E.ON UK Chooses Elster for Gas and Electricity Smart Metering Deployment

ESSEN, Germany, April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Elster (NYSE: ELT) announced today that E.ON UK, one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, has selected Elster as its Smart Metering partner for the first phase of its dual fuel Smart Metering rollout. E.ON will deploy up to 100,000 Elster Smart Meters in residential properties by the end of 2012, with up to 200,000 more being installed in 2013 under the terms of a two-year contract.

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The deployment includes one of Elster's latest innovations, the next generation AS300P electricity Smart Meter with its modular communications hub, and the BK-G4E gas Smart Meter, to help E.ON meet its commitment to install one million Smart Meters across the UK by 2014.

Don Leiper, director of new business at E.ON, said: "We are committed to providing our customers with tools which put them in control of their energy. Our customers want more accurate bills, more innovative products and more control over their energy use. Smart Meters give us the opportunity to provide this and we are working hard to ensure that our customers who wish to receive the early benefits of Smart Metering are able to do so."

"Our customers want Smart Meters and those who now have them are extremely pleased with the technology, in terms of putting them in control of their energy use and bringing an end to estimated bills," he said. "We selected Elster on the strength of its modular platform architecture and ability to include and support end-to-end security that ensures privacy of consumer data. Elster is providing us with flexible smart gas and electricity meters as we further rollout an integrated solution to deliver the benefits of Smart Metering to our customers," Leiper added.

Elster designed its innovative BK-G4E and AS300P meters specifically to support tailored solutions for utilities working to comply with the European directive for smart gas and electricity metering. The meters are interoperable by design, meet the latest industry standards for data privacy and security and provide customers with the most up-to-date technology to protect against fraud and tampering.

"We are very pleased to be selected as E.ON's Smart Metering partner, particularly for such a strategically important rollout. The UK Government's foundation stage of the Smart Metering rollout is gaining critical momentum and is vital to ensuring the UK meets the EU's 2020 energy directive targets," said Frank Hyldmar, executive vice president of Elster's international electricity business.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has set out the overall strategy and timetable for the installation of 53 million Smart Meters in 30 million homes and businesses across the UK. The foundation stage, which runs through to the time when the Data and Communications Company (DCC) is delivered, and precedes the start of the formal mandate, will allow all participants – energy companies and suppliers, government, consumer groups and other interested bodies – to prepare their processes and systems, and begin to deploy meters to prove their readiness for the mass rollout.

E.ON began installing Smart Meters in spring 2011 and has installed over 100,000 Smart Meters across the country so far. E.ON will install one million Smart Meters during the foundation period which runs until 2014.

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

SOURCE Elster