Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of utility metering reading technology, has rolled out a new product intended to gauge accurately energy usage in multifamily housing and multitenant commercial complexes.

Called EquaScan, the product is used for submetering, also called allocation services in the utility industry, in multiunit complexes that don't have individual meters for each unit. It's intended to allow customers to bill apartment building residents based on actual consumption, rather than a percentage of total use.

Gavin Van Tonder, Itron's Lyon, France-based president of water business lines who is overseeing launch of the new product, says the company planned to roll out the product only in Germany to start, but customers in Turkey, Spain, and Portugal learned of the product and have placed orders as well.

"We can't manufacture it quick enough at the moment," Van Tonder says.

The product consists of heat-cost allocators, water meter communication modules, master radio units, and application software. Communication devices are compatible with existing Itron water meters.

Cost for the system varies widely depending on the number of units involved and features selected, but in general terms, EquaScan would start at $2,000 for a 10-unit apartment complex.

Van Tonder says Itron is marketing the product to billing service companies, contractors, and property owners, in addition to utilities. Companywide, the vast majority of Itron's products are marketed to utilities. In the water division, Van Tonder says, about 20 percent of the company's sales are outside of the utility sector.

"It's not a large-scale system," he says. "It's specifically for small complexes."

The product likely has broader applicability outside of the United States, Van Tonder says, where it's more common for multiunit complexes to share a heat source, such as a boiler or a thermal heating system, or another kind of utility. He expects the largest markets for EquaScan to be China, Russia, and other parts of Europe.

Itron manufactures the EquaScan system in France and some parts of the product in Germany and in Italy.

With about 500 employees in Liberty Lake and roughly 7,900 worldwide, Itron sells products and services to nearly 8,000 utilities in more than 100 countries.