Idaho Falls Power Selects Elster for AMI Smart Grid Project

RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Elster (NYSE: ELT) announced today that Idaho Falls Power (City of Idaho Falls, Idaho) will deploy the Elster EnergyAxis® Smart Grid solution as a key component of its Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project. The City of Idaho Falls City Council unanimously voted to select Elster to design its Smart Grid system, which will enable energy conservation for the utility and its customers.

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The Idaho Falls Power deployment is part of the Department of Energy's $178 million Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Elster's EnergyAxis will automate Smart Meter data collection for Idaho Falls Power's electric customers, enabling faster demand response, improved load control, and voltage conservation. In addition, it is anticipated the utility's customers will benefit from flexible payment options and increased visibility into energy usage via an online portal in the near future.

"The selection of a reliable and experienced Smart Grid vendor that will best serve the energy conservation needs and initiatives of Idaho Falls and its residents was imperative in our decision. We chose Elster for its innovative Smart Grid solutions that have delivered true AMI benefits to utilities and customers across the globe," said Jackie Flowers, general manager, Idaho Falls Power.  

"We look forward to realizing the operational efficiencies of a comprehensive Smart Grid system while enabling our customers to proactively monitor and manage their own electricity consumption," she added.

With multi-technology capabilities and an open architecture, Elster's EnergyAxis solution will  integrate with third-party Smart Grid technologies to create a powerful, comprehensive system for Idaho Falls.

"Elster's selection as part of the competitive Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project is a testament to the power and functionality of our EnergyAxis solution," said Mark Munday, president and CEO of Elster Solutions. "In addition to our reliable Smart Grid solutions, our core value of supporting open industry standards enables us to partner with multiple technology vendors and continuously scale to meet our utility customers' current and future needs."

"We look forward to spearheading the design and deployment of Idaho Falls Power's robust Smart Grid system to improve operational processes and set a standard for other municipalities to follow," Munday added.

Tropos Networks will provide a city-wide wireless communications system to be used as the backhaul system in support of Elster's AMI data. Primestone will provide a Meter Data Management (MDM) system to perform detailed analysis of energy usage information collected from every Elster AMI endpoint. Tendril will provide smart thermostats, in-home displays and load control switches. Exceleron will provide a prepay/customer web portal, and Thomas & Betts will provide fault circuit indicating sensors.

With a multi-technology, IP-based approach to Smart Grid deployments, Elster's Smart Meters and EnergyAxis solution provide key features for collecting and managing energy data for both residential and commercial customers.

Elster's EnergyAxis, a field-proven Smart Grid solution with more than 90 active deployments and five million endpoints across the globe, enables utilities to:

• Realize operational efficiencies;
• Conserve environmental and economic resources by reducing the losses in electricity, gas and water infrastructures;
• Reduce outages and improve outage response and repair time;
• Improve customer service and consumer choice;
• Implement demand response programs that can conserve resources and reduce costs, especially during periods of peak demand;
• Provide real-time information to end consumers to allow them to better manage their energy consumption; and
• Detect and reduce non-technical grid losses.

About Elster

Elster (NYSE: ELT) is one of the world's largest electricity, gas and water measurement and control providers. Its offerings include distribution monitoring and control, advanced smart metering, demand response, networking and software solutions, and numerous related communications and services – key components for enabling consumer choice, operational efficiency and conservation. Its products and solutions are widely used by utilities in the traditional and emerging Smart Grid markets.  

Elster has one of the most extensive installed revenue measurement 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 residential, commercial and industrial, and transmission and distribution applications.

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

SOURCE Elster