Rancho California Water District Selects Itron’s Water SaveSource™ Solution to Support Water Conservation and Enhance Efficiency

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — March 10, 2010 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that Rancho California Water District (RCWD) has signed an agreement to deploy Itron’s advanced metering system, Water SaveSource. Located in Temecula, Calif., RCWD provides water service to approximately 42,000 customers in the area known as Temecula/Rancho California.

A longtime Itron customer, RCWD utilizes an Itron mobile system over half its service territory and contracted with a third party for all of its meter reading. Upon the contract’s conclusion, RCWD evaluated the benefits of a fixed network solution over its remaining territory not serviced by the mobile system. RCWD subsequently piloted and selected Itron’s Water SaveSource solution based upon its reading performance.

By deploying Water SaveSource, RCWD will collect incremental meter reads, or data logging, to support the utility’s water conservation programs, track for unaccounted water losses and provide proactive in-home leak detection. Access to granular meter data will also enable improved customer service with near real-time bill reconciliation and off-cycle meter reads.

“When our meter reading contract expired, RCWD took the opportunity to evaluate and ultimately chose to deploy a fixed network system,” said Tom Wolter, director of Field Services for RCWD. “Water SaveSource promises to provide us the performance we were looking for and the analytical reporting we wanted. Once the fixed network is fully implemented, Water SaveSource we will be able to better integrate metering data into our conservation programs, effectively reduce water losses with in-home leak detection and perform virtual turn on and offs of service.”

Over 22,000 Water SaveSource endpoints will be installed over RCWD’s service territory in approximately three years. The meter data collected from the network will be transmitted to Itron’s network operating center. Itron will host the advanced meter data for RCWD and provide data files for billing purposes and a web interface for advanced analysis and reporting capabilities. Utilizing Itron’s hosting services allows RCWD access to the data as soon as endpoints are deployed and will minimize the integration work and IT build-out.

“We are very pleased to be working with Rancho Water once again, this time as they deploy their advanced metering network,” said Lou Gust, vice president of water sales and marketing for Itron. “They were eager to evaluate network systems and made us prove our system in rigorous conditions. Itron exceeded their requirements and offered advanced applications and reports that will enable RCWD to fully leverage their meter data.”