AT&T Smart Cities Welcomes Spruce Finance as Newest Smart Grid Customer

Spruce will Offer the AT&T Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solution to support Residential Solar Solutions

Smart energy management is key to creating smarter cities. AT&T* is teaming with Spruce Finance Inc. to bring smart grid solutions to the residential solar industry.

Spruce provides consumer finance products to residential solar and efficiency improvement companies. The company monitors and maintains the systems of homeowners who have financed their systems with leases or power purchase agreements. As the newest AT&T Smart Grid customer, Spruce now has a total Advanced Metering Infrastructure solution that will ultimately support the ongoing development of smart cities.

The AT&T Smart Grid advanced metering solution provides a two-way 4G LTE wireless connection and near real-time information advantage for companies. AT&T’s solution includes:

• Smart grid meters and sensors
• Access to the LTE network and head-end applications for management of Smart Grid devices
• Ongoing professional service support which includes assistance with project management, implementation, hosting and employee training

AT&T Smart Grid benefits include increased operational efficiencies; ability to remotely manage systems and assets; faster intelligence and quicker troubleshooting abilities; and better optimized resources to meet demand growth and allow for future scaling.

“Spruce monitors and manages a large fleet of residential solar systems across the U.S.,” said Steve Olszewski, chief operating officer, Spruce. “AT&T has developed an end-to-end solution with equipment, a national data network and software that allows us to view each system meter reliably, so we can see how the system is performing and troubleshoot as needed. This helps ensure consistent system performance for homeowners and smart interaction with the electric grid.”

“We are committed to helping cities become smarter, cleaner and more energy-efficient,” said Mike Zeto, general manager and executive director, AT&T Smart Cities. “Innovation in the energy utility sector is a major component of the smart cities equation. We look forward to working with Spruce to deploy the next generation of IoT smart energy solutions in our communities.”

AT&T has set a goal to enable carbon savings 10 times the footprint of its operations by 2025. To achieve this, AT&T will engage with customers, companies and non-governmental organizations on tactics to drive reductions in emissions and increases in resource efficiency.