Itron Completes Smart Water Metering Deployment at Madison Water Utility

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Jan. 8, 2014 — Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that the City of Madison, Wisconsin's water utility (Madison Water Utility), which serves 235,000 residents, has completed implementation of Itron's smart water metering solution. Itron's technology is a key part of Project H20, the City's program to automate the collection and analysis of water meter reads.The solution allows Madison Water Utility to effectively manage conservation initiatives, improve metering accuracy and operate more efficiently.

Madison Water Utility is already seeing clear benefits from the system, including improved leak detection that is saving customers water and money. Since the project started, the utility has sent out 1,106 continuous-use letters to homeowners alerting them to possible leaks. Madison is leveraging hourly usage information to detect possible leaks, improve customer service and quickly resolve bill inquiries. In the next several months, customers will be able to track their daily consumption online, and in mid-2014, the utility will transition to monthly billing.

As a part of Project H20, Madison deployed the Itron advanced network and more than 66,000 Itron water communication modules. The solution provides an energy efficient, accurate and cost-effective way for Madison Water Utility to read water meters and eliminates the need for a water meter reader to visit consumers' premises.

"We have been very pleased with the benefits we've realized from Itron's smart water metering solution. In particular, our ability to detect leaks at a customer's premise has been tremendous and has greatly improved customer satisfaction," said Tom Heikkinen, general manager, Madison Water Utility. "With Itron's smart metering technology installed, we are looking forward to the next phase of Project H2O, giving our customers access to detailed consumption information."

"Madison Water Utility is a true industry leader, pioneering smart water metering and leveraging the system to its fullest potential to improve customer service and enable conservation initiatives," said Paula Billingham, vice president of sales, marketing and delivery for Water North America at Itron. "We've been honored to work with Madison to achieve their business goals and help enable the responsible management of water resources."