Dallas Water Utilities Selects Itron's Water Fixed Network for Advanced Metering

SPOKANE, WA, Jan. 3, 2007 -- Itron Inc. has signed a contract with the Dallas Water Utilities to include meters, endpoints and installation of Itron's advanced Water Fixed Network (WFN) 2.5 system. Dallas Water Utilities is located in Dallas, Texas and provides water service to approximately one million residents.

Itron WFN is a comprehensive solution focused on providing more than just usage data for customer billing. WFN provides water utilities with a tool to increase efficiency, reduce costs, deliver consistently accurate billing, manage customer growth without adding staff, enable leak detection and facilitate water conservation efforts.

The utility will initially deploy approximately 7,000 meters and endpoints in the downtown corridor and commercial district and will evaluate the deployment of the remaining 300,000 meters after the initial installation based on performance and cost justification.

The city of Dallas has an educational campaign, "Save Dallas Water," to encourage water conservation and help extend the life of existing infrastructure while decreasing the need for additional water resources, said Jody Puckett, Director of Dallas Water Utilities.

"By using Itron technology ¿ both hardware and software ¿ we can manage our water resources and distribution system better and provide timely and accurate billing," said Puckett. "We've worked with Itron for many years and value our strong relationship along with their proven technology and results."

With Itron WFN technology, the standard residential and commercial water meters are capable of more frequent data collection and customer-specific leak detection and tamper. Estimated meter reads are eliminated and field visits are reduced.

"Dallas joins a growing list of water municipalities who are seeing the value of Itron's two-way Water Fixed Network to control operational costs and conserve water resources," said Russ Vanos, vice president of sales for Itron hardware solutions. "It is important to note that the City of Dallas not only tested Itron's technology but other competitor's technology as well. We are excited to continue our working relationship with Dallas Water Utilities on this important project."

Itron (www.itron.com) is a leading technology provider and critical source of knowledge to the global energy and water industries. Nearly 3,000 utilities worldwide rely on Itron's award-winning technology to provide the knowledge they require to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Itron creates value for its clients by providing industry-leading solutions for electricity metering; meter data collection; energy information management; demand response; load forecasting, analysis and consulting services; distribution system design and optimization; web-based workforce automation; and enterprise and residential energy management.

The City of Dallas Water Utilities (www.dallascityhall.com/html/water_utilities.html) is a not-for-profit department of the City of Dallas, providing water and wastewater services to about 1.9 people in Dallas and 26 nearby communities. Its operations are funded solely by the water and wastewater rates paid by customers. The vision of the utility is to be an efficient provider of superior water and wastewater service and a leader in the water industry.

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