Spokane, Wash. – September 10, 2001 – In what the company describes as an “empowering technology” for energy providers and consumers alike, Itron, Inc. today gave energy industry representatives a preview of its new Energy Gateway, a low-cost, web-enabled data collection and home automation device that will open up a new frontier of opportunity for more effective load management, conservation and value-added energy-related services.
Currently in development, the Itron Energy Gateway is slightly larger than a deck of playing cards, and was unveiled in conjunction with this week’s Automatic Meter Reading Association annual conference in Quebec City, Canada.
The Itron Energy Gateway is a joint development project between Itron and International Utility Information Systems Corporation of Scotts Valley, California, a company that Itron made an investment in earlier this year. Itron has exclusive marketing rights in North America to the Energy Gateway as well as rights to manufacture the devices.
“The combination of the Itron Energy Gateway and our industry-leading automatic meter reading (AMR) technology will give energy providers a very powerful yet cost-effective way to connect with their residential customers,” said LeRoy Nosbaum, president and CEO of Itron. “The result is that energy providers and consumers can share knowledge and work together to ensure that electricity supply and demand stay in step with each other in response to increasingly dynamic market conditions.”
The Itron Energy Gateway receives metering data via radio signal from an Itron Encoder-Receiver-Transmitter (ERT) module installed on the property’s electric meter and then communicates the information to a server at pre-scheduled intervals. The data can then be made available to the energy provider and the end consumer. In a home with an ERT-equipped electric meter and an Energy Gateway, meters can be read using traditional Itron automatic meter reading technology or with the Energy Gateway.
“Rising energy costs and more frequent disruptions in electric service have caused consumers to focus more attention on their energy usage and bills,” said Larry Eggleston, vice president of business development and strategy at Itron. “This focus can be seen in their conservation efforts over the summer. However, most have done so with very little information to go on. The Energy Gateway is an empowering technology that will deliver energy usage information into the hands of consumers and energy providers to help them control and manage energy consumption proactively.”
For example, with detailed data collected through the Energy Gateway, an energy provider will be able to predict more accurately when supply and demand imbalances may occur, Eggleston said. The provider could then use the Energy Gateway to remotely adjust the customer’s thermostat, if so equipped, within agreed-upon parameters, to achieve necessary load reduction targets.
Data collected through the Energy Gateway and displayed online enables an energy provider to engage its customers in new ways. Through a web interface, consumers will be able to monitor their energy consumption, make changes in their usage, or override curtailment initiatives. Energy providers and consumers can also work together to cut energy consumption through incentives such as time-of-use rates or load reduction rates.
Separately, Itron is also developing and marketing a stand-alone “ERT reader” component that integrates with third-party residential gateway systems to collect consumption data from electric meters equipped with Itron ERT modules. “A combination of the Energy Gateway or the stand-alone ERT reader and AMR technology, will enable energy providers and consumers to gain more knowledge about energy consumption and increase the return on the energy providers’ investment in AMR technology,” said Eggleston.
Itron Inc. is a leading technology provider and source of knowledge to the energy and water industries for collecting, analyzing, and applying critical data about electric, gas, and water usage. Itron technology touches more than $200 billion in energy and water transactions annually. Today, Itron systems are installed at approximately 2,000 utilities in over 45 countries around the world and are being used to collect data from 275 million electric, gas, and water meters. Of those, more than 700 customers use Itron’s radio and telephone-based technology to automatically collect information from almost 19 million of those meters. Itron technology is also in use at a number of the newly created wholesale energy markets in the U.S. and Canada to provide critical billing and settlement systems for the power flowing into and out of those deregulating markets.
This release contains forward-looking statements concerning new products under development. These statements reflect the Company’s current plans and expectations and are based on information currently available to it. They rely on a number of assumptions and estimates, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s actual results to vary materially from those anticipated. Specific risks and uncertainties include the Company’s inability to predict the rate of demand for new products under development as well as the Company’s ability to complete the development as planned. Other risk factors are more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and Form 10-Qs for 2001 on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Itron undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.
For additional information, contact:
Christina Kelly
Marketing/Communications Specialist
(509) 891-3268
christina.kelly@itron.com
