TESCO Wins 2010 Platts Global Energy Award For Energy Efficiency Program of the Year, Commercial End-User

RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Elster (NYSE: ELT) is proud to announce that TESCO, a UK-based retailer, has been awarded the prestigious 2010 Platts Global Energy Award for Energy Efficiency Program of the Year, Commercial End-User.

Established in 1999 and widely recognized as the "Oscars" of the energy industry, Platts Global Energy Awards highlight corporate and individual innovation, leadership, and superior performance in 17 categories spanning the entire energy complex. 2010 winners were honored at a gala awards ceremony in New York City.

Winners were chosen by a panel of expert judges of energy ministers, national regulators, past and present heads of major energy companies, and leading academics and legislators. TESCO was selected from a pool of more than 200 nominations. In the Energy Efficiency Program of the Year, Commercial End-User category alone, TESCO was up against eight other well established companies, including Coca-Cola Enterprises and McDonald's USA LLC. Platts bestows its Energy Efficiency Program of the Year award each year to two companies, an exemplary commercial end-user and an exemplary energy supplier.

TESCO has one of the largest portfolios of energy consumption in the UK. Recognizing its responsibility to reduce the carbon footprint of its business, TESCO created aggressive goals to create a greener, more sustainable business, including a goal to reduce its overall carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2020.

One of the key partnerships TESCO formed to help it reduce energy consumption was with EnergyICT, an Elster Company. Elster provides energy management, Smart Grid and Smart Metering solutions. EnergyICT's sophisticated energy management platform, EIServer, incorporates vital functionalities that are indispensable to modern energy management systems. These capabilities include meter data management (MDM) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) support, which helps customers like TESCO data-mine the vast quantities of energy information and highlight areas of energy inefficiency, enabling increased energy observation and more efficient energy management.

"Delivering energy efficiency through better use of data has been one of our biggest goals at TESCO," said Richard Lee, head of energy at TESCO. "Elster's EnergyICT was instrumental in this effort, and we are very pleased that our initiatives have been recognized."

"TESCO is paving the way for corporate energy reduction and is well ahead of UK standards," said Stefan Grosjean, founder and chief executive officer of EnergyICT. "For its energy initiatives, TESCO very much deserves the Platts Global Energy Awards for Energy Efficiency Program of the Year."

Earlier this year, the European Commission also awarded EnergyICT a 2010 European Business Award for the Environment for its work with TESCO.

About Elster

Elster (NYSE: ELT) is one of the world's largest electricity, gas and water measurement and control providers. Our 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. Our 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.

About Platts

Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading global provider of energy and commodities information. With a century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. An independent provider, Platts serves the oil, natural gas, electricity, emissions, nuclear power, coal, petrochemical, shipping, and metals markets from 17 offices worldwide. Platts' real-time news, pricing, analytical services and conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon Platts to help them make better business decisions. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.

SOURCE Elster