Itron Lands Major South Korean Contract State-Owned Utility Company Buys Handheld System

Itron Inc. will supply an advanced handheld electronic meter-reading system to South Korea’s principal government-owned utility.

The first phase of the contract is valued at $7.5 million, which qualifies as one of Itron’s major sales of handheld systems.

“In terms of our handheld systems business it is a very large sale,” Mima Scarpelli, Itron’s treasurer said Friday. “The largest handheld system sale we had was in 1995 to Tokyo Electric Power. That was about $11 million worth of business.”

The initial phase of the contract will automate 193 utility meter reading offices throughout South Korea. That will cover 70 to 80 percent of the country’s electric meters, Scarpelli said. The second phase, which will be discussed by the parties in 1997, would cover the remaining South Korean meters with an automatic reading system.

KEPCO serves all of South Korea’s 13 million electric customers as well as 60 percent of the country’s cable television market. The Itron system will automate all phases of KEPCO’s meter reading operations, including data collection, customer bill delivery in the field and updating customer files at KEPCO’s 15 regional offices.

Spokane-based Itron is a leader in automatic meter-reading systems. The handheld computer systems allow meter readers to punch in readings from meters at each individual customer location, and then dump that information into the company’s data base.

A more advanced version of the system allows the meter reader to merely park within 800 feet of the meter site, and gather the information through wireless radio transmission.

KEPCO system components include Itron’s new MS-DOS-based handheld computer - the Genesis Portable Computer - and an attached printer that was custom-designed by Itron to KEPCO’s specifications. The Genesis can be upgraded to include wireless off-site meter reading.

Johnny Humphreys, Itron’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release Friday that the upgrade capabilities of the Itron system being sold to KEPCO was an important factor in Itron’s winning the South Korean Contract.

“We were chosen largely on the basis of our proven track record for installing high-quality EMR systems worldwide, for our ability to meet KEPCO’s quality and extensive field deployment requirements, and for the Genesis Personal Computer’s ability to add radio-based automatic meter reading capabilities through a PC card.”

The KEPCO system is among a number of large-scale Itron systems to be deployed in the Pacific Rim over the last few years.

“We are having some great success in terms of the Pacific Rim with our handheld products,” Scarpelli said. “This gives us great confidence in terms of what may lie ahead for future automatic meter reading system sales there as well.”

Itron has systems installed at over 1,300 customers in more than 40 countries. Headquartered in Spokane, Itron has engineering, design and manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, as well as subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

, DataTimes