Itron CEO Emphasizes Strong Support for NIST Smart Grid Standards Interoperability Initiative

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — May 18, 2009 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that its chief executive officer, Malcolm Unsworth, during a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, has reaffirmed the importance of embracing interoperability standards as essential to the deployment of Smart Grid technologies

The announcement was made in conjunction with smart grid standards workshops being conducted by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington, D.C. Itron supports NIST coordination efforts and is participating in the workshops this week.

In his comments to the secretaries, Unsworth stated:

"Our worldwide leadership and familiarity with smart metering and the rapidly emerging smart grid provides us with a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience, especially concerning open standards and interoperability. As a result, Itron will be fully extending IP support within its market-leading advanced metering solution, OpenWay®, down to the edge device to support smart grid applications beyond AMI. This, in conjunction with the use of the ANSI C12.22 and Zigbee Smart Energy standards, and other applicable standards to be defined through the NIST initiative will ensure full implementation of the smart grid vision."

Don Cortez, CenterPoint Energy division vice president of Regulated Operations Technology, said, "We are pleased to see Itron's continued leadership in ongoing standards discussions. The ability to easily incorporate multiple standards and updates into our existing investment is important to our concept that systems should be able to support any future requirements mandated by the market."

Paul De Martini, SCE vice president of Advanced Technology, said, "We selected the Itron OpenWay solution precisely because of its adaptability to a broad set of standards, including IP and C12.22, and because it allows upgrades over the air to devices already deployed in the field. Itron's industry leadership concerning standards development and robust implementation of cyber security is crucial for our advanced metering and smart grid implementation."

Itron plays a key role in developing smart grid standards by engaging with and providing thought leadership to groups such as the UCA International Users Group, American National Standard Institute (ANSI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), NIST, IEEE, and the ZigBee Alliance. As a member of the board of directors for the ZigBee Alliance, Itron played a key role in supporting the Alliance's recently announced decision to further integrate IP standards into ZigBee specifications.