Charlottesville, VA Awards Turnkey Project to ABB

After a nine month technology and performance investigation, the City of Charlottesville, VA announced the award of a $4.1 million product and installation contract to ABB Water Meters, Inc., Ocala, Florida for replacement and upgrade of water and gas meters and conversion to drive-by radio reading. In response to Charlottesville's RFP, ABB assembled a team combining ABB Water Meters, Inc., American Meter, Inc., Itron, Inc. and Fieldtech for the project.

A key factor in the award was ABB's financial strength and ability to meet Charlottesville's total requirements. Brock Strickler, Charlottesville's Utility Billing Manager, said turnkey experience was a critical part of the evaluation. "Once we decided that we did not have the capability to undertake this project in-house, " commented Strickler, "we wanted an experienced supplier to direct the project. We were confident ABB could do the job since they've successfully managed comparable projects."

The Charlottesville project combines 13,000 5/8" to 6" water meters with integral mounted radio transmitters supplied by ABB Water Meters, Inc., 7,400 new gas meters supplied by American Meter, 8,600 gas meter retrofits, and 16,200 gas meter modules and drive-by reading equipment supplied by Itron, Inc. Over a 9-month period, beginning in September 2000, Fieldtech will install all products. David Langridge, Ocala, FL, will head the ABB Project Management Team.

ABB Water Meters, Inc. is an operating company within the Automation segment of ABB. ABB is the world's leading water meter manufacturer, producing over 8 million meters each year. ABB is a global engineering and technology company serving customers in automation; power transmission and distribution; oil, gas and petrochemicals; building technologies; and financial services. U.S. operations employ over 16,000 people at manufacturing and other facilities in 40 states. Worldwide, ABB Group reported 1999 revenues of $25 billion and employs 160,000 people in more than 100 countries.

Itron Inc. is a leading provider to the utility industry of solutions for collecting, communicating and analyzing information about electric, gas and water usage. Itron systems are installed at more than 1,500 utilities in 45 countries around the world and are used to collect data from 275 million electric, gas and water meters. Over 16.5 million meters have also been automated with Itron technology, making Itron the technology choice for utilities upgrading to more advanced data management and communication systems.

For more information on ABB's Turnkey Capability or metering and meter reading products, contact the Customer Service Department at ABB Water Meters, Inc., P.O. Box 1852, Ocala FL, 34478. Outside Florida, please call 800-874-0890 or inside Florida 800-356-6829.