Press Release

Raleigh, North Carolina, January 23, 2008 Ontario Utilities receive Utility Automation and Engineering T&D’s 2007 AMR Project of the Year Award

Elster Metering, part of Elster Group, a world leader in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and integrated metering and utilization solutions to the gas, electricity and water industries announces that Ontario’s coalition of large distributors (CLD) was awarded the “2007 AMR Project of the Year” by Utility Automation and Engineering T&D™ magazine, a PennWell Corporation publication.  PennWell recognized Ontario’s CLD for its accomplishments in meeting the 2007 targets under the Ontario Government’s Smart Metering Initiative (SMI). Entries for the award were judged on the size and scope of the project, level of innovation used, benefit to the utility, its customers and the power industry as a whole, and clarity of the written project description.

The utilities of the CLD were selected by PennWell based on the work accomplished collectively by the coalition to meet the SMI mandate of 800,000 smart meters installed in the province of Ontario by the end of 2007. While each CLD did its own individual AMI technology trials with various vendors, they jointly developed a comprehensive specification for AMI technology that would meet the requirements of the Ontario Smart Metering Initiative. The specification was then issued to the AMI community. Under the guidance of a government fairness commissioner, the CLD team members sequestered themselves to undertake what was a massive evaluation process that would ultimately equip them to meet the demands of the SMI mandate.

In the end, Elster was selected to deliver its EnergyAxis® System AMI solution and over 800,000 EnergyAxis meters to five of the six CLD utilities over an 18-month period, exceeding the Smart Metering Initiative’s target.

Jack Robertson, vice president of Elster Metering stated, “The milestones and pace achieved by Ontario’s CLD in 2007 make it the largest two-way mesh network AMI project in the world using smart meters to retrieve hourly interval data.”

According to Steve Brown, editor in chief of Utility Automation and Engineering T&D, "There are many very impressive smart metering projects ongoing in North America right now, which made it difficult to choose one winning project in this category. But we felt the collaborative nature of the Ontario CLD's project was unique. The goal in Ontario of having 4.5 million meters installed by year-end 2010 is very aggressive. With the CLD's utility members cooperating like they are, however, they're well on their way toward meeting that goal."