Consortium Genieau Chooses Itron for Delivery of Water Meter Automation Solution to the City of Montreal

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., — January 27, 2009 — Itron recently announced that the Consortium Genieau, experts mandated to carry out the water meter automation project, has selected Itron's advanced water metering and monitoring technology, Water SaveSource™. Considered one of the largest projects in the city's history, deploying Itron's technology to its industry, business and institutional customers will allow the city to accurately measure water consumption, better track and manage usage, and optimize efforts to reduce system leaks and upgrade infrastructure.

Phase one of the project entails deploying Water SaveSource to over 23,000 customers on the Island of Montreal, as well as replacing 7,000 existing meters between now and 2013. The technology will help control the flow of water by influencing consumption, and manage the delivery of water by maintaining distribution system integrity, thereby improving customer service and operations. When the project is complete, the Island of Montreal will have complete network coverage, enabling a comprehensive water management program.

Consortium Genieau is tasked with collecting hourly data with a 90 percent hourly read rate by 6:00 a.m. If the monthly read rate falls below 85 percent, the consortium cannot collect its monthly fee. After careful review of several competitive bids, Consortium Genieau singled out Water Save Source to deliver the read reliability required in the contract.

"For us, it was all about reliability. We needed to choose a technology that ensured we could meet necessary read rate requirements," said Daniel Nadeau, Genieau project manager. "Water SaveSource was the clear choice."

"Like Itron, Consortium Genieau recognizes that water is and will remain a precious natural resource that we must effectively manage and protect," said Scott Owen, Itron vice president of Canadian sales. "Improved management of its use and distribution, through use of Water SaveSource, will help to reduce the production of drinking water, and thereby protect the resource."

The Water SaveSource Fixed Network is based on a family of innovative Itron technologies, including the Water SaveSource Collector, Water SaveSource Programmer and Itron Enterprise Edition™ Custom Analytics.