Texas Study Confirms Accuracy of Itron Smart Meters
Independent Testing Efforts Coincide with Deployment of 3 Million Meters
LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — August 2, 2010 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that a recent study, requested by Public Utility Commission of Texas and performed by Navigant Consulting LLC, confirms the precision measurement of OpenWay smart meters. Of the thousands of meters examined during the test, all were found to be accurate by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.
Consumer advocacy groups in Texas and other locations across the U.S. have raised concerns that incorrect data collected by smart meters leads to higher-than-expected utility bills. The testing and verification efforts undertaken by Navigant demonstrate that Itron smart meters are accurately and reliably delivering meter data to utilities.
Coinciding with the test results, Itron announced a deployment milestone of 3 million OpenWay smart meters at several industry-leading utilities across the nation.
CenterPoint Energy recently celebrated the installation of its 500,000th OpenWay smart meter, a significant milestone in its plan to deploy more than 2 million devices across the company's entire electric service territory by mid 2012. Additionally, the company is building a self-healing Intelligent Grid that will utilize Itron smart meters and other technologies to improve electric reliability and power restoration.
On July 12, 2010, Southern California Edison installed its one millionth smart meter at a customer home in Redondo Beach. OpenWay smart meters are helping SCE manage increasing demand for electricity and provide environmental leadership through energy efficiency, demand management, electric transportation and smart grid technologies.
At utilities across North America, Itron smart grid technologies are demonstrating how secure, high-speed two-way communications give consumers more detailed information about their energy usage, allow utilities to offer their customers greater choice in rate plans, and provide higher reliability at lower cost.
"We've spent millions of dollars, over the last several years, researching and developing our smart grid solution," said Itron president and CEO Malcolm Unsworth. "Meter reliability and accuracy are of the utmost importance to us and to our utility partners. This study affirms our commitment to providing a quality product, and our 3 million meters in the field illustrate our customers' trust in Itron technology."
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