A good app may be worth $30,000 in prize money. And Spokane-area Itron Inc. is taking part in a nationwide effort to find and reward the best apps that use and analyze energy use.

Let's do a daily-double, compliments of Itron Inc.  Yesterday we mentioned its role in a smart grid test back in the Northeast and we published its year-end earnings report here.

Today it's about its Smart Meters and other efforts to make them a bit smarter.

Itron announced it's spending $100 million to acquire a Mississippi tech company, SmartSynch.

The key detail is that SmartSynch has done a solid job of using existing cellular communications into utility networks. As utilities develop reliable networks that move data back and forth, from customers to distribution centers, the need for consistent and affordable communications becomes central.

SmartSynch does that. Here's a summary from SmartSynch.com about how its system works with smart meters: “SmartSynch's SmartMeter System facilitates two-way wireless communication with each meter, making continuously updated information available to utilities and their customers. All components of the SmartMeter are encased under the glass of the meter.”

Itron has used wireless connectivity to its meters for years. We need to ask: what does SmartSynch offer that's $100 million better than the system Itron has been using?

And as the second half of today's deal: Here is a video that shows how Itron's South Carolina company makes the OpenWay meter, Itron's workhorse smart meter.

Source: this video was produced by the Discovery Channel for it's How It's Made TV series.

Itron Inc.'s board brought back retired CEO LeRoy Nosbaum this year  in part to help correct the company's plunging stock price over the past 14 months.

Despite kinda scary 3Q earnings (see below for details), Nosbaum has begun to fix that issue.

The publicly traded stock gained more than $3 on Wednesday after Itron officials announced tghey will undertake a massive restructuring. It will close six production sites, most of them in Europe and Latin America. One unidentified US site will also be closed and one in Asia as well.

Layoffs will be either in the closed production sites or seven other facilities that will downsize.

At the same time, the goal is to increase overall production capacity by consolidating work and investing money in new technology at other key production sites, said Barbara Doyle, vice president of investor relations for Itron.

“We will move work to other sites and actually be adding workers to provide more production capacity” than Itron now has, Doyle said. She said the increased production will come online in 2013.

The sites to be shut down in Europe include some acquired by Itron in 2007 when it bought Brussels-based Actaris Metering Systems.

Barbara Doyle is the new vice president of investor relations at Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake company announced Monday.

She has more than 10 years of investor relations experience in the tech industry, serving recently as VP  of investor relations at Lawson Software, Inc., a global provider of enterprise software that was acquired recently by Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm.

She has several years of experience working with IBM as well, in the areas of budgeting and planning, business development and controllership before moving into the investor relations group in 2000.

She has an MBA from Duke University.

The SR posted this story a few minutes ago, announcing the return of former CEO LeRoy Nosbaum, to the same job at Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc.

Itron has a strong presence in many overseas markets, particularly in Europe and in parts of Asia.

The Liberty Lake utilities technology provider on Tuesday announced it's made a major water meter sale in India.

Larsen & Toubro, one of the biggest construction firms in India, will supply Itron's residential water meters as part of an infrastructure upgrade project in Delhi.

Itron is providing 250,000 water meters to accurately measure water usage in the metropolitan area—the largest water contract for Itron in India to date. One of the main Delhi water utilities is Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

An Itron release noted that water customers in Delhi are traditionally charged for water service on an estimated average basis, not on actual consumption.

The utility estimates more than 60 percent of metro water connections are either unmetered or have defective meters installed, resulting in major losses and waste across the entire Delhi metro area, the release said.

DJB is embarking on a phased upgrade to provide better monitoring and oversight of  water consumption while improving the overall efficiency of water supply, and ensuring water loss is minimized.

The press release also said: “This contract strengthens Itron's presence in Delhi as this project follows an earlier one of which 100,000 water meters were delivered to DJB.”

Itron Inc. Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Unsworth and other officials from the Liberty Lake company will ring in the start of NASDSAQ trading Wednesday.

The ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite Studio in Times Square, New York City, can be viewed at 6:15 a.m. at http://www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx

Itron has scehculed its Investor Day for analysts and investors Thursday at the Roosevelt Hotel.

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Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake provider of products and services for the utility industry, announced Monday it's reorganizing into two divisions, to move the company to faster, more efficient growth.

Itron will now have two divisions, one for energy, the second for water.

Philip Mezey will become president and chief operating officer—Energy. Marcel Regnier will become president and chief operating officer—Water.

A company release offered this statement: “This new alignment provides a deeper focus on solving Itron’s customers’ critical business challenges through technology investments and global best-practices. Itron’s ability to successfully deliver across many markets reinforces its competitive position.”

Malcolm Unsworth, Itron’s president and CEO, said in the statement: “This reorganization gives us more agility to execute on our vision for the company, which includes growing revenue, expanding our global presence, broadening our product portfolio and streamlining ouroperations.

The goal, he noted, was unifying back-office IT and financial systems and looking for ways to lower operating expenses.

Wednesday turned into a big day for Itron news. The Liberty Lake maker of smart devices and meter solutions for utilities reported record quarterly and nine-month sales.

It also announced it signed deals with the Indonesian state-owned electric power utility, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, to provide 800,000 smart payment meters to the Java Bali region.

The release said those meters will be provided by the end of the year; with a few months left, one wonders if most of those are already deployed.

In Indonesia, power payments are unlike what we do in this country. Instead of getting a monthly bill for consumption, many locations in Indonesia — some of which are semi-rural — rely on a different metering system.

With the new Itron-provided keypad, consumers pay for future energy by entering a 20-digit code which credits the equivalent kWh onto the meter. The credit can be purchased by consumers from a supply authority or approved vendor.

Did it make any difference when Itron Inc. CEO and President Malcolm Unsworth met with President Barack Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony last week?

The Itron stock symbol seems to tell the story.On Friday morning, April 30, Itron shares opened at $80.45. That morning Unsworth, with two Itron manufacturing workers, met Obama and listened as the president praised efforts by U.S. firms like Itron in helping meet the pressing needs of a more efficient electric grid.

At 11:40 a.m., shortly after the White House event, shares of Itron hit their recent high point, at $81.75. That’s the high price point over the past two years.

Since then the Itron share price has slid southward. As of today, it’s trading at $75 and change. To see the earlier Office Hours blog entry on the Rose Garden event, it’s here.

Deloris Duquette, who is vice president for sales development and operations at Liberty Lake-based Itron, said the real reason for the spike was the April 28 Q1 financial results.

“We released earnings after the market closed on the 28th and beat expectations by quite a bit and saw a (roughly) $5 uptick in the price on the 29th on very heavy volume.”

Right after the earnings report, the Thursday and Friday total volumes of shares traded also soared to more than one million shares, Duquette pointed out.

Seattle-based McKinstry, a major company in the design, build and management of energy efficient facilities, said it’s purchased the Enterprise Energy Management Suite of software services from Spokane’s Itron Inc.

The goal is using the technology to help integrate smart-grid planning into the other services McKinstry offers, the company CEO, Dean Allen, said in a release.

The Web-based EEM Suite is described as an integrating software platform that collects utility-related data (billing, energy use, times of highest consumption) so that owners and managers can better plan water and energy use. No sales price was disclosed.

McKinstry has an office in Spokane.