
	May 2008

Itron Releases Enterprise Edition™ Meter Data Management Version 6.0

Itron has announced the release of Itron Enterprise Edition Meter Data Management version 6.0. IEE MDM is the market leading solution for the collection, validation, calculation, and management of utility metering data for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), automated metering (AMR), and commercial and industrial metering deployments.

IEE version 6.0 includes a number of significant enhancements,

including a new application called Mass Market Customer Care, a web-based tool that allows electric, gas and water utilities' end-use customers to access and better understand their energy consumption and cost drivers. For example, it enables a customer to easily compare their usage this year to last year and then drill down to see their hour-by-hour usage for a given day via Internet.

IEE Mass Market Customer Care also provides utility customer service representatives (CSRs) with a complementary toolset so they can respond to the new types of customer questions that arise with the deployment of advanced meters and new demand response rate programs. The CSR toolset includes features such as on-demand meter read capability specifically designed to support advanced metering functions.

Built using a service oriented architecture (SOA), web services, and new portlet technology and standards, Mass Market Customer Care can be deployed and integrated within a utility's existing customer portal site and customer service systems ensuring consistent look and feel for both customers and employees.

Other IEE version 6.0 enhancements include:

Optimization and reduction of storage requirements for meter reading data. As utilities move forward with large-scale AMI deployments, meter data management systems will be required to store billions of meter reading records and terabytes of data. This optimization reduces data storage requirement by more than 40 percent thereby lowering the utility's total cost of ownership.

A new workflow tool enabling MDM operators to quickly troubleshoot and resolve problems that occur with commercial and industrial remote meter interrogations.

New integrated custom reporting and scheduled report delivery functionality.

New interval-based validation and estimation algorithms specifically required for European and Australian markets.

New register reading validation and editing functionality most commonly required in European markets.

"We are pleased to have achieved yet another milestone in performance, scalability, functionality and quality with our sixth major upgrade to the IEE platform. This latest release of Itron Enterprise Edition continues our commitment to provide best-in-class support for both high-scale interval data from advanced metering systems and unmatched management of complex data from advanced industrial meters," said Julie Hance, vice president of Itron software solutions.

In addition to being deployed with Itron's OpenWay® and Fixed Network AMI and AMR solutions, IEE MDM is also deployed and in production with five different third-party AMI and AMR vendor systems. Itron now has 40 licensed IEE MDM customers, with an aggregate licensed capacity of more than 23 million meters.

Webinars Dedicated to Itron Enterprise Edition Scheduled for June

Itron Enterprise Edition™ Meter Data Management Version 6.0 Webinar
Join us for a webinar detailing the new features of Itron Enterprise Edition™ Meter Data Management version 6.0. This latest major release includes enhancements to support both high-scale interval data from advanced metering system and management of complex data from advanced industrial meters. During this webinar, you will learn about:

Register reading validation and editing

Triggering and emailing of custom reports

Remote interrogation work queue

Billing system cycle ID tracking

Readings storage compression

This free webinar is scheduled for June 6, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EDT. Please click here to register for this session.

Itron Enterprise Edition Customer Care Webinar
Learn more about the benefits of using Itron Enterprise Edition™ Customer Care online presentment tools by attending a webinar scheduled for June 26, 2008. This web session will discuss IEE Customer Care solutions for C&I and mass market customers. These tools can be used by both customer service representatives and end-use customers to gain knowledge of energy use and cost, as well as evaluate use during peak periods, and get energy conservation feedback. Plans for the intended use of IEE Customer Care by San Diego Gas & Electric, and Scottish & Southern Energy will also be presented.

This free webinar is scheduled for June 26, 2008 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EDT. To attend this free webinar, click here to register.

Customer Care: Tools for Demand Response

In the last newsletter, you read about ways Itron Enterprise Edition (IEE) Customer Care solutions improve customer service. Also benefiting a utility's customer care is the way IEE Customer Care can improve the effectiveness of demand response programs.

Demand response is the intended effect of enticing customers to reduce energy demand when it is at its most expensive to produce. Demand response programs can take many forms:

time of use pricing, critical peak time prices or rebates, mandatory or voluntary curtailments, demand bidding programs, and more.

To get the most value out of a demand response program, customers need to have the tools to understand what they're being asked to do, how much they could save, and then evaluate their performance after an event occurred.

IEE Customer Care provides the online tools customers need for viewing and understanding their usage and rate, find out when those peak times occur, and evaluate past usage behavior to find out how much energy and money they saved.

Consider the residential customer who hears an announcement on the radio that today is a "Flex your Power" day. He makes an extra effort to keep the air conditioning off, and reduces his appliance usage until after 7:00 p.m. The next day he visits the utility website to see how he did. There, he finds Itron's usage portlet, which displays an hour-by-hour profile of his use for the prior day, and indications of his total on-peak usage. He also looks at a peak time rebate report and learns that he earned a $2.00 credit toward his bill because he reduced his usage 30 percent during that time over what he would have otherwise used. Without the online tools, the consumer wouldn't have that feedback available to him, and might not work so hard next time to save money.

For more information about IEE Customer Care, e-mail knowledge@itron.com.

Pacific Gas and Electric Receives Demand Response Award from PLMA

Pacific Gas and Electric recently received a 2007 Demand Response Award from the Peak Load Management Association in recognition of its demand response programs for commercial and industrial customers, PLMA announced. PG&E utilizes Itron Enterprise Edition Curtailment Manager software as a key technology component of its commercial and industrial demand response programs. The presentation of the awards took place at the PLMA Annual Awards Luncheon during the PLMA Spring Conference in Baltimore, Maryland earlier this month.

PG&E, in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Global Energy Partners LLC, and Akuacom, received the award for its innovation in the use of technology to substantially improve the performance of its commercial and industrial demand response programs. The automated demand response (Auto-DR) program is an automation-based communications infrastructure that provides DR program participants with electronic, Internet-based price and reliability signals that are linked to facility energy management control systems or related building and automation process control systems.

Drawing on successful pilot efforts conducted in previous years, the PG&E team was able to recruit and enable a total of 20 large commercial, industrial and institutional customers representing 82 utility service accounts with Auto-DR systems. Over the course of the summer of 2007, when DR events were called by PG&E, Auto-DR participants were able to shed their loads according to the pre-specified plans set up during the period of enablement. Customers were notified of pending events and would always have the capability and knowledge to override the automation system and opt-out of specific DR events if their conditions did not warrant participating. By linking existing advanced control technologies with the Internet, PG&E was able to systematically establish automated load control from PG&E's load dispatch center all the way to the customer end-use loads. This is a breakthrough in the DR industry and could lead to substantial DR program performance if adopted on a more wide-scale basis.

Particularly impressive about the Auto-DR effort was the fact that automation tended to improve the effectiveness of DR program performance. The average load shed during the 2007 DR season for automated CPP customers was 8 percent while the average shed for a sample of comparable non-automated CPP customers was a negative 1 percent. PG&E believes that similar patterns will emerge in 2008 when they compare automated demand bidding (DBP) customers to non-automated DBP customers.