity options to support long-term scalability and success.

Whether you're planning an AMI deployment or looking to optimize an existing network, you'll gain practical insights from organizations that are navigating these challenges in the field today.

Utilities face growing pressure to build resilient, flexible AMI systems amid supply chain risk, energy transition demands, and workforce constraints. This session explores how open standards—specifically DLMS/COSEM GCPs—enable real, production ready interoperable and consistent meter to cash operations across multi vendor environments. Attendees will learn how meter choice and diversity reduce risk, avoid vendor lock in, and maximize AMI investments, and how Itron’s vendor agnostic Meter Integration Service turns standards into scalable, real world outcomes.