Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Itron are expanding 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 partnership, PG&E is integrating and deploying Itron’s grid edge intelligence to help make home electrification easier and more affordable, reduce operations and maintenance costs by getting more value and performance from its existing electric infrastructure, and 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 at 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.”

Don Reeves, senior vice president at Itron (www.itron.com), added: “This collaboration between PG&E and Itron is paving the way for a more resilient and adaptive grid. 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 optimise operations and respond faster to changing grid conditions.”

Many who want to install a fast level-two 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-two 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 with smaller panels, especially those under 150A, this technology could remove one of the biggest barriers to owning an EV.

While the first use case focuses on EV charging, this programme could eventually support other home appliances such as 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 users electrify their homes at a lower cost.

This collaboration also brings 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.

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.

The grid edge devices help PG&E balance electricity demand as more users adopt EVs, heat pumps and other electric technologies. By using data to provide more granular visibility, PG&E can optimise its existing grid assets and limit the need for additional grid upgrades, helping keep costs down and maintain reliable service over time.

PG&E intends to install up to 1000 Itron devices in 2026 with plans for scaling to hundreds of thousands of devices by 2030. These deployments will help shape PG&E’s long-term advanced metering infrastructure plans.

For more information about PG&E’s R&D and innovation efforts, visit www.pge.com/innovation.

PG&E (pge.com) is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than sixteen million people across northern and central California.