Itron selected as exclusive AMR supplier for Victoria State in Australia

ADELAIDE, Australia—January 5th, 2010—Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), announced today that it has been awarded a contract of 100,000 water meters and associated Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system by four utilities of Victoria State, Australia.

City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water and Barwon Water issued a common tender to purchase and install residential and C&I meters for the Victoria State over the next 3 years. Among the total quantity of meters required, 40% had to be equipped with AMR devices in order to develop mobile meter reading system, necessary in this area to optimize meter reading. Itron, already a supplier of these utilities, has been chosen to supply 100,000 meters, which is 100% of these AMR ready C&I and residential meters.

Itron is proud that the Victorian utilities have chosen our innovative technology to move towards AMR. "South East Water has had a long and fruitful business relationship with Itron for nearly two decades and we see this continuing as we move towards intelligent water networks," said Mike Busetti, South East Water Metering Manager.

In parallel to this tender, Itron successfully ran a pilot for its fixed wireless mesh network, EverBlu, with South East Water. Last August, Itron equipped two buildings in Melbourne (capital of Victoria State) with approximately 350 EverBlu Cyble radio Meter Interface Units. "Even facing challenging RF conditions, Itron managed to receive once a day hourly data from 99.7% of the installed meters", explained Sheena Trumble, General Manager Itron Australia. "These two successful projects highlight Itron's position as a preferred partner for Australian utilities in the deployment of AMR/AMI systems."