Itron, SmartSynch Partnership Affords Utilities Deploying Smart Grids with Complete Network Coverage

TAMPA, Fla.—March 23, 2010—DistribuTECH 2010—Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) and SmartSynch announced today the commercial availability of IP-enabled public wireless communications as part of the OpenWay smart grid platform from Itron. This will allow utilities to leverage networks like general packet radio service (GPRS) for transmission of all critical metering and event data from their meters' wide area network (WAN). This guarantees a complete network by complementing coverage in areas where a dedicated local area network has not yet been fully deployed or installed.

Collaboration between the two companies allows them to fully integrate—under the glass of OpenWay CENTRON® smart meters—SmartSynch's public wireless communications module. The integrated public wireless connectivity allows the meter to communicate directly with the OpenWay Collection Engine.

DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE), a Detroit-based diversified energy company deploying OpenWay smart grid technology to automate a total of 2.6 million electric meters and 700,000 natural gas meters, is integrating this complementary functionality into a pre-production setting and sees tremendous value in the offering.

Said Bob Sitkauskas, manager of DTE Energy's advanced metering infrastructure project, "Our effort is a large undertaking and it requires the system to operate across many diverse operating situations. Itron and SmartSynch, through this collaboration, are expected to provide us with 100% network coverage to ensure the success of our total deployment."

"SmartSynch is providing Itron with technology that helps us offer an even stronger value proposition to utilities deploying smart grid. A single integrated operating platform that seamlessly supports various communications environments is fundamental to the architecture of OpenWay," said Russ Vanos, Itron vice president of marketing. "Imagine being able to connect all of a utility's meters and devices through various communications, and yet have them appear unified to its back-office operations. Through our partnering, by using open standards-based, IP-enabled connectivity, Itron and SmartSynch have accomplished this."

"This is about smart grid innovators working together to create solutions to best serve a rapidly evolving marketplace," said SmartSynch chief executive officer Stephen Johnston. "These types of collaborative efforts will go a long way toward making a fully automated electricity grid a reality."

Customers utilizing the OpenWay smart grid platform with integrated SmartSynch technology are also afforded a ZigBee® wireless component for advanced in-premise automation. Like all other OpenWay network components, the SmartSynch module will support the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C12.22 standard for communication of metering-based data over a network.

Based on open standards, the OpenWay system architecture offers utilities flexibility in selecting the communications technology best suited to their needs. Whether utilities elect public wireless communication or an alternative, the OpenWay smart grid platform supports two-way communications for home-area networking, interval and on-demand reads, outage notification, tamper and theft detection, remote firmware upgrades, and a host of additional advanced metering capabilities.