Itron is Changing the Way Gas Utilities Do Business

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.—March 18, 2010—Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that it is launching its Gas AMI solution at DistribuTECH 2010, March 23-25 in Tampa, Fla. For the first time, gas and combo utilities will have access to a two-way system enhancing customer service, empowering consumers, enabling operational efficiencies like remote meter disconnect and improved move-in move-out capabilities, and increasing system integrity.

Itron's Gas AMI solution addresses the important opportunities facing gas utilities today. Being able to respond to the drivers that are changing the way gas utilities do business requires new technologies rooted in a business case.

"Just as electric utilities have been implementing Smart Grid technologies to enable customer participation and more predictive response, gas utilities now have the opportunity to address shifting business drivers with new technologies," said Carl Porter, Itron director of gas product marketing. "Itron's Gas AMI launch will address these changing business drivers for gas utilities."

Itron's Gas AMI solution will provide gas utilities with the following key functions:

• Handheld, mobile and fixed network migrations
• Two-way communication system to the gas endpoint
• Time-synchronized interval data with new options for aggregate meter reading and operational benefits
• Flexible and cost-effective network components
• Ability to use hosted or installed software
• System Integrity Modules capable of monitoring and controlling various aspects on the gas distribution network

"We recognize that a true Gas AMI solution needs to build on legacy systems, and our solution works across commodities (electric, gas and water), building upon our experience in communicating with nearly two million network based endpoints today," said Larry Eggleston, Product Line Marketing - Fixed Network Solutions.

With Itron's Gas AMI solution, utilities can better manage and forecast gas day nominations, provide customers with actionable information and predict issues in the system before they become problems. These technologies will help promote community and field personnel safety, allow for more user-monitoring tools like in-home displays and web presentment, and ultimately increase customer support by reducing billing errors and call resolution times.

"The gas industry has an important opportunity to address changes in the broad perspective on energy, changes in energy conservation and carbon reduction and changes in the natural gas business," said Eggleston."Natural gas has been left out of the smart energy conversation, yet it represents a cornerstone of our energy infrastructure."