Alaska Village Electric Cooperative receives Utility Automation and Engineering T&D's 2005 AMR Project of the Year Award.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- EnergyAxis(R) System Deployment in Remote Alaskan Villages Benefits Both the Utility and Cooperative Members

Elster Electricity, LLC announces that the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AVEC) was awarded the "2005 AMR Project of the Year" by Utility Automation and Engineering T&D(TM) magazine, a PennWell publication, for their deployment of Elster's EnergyAxis System in the summer of 2005. Award winners were selected based on the size and scope of the project, level of innovation used, benefits to the utility, its customers and the power industry as a whole, and clarity of the written project description.

Meera Kohler, president and CEO of AVEC said, "Elster's EnergyAxis System is our long-sought answer to AMR in the genuine last frontier of the United States. Deploying the system in five of our 52 villages last summer was one of the easiest installations we could have imagined. The system has already demonstrated that it is robust, tolerant of extreme cold, and ready to face all challenges. We look forward to extending the system throughout our service area and bringing this sophisticated, yet simple, technology to our communities."

"We are pleased that the industry is recognizing our system and we are honored that AVEC was selected for this award," stated Sharon Allan, chief knowledge officer of Elster Electricity. "The EnergyAxis System is designed to help utilities better serve their customers and position their companies to meet the smart metering language of the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPACT)."

According to Steve Brown, editor of Utility Automation and Engineering T&D, "With the AVEC project, we felt that there was a definite benefit to the utility and its customers. Reading hard-to-reach meters has always been one of the primary benefits of AMR, and you won't find too many utilities with harder-to-read meters than what AVEC has. This was a textbook example of a utility improving its operations through the use of technology. The large geographic area covered was another factor in selecting AVEC for this award. We also felt that this was a very unique project based on the environment, geography, and challenging weather conditions."

About the EnergyAxis System

The EnergyAxis System for residential, commercial, and industrial metering automation uses a powerful two-way RF communication system with Elster's electronic single phase REX(R) meter. The system's advanced architecture uses the A3 ALPHA(R) meter as the host for local data collection from a network of REX meters. The network uses an intelligent, two-way spread spectrum frequency-hopping technology with self-registration to provide secure, reliable communications between network meters and data collectors. This technology enables individual meters to act as repeaters, creating a dynamic communications path that optimizes signal strength and reliability.

About Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AVEC) www.avec.org

AVEC covers the largest area of any electric cooperative in the world. It is a non-profit electric utility that serves residents in 52 locations throughout rural Alaska. AVEC is an electric cooperative, financed by loans from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. The total population served by AVEC is approximately 20,000 people. AVEC has more power plants than all other RUS financed cooperatives in the State of Alaska combined. The Cooperative's 52 member villages span from as far north as Kivalina, to as far south as Old Harbor on Kodiak Island, and as far west as Gambell on St. Lawrence Island (within sight of Siberia), to as far east as Minto, located approximately 80 miles west of Fairbanks.

About Elster Electricity, LLC www.elsterelectricity.com

Elster Electricity is a provider of advanced metering infrastructure solutions to help utilities improve their revenue cycle services, customer service, delivery reliability, and workforce utilization. Elster Electricity is located in Raleigh, North Carolina and is part of the world's largest multi-utility metering company for electricity, water, and gas metering.