Itron Highlights its Presence at United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — December 18, 2009 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today its recent support and involvement at the UN conference on climate change, COP15, December 7 – 18, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Itron’s expansion of advanced metering solutions to smart grid applications has the potential to benefit climate change efforts, specifically in the areas of carbon reduction, renewable power infrastructure, system efficiency, and customer involvement. Itron president and chief executive officer, Malcolm Unsworth, was in Copenhagen to highlight these solutions and to reiterate Itron’s position that clear direction on carbon mitigation policy is necessary in order to increase the adoption rates of smart grid technologies.

“You cannot overlook the reduction in carbon emissions from the adoption of smart metering,” said Unsworth. “For example, over the 20-year life of four million meters, nearly 1.5 million tons of CO2 will be reduced. The benefits are clear and documented, but strong motivation from national regulators is required for utilities to invest in the technology globally.”

Itron also showed its support by sponsoring Evergreenfilm.org, a production team from Seattle that traveled to COP15 to document the role of Washington state’s delegation, which included Greg Nickels, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Christine Gregoire, governor of Washington.

The expansion of the smart grid sector in Washington has been a long-term target of state and local government and clean-tech advocates who think the industry offers both economic and environmental benefits. Evergreenfilm.org was able to document individuals as they shared the state’s clean technology story.

Itron consulting and analysis experts were also on hand to promote their energy efficiency and renewable energy work which was funded by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—a U.S. Department of Energy facility. As part of the project, Itron has been providing technical assistance to India’s policymakers, regulators, utilities and other stakeholders on clean energy issues since March 2009.

Concluded Unsworth, “Renewables, distributed generation and plug-in electric vehicles are all good solutions to help reduce carbon emissions, but the smart grid will enable the benefits and its foundation—smart metering—is here today.”