Avista Development and Duke Energy have teamed up to invest in a startup company called Open Energy Solutions Inc.

A volunteer group of Pullman Avista customers saw their power consumption decline by 9.3 percent after they were given high-tech thermostats.

Monitoring electricity use will be faster and easier for Inland Power and Light and its members after the Spokane-based utility upgrades all 39,000 meters across its service area next year. The nonprofit cooperative picked Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc. to supply the advanced meters and Tantalus, a North Carolina company, to provide the “smart grid” communications equipment.

Starting Jan. 1, Philip Mezey will take over as CEO and president of Itron Inc., the Spokane area’s largest publicly traded company. Mezey, 52, will succeed LeRoy Nosbaum, who joined Itron more than 15 years ago and came out of retirement in 2011 to become interim CEO.

With the push of a button on their smartphones, Inland Northwest residents will soon have a way to adjust their thermostats and their electric bills. In Pullman, a $38 million demonstration project will upgrade the aging power grid, saving energy and providing Avista customers with several new features intended to increase communication between customers and the power company.

About 13,000 homes and businesses in Pullman are the guinea pigs in a smart grid project involving the Inland Northwest’s largest utility and the region’s largest energy technology manufacturer. The five-year Pullman smart grid test will equip Avista Utility customers with the latest generation of advanced electric meters developed by Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc.

RICHLAND, Wash. – The check has arrived to pay for the main work phase on the largest and most comprehensive project in the nation to demonstrate how the electric grid can be used more efficiently and made more reliable.