04/11/2007

Today, IBM announced that it has begun a new coalition to accelerate the adoption of Intelligent Utility Network (IUN) technologies and solutions on a global basis. CenterPoint Energy, Inc.'s (NYSE: CNP) electric transmission and distribution subsidiary, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC, is the founding member of a group of utility companies working with IBM on this initiative.

ebizQ received the following:

The Intelligent Utility Network Coalition is being launched and developed by IBM to help accelerate the adoption of IUN technologies and solutions on a global basis. This effort will include: establishing an industry community for collaboration, knowledge sharing, education and innovation; working with energy industry and standards groups, and the development and deployment of IUN strategic solutions and technologies. The CenterPoint Energy IUN is based on a service oriented architecture and is built using IBM WebSphere Modeler software, an IBM DB2 database, and IBM WebSphere Portal software. Utilities and related companies based in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific are expected to join CenterPoint Energy in the initiative over the next several months.

"We're excited to be the founding member of this coalition. We expect that the Intelligent Grid will improve electric power line grid planning, operations, and maintenance, enabling us to deliver power more efficiently. We also expect the technology to contribute to fewer and shorter outages and higher productivity while maintaining our high level of data security," said Tom Standish, CenterPoint Energy Group President, Regulated Operations. "This innovative technology will provide on-demand data and information that will create a platform for exciting new products and better service for our customers."

IBM and CenterPoint Energy are engaged in a strategic effort to develop and deploy IUN solutions designed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of utility operations at CenterPoint Energy and to increase the ability of customers to manage and use energy in a more cost-effective and energy-efficient way.

IBM and CenterPoint Energy have been collaborating on several projects including the initial limited deployment of an Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI), which allows remote connection and disconnection of service and automated meter reads for customers in the Greater Houston area. In the future, this technology is designed to allow Retail Electric Providers (REPs) in the competitive Texas electric market the opportunity to offer customers enhanced products and services, and to facilitate movement by customers between electric providers. The new technology is also expected to give customers the ability to better manage their energy usage using real time price signals and the ability to remotely control appliances to reduce consumption.

In conjunction with the AMI project, IBM and CenterPoint Energy are implementing components of a "self-healing grid," which will provide grid data, information and analytics to improve outage detection and outage restoration times, grid planning, and ongoing operations. This limited deployment provides the field trials that will enable CenterPoint Energy to have an automated and proactive capability to anticipate problems, find solutions and optimize the performance of its power delivery system. For customers, that would mean improved electric service reliability, as well as better and quicker responses to outages. IBM Global Services is collaborating with CenterPoint Energy on the implementation and deployment of the telecommunications network required to support IUN initiatives, including the design and implementation support for the Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) technology used as a component of the overall communication infrastructure.

An Intelligent Utility Network, or IUN, is an information architecture and infrastructure that enables the continuous automated monitoring of a utility's assets and operations as well as customer electricity usage, and uses this ˇ§on demandˇ¨ information to improve service, reliability and efficiency. This includes a combination of "smart" technologies and analytics, which connect and facilitate information flows and remote monitoring and control among utility equipment installed in the field and computers in central offices, providing real-time access to operations and business data.