Every year, Itron Inspire brings together energy and water experts with diverse experiences and challenges, all united by a common goal: building a future of more intelligent, sustainable resource management. This year is no exception. From timely keynote topics and interactive solution demonstrations to engaging breakout sessions and everything in-between, the excitement was evident on day one of our customer-focused event.  

Here are some of the highlights. 

Big Ideas. Bigger Inspiration. 

Day one set the tone with a visionary keynote from Tom Deitrich, president and CEO of Itron, who emphasized the critical role of accurate, real-time data and edge intelligence in enhancing energy and water management. Amid historic demand, aging infrastructure and a quickly digitizing world, utilities need greater visibility across the distribution system and localized control to address their toughest challenges. That’s where grid edge intelligence proves invaluable—enabling orchestration, optimization and real-time decision-making at the grid edge. Combined with industry collaboration and a shared commitment to innovation, these capabilities are paving the way to a more intelligent, resilient and reliable energy future. 

Next, we heard from two leaders at Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), the fourth largest municipal utility in Florida. First, Chad Parker, energy delivery officer at GRU shared lessons learned from the GRU’s transition to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), including the importance of the “three Ps”–partnership, people and persistence—when navigating the challenges of deploying new technology. Then we heard a pre-recorded video message from GRU CEO Ed Bielarski about the utility’s history and journey of transformation.  

Then, Marina Donovan, Itron’s vice president of global marketing, ESG and public affairs, led a fireside chat with Kristy Stone, chief customer officer at Duquesne Lighting Company, and Ron King, vice president of operations & maintenance at Peoples Natural Gas. The group discussed themes from the 2025 Itron Resourcefulness Report, which explores the impact of data analytics, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and grid edge intelligence across five key utility use cases: customer experience, safety, predictive maintenance, demand forecasting and grid optimization. Kristy highlighted how Duquesne is focused on predictive maintenance, while Ron drew attention to how Peoples Natural Gas prioritizes enhancing safety as its top use case. 

Farah Saeed, research director at Frost & Sullivan, helped close out the day one general session by announcing the winners of the 10th annual Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards: Fort Collins Utilities and Texarkana Water Utilities. Both were recognized for demonstrating how strategic technology investments can drive meaningful energy and water conservation, enhance financial stability and empower communities.   

Complex challenges. Intelligent solutions.  

In the day one Big Picture session, Susan Lynch, managing director at Accenture, moderated a conversation with Itron product leaders Ty Roberts and Stefan Zschiegner, exploring how greater visibility and localized control at the grid edge are reshaping operations for gas, water and electric utilities. The industry is at a pivotal moment: today’s utility leaders are managing load growth not seen in a generation. This surge in demand is a key driver behind Itron’s vision to deliver end-to-end solutions aligned with our customers’ business workflows and processes. With long lead times and permitting requirements for infrastructure like poles and transformers, and their inability to scale quickly enough to meet rising demand, utilities are seeking ways to increase capacity without a full infrastructure overhaul. Itron’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio bridges the gap. It is designed to focus on grid reliability, distributed energy resource management systems and consumer engagement—three areas that are top of mind for utilities and cities. 

Day one of Itron Inspire may be over, but the innovation and collaboration are just getting started. Stay tuned for a recap of day two and follow Itron on LinkedIn for live updates throughout the conference. Join the conversation using #ItronInspire25.