Consumers use smart meter data to cut electric use by average of 26 percent

AUSTIN (December 15, 2011) – As Texas made history this summer with extreme, record-breaking temperatures, the top 10 percent of residents across the state who used smart meter technology to participate in the Biggest Energy Saver^SM Campaign cut their usage by nearly a third, or enough to power approximately six average homes.

“In spite of being the hottest summer on record in Texas,” said Grid 21 Executive Director Steve Hauser, “the Biggest Energy Saver contestants used smart meter technology to reduce their energy footprint and save money.”

While summer may be just a memory, the energy usage information gained from smart meters empowers customers to make more informed decisions year-round. This contest attracted participants from all backgrounds and demonstrated that when equipped with more frequent and detailed electricity usage information, simple changes can mean big savings, no matter where a customer lives. In the words of Darla Seible, a Biggest Energy Saver winner from the Dallas area, “Your bill is never a surprise anymore.”

In June, Texas’ biggest electric delivery utilities—CenterPoint Energy and Oncor—along with advanced metering system providers—Itron and Landis+Gyr—launched an unprecedented campaign to jumpstart the market for customer-friendly energy-management tools, while demonstrating to consumers the benefits made possible by using information from smart meter technology.

At the launch of the contest, Texas regulators underscored the importance of leading by example. “Texas has always been a global leader in energy and innovation,” former Texas Public Utilities Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman said this summer. “We have a robust competitive market and are investing billions of dollars to improve our power grid, support a cleaner generation and improve reliability. We couldn’t be more proud to have the two largest utilities in Texas with the broadest deployment of advanced meters in Texas leading the way through this new 21st century technology.”

The Biggest Energy Saver contest generated interest from every state in the U.S. and more than 80 countries. In the period following the contest announcement, the Smart Meter Texas portal experienced a boost in registration of 172 percent over the same period last year.

Biggest Energy Saver Consumer Contest Winners & Details

The average savings for the top 10 percent of contest participants during the contest period was 26 percent. During the contest period, the average home consumed 3,888 kWh per month while the top 10 percent of consumer contest participants used an average of 3,604 kWh per month.

As Grand Prize winner for the Houston area, Mike Butler, described his experience, “Saving electricity became a game when you got into the spirit of the contest.”

The retail value of the awarded prizes totaled $124,645. Additionally, in-home displays enabling easier monitoring of energy use, supplied by Tendril and GE, were awarded to more than 300 eligible contest entrants. More than 320 eligible participants also received $25 gift cards as incentives to join the contest or to reward participation in the online community.

Biggest Energy Saver Application Developer Winners & Details

The campaign included a nationwide call for the development of applications to enable customers to better monitor and control their home usage that resulted in cash winnings of $80,000 for three application developers.

About the Biggest Energy Saver^SM Campaign and Contest

Launched in June 2011, the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign was created to spark development of new apps that will help customers easily understand and use information from their smart meters, while rewarding customers who make the most of their smart meter data to reduce their energy usage and potentially lower their electric bills. The founding partners of the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign are CenterPoint Energy and Oncor, and the founding technology partners are Landis+Gyr and Itron. IBM was also a collaborator, and GE and Tendril are prize partners.

The Biggest Energy Saver Consumer Contest, sponsored by Grid 21, challenged residential electricity consumers whose electricity is delivered by Oncor or CenterPoint Energy and who reside in the state of Texas to reduce their electric energy consumption and demonstrate the benefits of using smart meter energy consumption information. The contest ran August 1, 2011 – September 30, 2011.

For more information and contest details, visit the online community at www.BiggestEnergySaver.com.

About Grid 21
Grid 21 is a new non-profit organization committed to engaging electricity customers in using a new generation of tools and technologies to better manage their electricity consumption. Contact Steve Hauser 303-275-3122.

About Oncor
Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC “Oncor” is a regulated electricity distribution and transmission business that uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to customers. Oncor operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, delivering power to approximately 3 million homes and businesses and operating approximately 118,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines in Texas. While Oncor is owned by a limited number of investors (including majority owner, Energy Future Holdings Corp.), Oncor is managed by its Board of Directors, which is comprised of a majority of independent directors.  For more information, visit www.oncor.com. Contact:  Alison Cox, 877-426-1616

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
CenterPoint Energy, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a domestic energy delivery company that includes electric transmission and distribution, natural gas distribution, competitive natural gas sales and services, interstate pipelines and field services operations. The company serves more than five million metered customers primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. Assets total nearly $21 billion. With about 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 135 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. Contact Floyd LeBlanc, 713-207-7125.

About Landis+Gyr
Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management products tailored to energy company needs and unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Landis+Gyr operates in more than 30 countries across five continents, and employs over 5,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better. For more information please visit www.landisgyr.com.  Contact: Thor Valdmanis, 212-850-5696

About Itron
At Itron, we’re dedicated to delivering end-to-end smart grid and smart distribution solutions to electric, gas and water utilities around the globe. Our company is the world’s leading provider of smart metering, data collection and utility software systems, with nearly 8,000 utilities worldwide relying on our technology to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Our offerings include electricity, gas, water and heat meters; network communication technology; collection systems and related software applications; and professional services. To realize your smarter energy and water future, start here: www.itron.com. Contact: Sharelynn Moore, 509-891-3524

About GE Appliances & Lighting
GE Appliances & Lighting spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliances, lighting, systems and services for commercial, industrial and residential use. Technology innovation and the company’s ecomagination(SM) initiative enable GE Appliances & Lighting to aggressively bring to market products and solutions that help customers meet pressing environmental challenges. General Electric (NYSE: GE), imagination at work, sells products under the Monogram®, Profile™, GE®, Hotpoint®, Reveal® and Energy Smart® consumer brands, and Tetra®, Vio™ and Immersion® commercial brands. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com. Contact: Kimberly Freeman, 502-452-7819

IBM and Smart Grid
IBM is involved in more than 150 Smart Grid engagements in mature and emerging markets. More about IBM’s vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet.  Contact: Fabienne Guildhary, 917-472-3733

About Tendril
Tendril is the Energy Platform company, delivering end-to-end consumer engagement products, applications and services powered by Tendril Connect™—an open, secure and scalable platform that takes the complexity out of the Energy Internet and creates a dialogue between energy service providers and their customers. Delivering consumer engagement software, in-home products and applications as well as easy to integrate utility solutions such as Demand Response and Energy Efficiency, Tendril offers unparalleled insight into energy decisions, making the Energy Marketplace a reality. The company is venture backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Good Energies, RRE Ventures and GE. For more information, visit   www.tendrilinc.com.  Contact: Sheila O’Neill, 303-324-7310