Lynda Ziegler, Senior Vice President of Customer Service, SCE

Rosemead, CA, and West Union, SC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- June 23, 2009 - The first of more than 4 million smart meters destined for Southern California Edison (SCE) have started rolling off an automated production line.

The OpenWay smart meters from Itron were selected by SCE as part of its Edison SmartConnect smart metering program.

OpenWay is a standards-based, open architecture smart metering solution that features two-way wireless communication to state-of-the-art OpenWay CENTRON electricity meters. SCE plans to have all the meters deployed by 2012.

The Edison SmartConnect program is a key component of SCE’s leadership in managing increasing demand for electricity from customers and providing environmental leadership through energy efficiency, demand management, electric transportation and smart grid technologies.

“Delivery of the OpenWay system and meters represents an important milestone in the advancement of Edison SmartConnect and our ability to enable customers to make more informed energy choices,” said Lynda Ziegler, senior vice president of Customer Service for SCE.

The meters are being manufactured at Itron’s Oconee manufacturing facility in West Union, SC. In order to meet the new technical challenges and volume opportunities of the smart grid market, and to fulfill larger orders such as SCE’s, Itron has committed to a multi-year development of a $10 million fully automated line.

“SCE has been an important Itron customer for more than two decades, and it’s been exciting to watch the company evolve into an industry leader in smart metering,” said Malcolm Unsworth, Itron president and chief executive officer. “

SCE serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and southern California.