Xcel Energy and Itron Collaborate to Bring Advanced Technology to Energy Industry

Xcel Energy announced today that it entered an agreement with Itron to secure smart meters to install across its system. The agreement creates a new strategic collaboration with Itron to develop industry-leading smart technology for the energy grid and to give customers more insight into their energy usage, while enhancing grid reliability and improving response time to outages.

The relationship will help bring cutting-edge smart meters to Xcel Energy customers over the next five years and create opportunities for innovative new software applications, or apps, which will enable customers to transform the way they use energy. Ultimately, the goal is to help people save energy and money, while helping the industry shift to cleaner sources of power on an even more reliable advanced energy grid.

"This collaboration is exciting because we're not just developing the next generation of smart meters," said Brett Carter, Xcel Energy's chief customer and innovation officer, and executive vice president. "Combining forces with Itron allows us to work together on new applications to benefit our customers and build the electrical grid of the future."

"Itron's proven solution connects millions of devices to deliver real-time solutions to today's challenges," said Sharelynn Moore, senior vice president of Networked Solutions at Itron. "We are thrilled to collaborate with Xcel Energy to improve customer experience by harnessing the connectivity and intelligence of the Industrial IoT to deliver smarter solutions."

The new apps are expected to be able to generate real-time energy usage information for homes and businesses, in order to help customers save electricity and money. The technology will be capable of things like monitoring the energy efficiency of individual appliances in customers' homes and allow for the development of submetering for charging electric vehicles. Ultimately, even more apps will be developed to provide for things like flexible billing and potentially, even prepaid electricity plans.

Smart meters and the support for innovative new apps are an important step in Xcel Energy's efforts toward building an advanced electrical grid that will supply clean, reliable energy and provide customers with new ways to save money and control their energy usage. Xcel Energy plans to eventually install smart meters throughout its entire service territory, subject to regulatory approval.

About Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) provides the energy that powers millions of homes and businesses across eight Western and Midwestern states. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the company is an industry leader in responsibly reducing carbon emissions and producing and delivering clean energy solutions from a variety of renewable sources at competitive prices. For more information, visit xcelenergy.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.