Press release

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, March 17, 2009 Thunder Bay Hydro Selects Elster’s EnergyAxis® System For Smart Grid Interval Data Reading

Elster, a global leader in smart metering and smart grid system solutions, today announced that Thunder Bay Hydro has selected Elster’s EnergyAxis® System to help the utility better manage Ontario’s energy resources.

As part of Ontario's Smart Meter Initiative, the Ontario government has established a goal of collecting hourly interval data from every home in the province by 2010. The EnergyAxis System will allow Thunder Bay Hydro to interpret the collected hourly usage data, and then implement actions to help its consumers better understand and manage their electrical usage supporting the utility’s energy conservation efforts.

“We are pleased that we have been able to quickly reach agreement with Elster on our AMI solution. Elster’s proven track record, flexible, complete and economic EnergyAxis solution, vision for the Smart Grid and knowledge of the applications made this an easy choice for us,” said Robert Mace, CEO of Thunder Bay Hydro.

Thunder Bay Hydro is the first of a second wave of Ontario utilities who are implementing AMI technology. Elster’s EnergyAxis System is already employed by other Ontario utilities and currently gathers more than 1 million meter points of hourly billing data from a wide variety of Ontario energy consumers.

“Thunder Bay Hydro has a clear plan and has demonstrated strong leadership in moving this project forward rapidly,” said Jack Robertson, president and general manager, Elster Metering, Canada. “This will be a quick implementation and we are looking forward to working with Thunder Bay as they continue to pursue their energy conservation initiatives.”