Frost & Sullivan Honors Fort Collins Utilities and Texarkana Water Utilities with Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards
Achieving Infrastructure Resiliency and Preparedness for the Water and Energy Transition
SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce Fort Collins Utilities and Texarkana Water Utilities as recipients of the tenth annual Excellence in Resourcefulness Awards in collaboration with Itron. The awards were presented during Itron Inspire 2025, Itron's premier customer conference.
To learn more about Itron Inspire, visit www.itron.com/inspire.
Both utilities were celebrated for demonstrating that strategic technology investment is the key to achieving profound water and energy conservation goals, strengthening financial stability, and empowering their communities.
Excellence in Resourcefulness – Energy: Fort Collins Utilities
Fort Collins Utilities, a municipal utility in Colorado, is among a growing number of utilities with an ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 and achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2030. As a long-term proponent of flexible load, the municipality has successfully demonstrated a cost-effective, progressive approach to optimizing local variable loads through the rollout of Time-of-Use rates and DERMS. A key success factor of this program has been Fort Collins' long-standing collaboration with Itron. Since the initial deployment, Fort Collins and Itron have worked together to refine functionalities, such as OpenADR support and advanced telematic communications for electric vehicles. The system aggregates customer-owned devices, such as smart thermostats and grid-interactive water heaters, enabling the utility to manage and shift demand in real time, actively. Through these efforts, the utility is focused on hitting specific targets, such as achieving 5% of its 2030 peak load as dispatchable capacity (approximately 16 MW).
"Since the program's launch, the utility has successfully shifted around 750 MWh of energy annually. It also uses a "cost of conserved energy" metric to assess success, justifying investments by showing that the cost of these initiatives is much lower than the cost of purchasing energy from the power supplier," stated Farah Saeed, Industry | Director Energy & Environment Growth Advisory at Frost & Sullivan.
The utility's cost of saving energy is around 3 cents per kWh, while the cost of purchasing power is between 5 and 6 cents per kWh. This cost-saving strategy extends the life of capital assets, such as service transformers and conductors, by reducing peak load and overall grid stress.
Excellence in Resourcefulness – Water: Texarkana Water Utilities
Tucked away in the corner of Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas, Texarkana Water Utilities (TWU), a mid-sized water utility, was dealing with what many water utilities are experiencing today—the urgent need to upgrade dated water infrastructure with limited available funding. The water utility had reached a point where it recognized that any prolonged delay or inaction would further increase operational costs for detecting leaks and managing dated meters. In 2024, TWU's AMI project secured $20 million in funding by establishing a compelling, data-backed business case. Texarkana Water Utilities' water infrastructure modernization strategy relies on an integrated technology stack that includes satellite imagery and Itron's leak detection solution to monitor the distribution network continuously. This solution has been instrumental in early leak detection, identifying 64 leaks in total. By quantifying potential water loss, TWU could save over 137.3 million gallons of treated water annually, resulting in $178,500 in annual operational savings.
"By quantifying potential water losses, TWU can strategically prioritize repairs and ensure resources are directed to areas with the most significant positive impact," noted Saeed.
Beyond conservation, the new AMI system, supported by Itron's technology, delivers real-time data to a customer portal, transforming the utility-customer relationship into one of transparency and trust. This empowers residents to partner in conservation efforts and helps the utility achieve long-term fiscal prudence.
Award Methodology
As part of the selection process, Frost & Sullivan conducted in-depth research and interviews and evaluated utilities against industry best practices and the decision criteria, including societal impact and business impact for each category. Societal impact indicators include delivering superior technology-driven resource management and resource-conscious programs that enhance overall customer experience and engagement with resourcefulness.
Business impact indicators include a well-drafted vision for implementing a technology-oriented resourcefulness strategy that yields operational efficiencies and strengthens the utilities or city's image as a leader and advocate for sustainability.
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.
Itron® and the Itron logo are registered trademarks of Itron, Inc. in the United States and other countries and region. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and any usage herein does not suggest or imply any relationship between Itron and the third party unless expressly stated.
About Frost & Sullivan
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Contact:
Kristina Menzefricke
Marketing & Communications
Global Customer Experience, Frost & Sullivan
kristina.menzefricke@frost.com
+44 (0)20 331 01228
Alison Mallahan
Senior Manager,
Corporate Communications
(509) 891-3802
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