FortisAlberta Receives Award for Customer Engagement at Metering America; Utility Recognized for Use of Gridstream Advanced Metering Technology

ATLANTA, March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FortisAlberta Inc. received a Metering International Excellence Award at the recent Metering America Conference in San Diego on March 13. The utility was recognized for its implementation of Landis+Gyr's Gridstream™ advanced metering technology to support customer service, operational efficiency and environmental benefits.

The award for Customer Engagement Excellence recognizes FortisAlberta's customer-focused approach to implementation of its advanced metering program. Since the project began in 2006, the utility has deployed Landis+Gyr's Gridstream™ PLC network and 480,000 advanced meters at residential and commercial accounts across a large portion of Alberta.

As a direct result of the advanced metering deployment, FortisAlberta has seen a reduction in customer service calls, a significant reduction in miles driven by employees and lower annual operating costs for metering services. Customer billing accuracy has improved from approximately 85% at the beginning of the project, to greater than 99% in January 2012.

"The goals of our advanced metering project required us to focus on the critical areas of customer service that we could improve," said Nguyen Tran, Director of Customer Operations at FortisAlberta. "In addition to improvements to billing accuracy and service quality, operating efficiencies, cost savings and reduced environmental impact benefits customers."

In addition to advanced metering technology and software, Landis+Gyr directly managed the technology installation and continues to provide support services to the utility.

"We congratulate FortisAlberta on this well-deserved recognition," said Rebecca Lorentz, Director of Operations at Landis+Gyr. "The skill and dedication of all the parties involved helped make this a successful project that will pay dividends for the utility and its customers for years to come."

FortisAlberta delivers electricity to more than 200 Alberta communities, maintains local electrical distribution lines and poles, and is responsible for reading customer meters. Based in Calgary, Alberta, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Inc.

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management products tailored to energy company needs and unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Today, the Company offers the broadest portfolio of products and services in the electricity metering industry, and is paving the way for the next generation of smart grid.  With annualized sales of more than US$1.5 billion, Landis+Gyr, a standalone growth platform of the Toshiba Corporation (TKY:6502) and 40% owned by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, operates in 30 countries across five continents, and employs 5,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better. More information is available at landisgyr.com.

SOURCE Landis+Gyr