ITRON RELEASES OPENWAY® COLLECTION ENGINE WITH ENHANCED SECURITY FEATURES

Industry leading release to be implemented by customers for smart metering

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — February 11, 2009 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today the release and initial shipments of an enhanced security version of its OpenWay Collection Engine that enables strong authentication and enhanced security for use in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployments. While the current version of OpenWay software is fully compliant with security and encryption to meet industry and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C12.22 standards, the optional enhanced security version exceeds these requirements by providing industry leading security consistent with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) “Critical Cyber Asset” requirements.

Based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), Itron is utilizing Certicom's AMI 7000® series of meter communication encryption and key management appliances in OpenWay to secure end-to-end network messages from the OpenWay Collection Engine down to the OpenWay CENTRON® meter.

The security architecture inherent to OpenWay, combined with these enhanced signing and encryption capabilities, is designed to meet the two-way command and control needs for AMI and Smart Grid network platforms. It provides strong integrity of control, non-repudiation, availability and confidentiality.

"Our customers are demanding a level of security that is currently not provided by anyone in this industry," said Philip Mezey, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Itron North America. "With the release of our optional enhanced security version, Itron now offers unparalleled network and metering system security, further enhancing our energy management and measurement technologies as we work toward development of the Smart Grid."

About Itron:
Itron Inc. is a leading technology provider to the global energy and water industries. Itron Inc. consists of Itron in North America and Actaris outside of North America. Our company is the world’s leading provider of metering, data collection and utility software solutions, with nearly 8,000 utilities worldwide relying on our technology to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Our products include electricity, gas and water meters, data collection and communication systems, including automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); meter data management and related software applications; as well as project management, installation, and consulting services. To know more, start here: www.itron.com.

For additional information, contact:
Deloris Duquette
Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
(509) 891-3523
deloris.duquette@itron.com

Kim Papich
Itron Communications and Marketing
(509) 891-3590
kim.papich@itron.com

For Certicom:
John Callahan
(703) 234-2357
jcallahan@certicom.com