Orders of 550,000 Solid-State Electric Meters for Itron

SMUD to Deploy Itron's Mobile Meter Reading Technology

Itron Inc. announced today it has received an order through its distributor General Pacific, Inc, to provide the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) with approximately 550,000 solid-state electric meters. SMUD plans to use Itron's Mobile Automatic Meter Reading (MAMR) technology to automate its system over the next three years.

SMUD, the nation's sixth largest community-owned electric utility in terms of customers served, has nearly 600,000 meters. The utility is a longtime Itron customer and already uses Itron's PremierPlus 4 meter reading system, G5R handheld computers and Itron Mobile Collectors. The utility has already deployed more than 75,000 Itron meters and will add additional Mobile Collectors as needed.

Itron's industry leading AMR technology enables utilities to collect data from electric, natural gas and water meters automatically via radio signal. As a result, utilities are able to read meters efficiently and accurately, while eliminating the need for meter readers to access the customers' properties every month. To date, Itron has shipped more than 50 million automated meters and AMR modules to utilities worldwide.

"By installing Itron's automated solid-state metering technology, Sacramento Municipal Utility District joins a growing number of utilities that are putting into place a system that will enable operational efficiencies," said Malcolm Unsworth, senior vice president of Itron's hardware solutions. "We are glad that SMUD has chosen to work with Itron on this important project."

By Itron