Elster and Aztech Associates Inc. Collaborate on Energy Conservation Technology

KINGSTON, Ontario and RALEIGH, N.C., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Aztech Associates Inc., a leading manufacturer of products for energy conservation and demand management, and Elster, today announced the launch of the latest generation of an in-home display (IHD) enabled by Elster's EnergyAxis® system.

The Aztech IHD communicates with smart meters through Elster's EnergyAxis advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network, providing homeowners with current energy usage data.  

Aztech's exclusive arched light bar provides at-a-glance notifications of time-of-use periods, while the easy-to-read screen displays accurate and detailed information with both graphics and text, featuring English, French or Spanish-language support.

"Aztech is proud to be one of Elster's long standing technology collaborators," said Geoff Salter, president and CEO of Aztech. "Our in-home display is targeted at families who want an easy-to-use tool that provides them with information that can be used to reduce their energy consumption."

"This feedback loop can raise energy awareness and assist families with energy usage decisions, resulting in a significant savings on their utility bills," said Salter.

Aztech and Elster have performed joint field trials of the EnergyAxis enabled Aztech IHD for more than a year, and Aztech plans to make the product commercially available this spring.

"Energy conservation is one of the best ways consumers can reduce their utility costs and promote long term environmental sustainability," said Mark L. Munday, president and CEO, Elster, North America. "Our collaboration with Aztech Associates is another example of Elster's commitment to develop and deploy field-proven Smart Grid solutions that deliver real benefits to utilities and their consumers."

EnergyAxis, a field-proven Smart Grid solution with more than 3.5 million endpoints deployed with utilities across North America, enables utilities to:

• Realize operational efficiencies
• Implement demand response programs that can conserve resources and reduce costs, especially during periods of peak demand
• Improve customer service
• Reduce outage response and repair time
• Provide real-time information to end consumers to allow them to better manage their energy consumption; and
• Conserve environmental and economic resources by reducing the loss of electricity, gas and water as they move from the supply source to homes and businesses

About Aztech Associates Inc.

Formed in 1993, Aztech Associates Inc. is a leading provider of residential in-home displays for energy conservation and demand management.  Designed to save money for both consumers and utilities, Aztech's portable and attractive In-Home Display (www.aztechmeter.com) is capable of communicating directly with an ever-increasing number of smart meters.  Combining the novel use of light patterns and graphical displays, homeowners can view their electricity usage and cost at a glance to better manage their utility consumption.  This empowers families to choose the best time to run energy-guzzling appliances, thus saving money and helping to protect the environment.

For more information about Aztech, please visit www.aztechmeter.com

About Elster

Elster is one of the world's largest providers of electricity, gas and water meters and related communications, networking and software solutions, which are key components for enabling energy efficiency and conservation.  Its products and solutions are widely used by customers in the manual-read meter and smart grid markets.  

Elster has one of the most extensive installed meter bases in the world, with more than 200 million metering devices deployed over the course of the last 10 years.  It sells its products and services in more than 130 countries across electricity, gas, water and multi-utility applications for both residential and commercial and industrial customers.

With a heritage of more than 170 years of providing metering solutions, Elster enjoys a reputation as a leading innovator and has played, and continues to play, an important role in shaping industry standards with respect to performance, reliability, accuracy and functionality.

Elster was acquired by funds advised by CVC Capital Partners in September 2005. In 2008, Elster generated revenues of 1.3 billion euro or $1.9 billion.

For more information about Elster, please visit www.elster.com

SOURCE Elster