CenterPoint Energy Begins Full Field Deployment of OpenWay® Smart Meters by Itron, Complete with Advanced Security Architecture

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — March 23, 2009 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that the start of full field deployment began on March 1 for its OpenWay smart metering solution at CenterPoint Energy, Inc.'s (NYSE: CNP) electric transmission and distribution utility. Itron's recent initial shipments of OpenWay devices will eventually culminate in 2.4 million smart meters being installed by early 2014.

OpenWay residential and commercial smart electricity meters and accompanying wide area network relays, were successfully tested using Itron's enhanced security architecture based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). The system's encryption and key management appliances successfully secured end-to-end messages from the OpenWay Collection Engine down to end devices on the OpenWay system.

The system is also utilizing multiple open standards, such as IP, SOA, XML, WSDL, American National Standards Institute C12.22, ZigBee®, and GPRS, to enable strong, secure communications and integration. Itron's commitment to a standards-based approach ensures CenterPoint Energy's system is fully extensible to support additional security mechanisms the industry may require in the future.

"We've designed OpenWay with security as a core criterion," said Malcolm Unsworth, Itron president and chief operating officer. "By collaborating with customers like CenterPoint Energy, participating in standards organizations such as IEEE, and partnering with leading security providers such as Certicom and Industrial Defender, we're very confident that we're deploying the most secure advanced metering system in the field today."

"The OpenWay smart meter installation is the first step in transforming the electric infrastructure to a smart grid," said Tom Standish, group president of Regulated Operations for CenterPoint Energy. "Installing these meters should enable consumer control over energy consumption while enhancing the efficiency and reliability of our operations."

Smart grid technology like OpenWay is designed to link electric meters with power line hardware, appliances, communications, systems integration and an intelligence layer of monitoring and control to create a highly automated, responsive and resilient power system.

"Due to the critical nature of the monitoring and control systems of our country's energy infrastructure, and increasing dependence on fossil fuels from foreign sources, we cannot wait one second longer to begin deploying technology that can reduce energy consumption, curb peak energy demand and lower carbon emissions," said Unsworth. "We congratulate CenterPoint Energy in reaching this important milestone in its smart metering system initiative."