LONDON, March 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Landis+Gyr, the world's largest electricity metering and smart meter solutions company and a pioneer of worldwide smart grid realisation, today announced it has been selected by the UK's largest energy supplier, British Gas (parent company Centrica ) to support the UK's first commercial-scale smart meter deployment in an energy efficiency effort that could save consumers more than 200 million pounds in energy bills.

The deal will see British Gas deploy up to one million of Landis+Gyr's dual fuel electricity and gas smart meters, along with Landis+Gyr's innovative touch screen in-home display, in UK customer homes, marking one of the fastest, largest and most advanced smart meter deployments in Europe.

Under the deployment, which will precede the UK's main smart metering rollout, consumers will be able to independently manage their energy consumption, cut their energy bills and protect the environment. A quarter of CO2 emissions in the UK come from homes.

British Gas and Landis+Gyr plan an open development, based wherever possible on existing standards, to help to accelerate the UK's national smart metering roll-out and encourage the faster development of a range of 'smart' household appliances, from intelligent dishwashers to self-regulating heating controls. As part of the development, Landis+Gyr will share details of its smart metering system with third parties, allowing UK businesses a fast track to the creation of new and innovative solutions aimed at consumers, suppliers and utilities alike. This move - another industry first - is intended to provide other utilities with an open, practical blueprint for commercial-scale smart metering, crystallising guidance provided by both the UK Department of Energy Climate Change (DECC) and UK regulator Ofgem (the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets).

Cameron O'Reilly, CEO of Landis+Gyr, said, Our partnership with British Gas represents a major breakthrough for smart metering in the UK. Together, we will pioneer the technical and practical standards that we hope will see every home and business in the country switch to smart metering within the next decade. We are proud and pleased to have been selected for such an instrumental role in this major deployment.

This is also great news for up to a million British Gas customers who could save as much as 200 million pounds on their energy bills by the time the main UK rollout is completed in 2020.

British Gas is the first of the country's Big Six utilities to undertake a major deployment following the publication last December of the DECC's final plans for a national roll-out by 2020.

We view this smart metering roll-out as one of our largest and most important projects ever, said Petter Allison, Director for Smart Metering for British Gas. Smart meters have a fundamental role to play as they help customers become far more aware of the amount and cost of energy they use which encourages people to reduce their usage and save money.

In the UK, Landis+Gyr employs just under 500 people at manufacturing and RD sites in Stockport and Peterborough, developing gas and electricity smart metering solutions to serve the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market for the company. Landis+Gyr's technology currently supports 3 out of 4 of the UK's official Government smart meter trials.

The UK can lead the world into second-generation smart metering and energy management and this announcement marks the beginning of that process, added Steve Cunningham, Landis+Gyr CEO for UK Ireland. British Gas customers will be able to actively manage their energy consumption and drive down their bills whilst a future large-scale smart grid infrastructure will allow British Gas to manage demand, protect the distribution network and optimise energy generation, including intermittent sources of renewable energy.

Landis+Gyr is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the global smart metering opportunity. The company is the world's largest player in the electricity metering space according to research firm IMS and has won hundreds of millions of US dollars in new advanced meter orders around the world during the last 12 months, including major contracts in Australia, across the Nordics countries, and in the United States. The company spends approximately 60 million pounds (USD 90 million) per year on research and development to ensure that it has the broadest technology portfolio in the industry and has recently released its latest generation in-home display, targeting the rapidly growing market for in-home energy monitoring and management. In addition to its smart metering wins, the company has also had substantial success in South America and India with its new anti-theft technologies which enable utilities to provide electricity to areas that otherwise might go without.

The deployment of smart metering and the consequent empowerment of consumers to actively participate in the energy market is the first step towards the creation of a 'Smart Grid', an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the actions of all users connected to it - generators, consumers and those that do both - in order to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure electricity supplies.

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading provider of integrated energy management solutions tailored to energy company needs. With a global presence and a reputation for quality and innovation, Landis+Gyr is unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Today, the Company offers the broadest portfolio of products and services in the electricity metering industry, and is paving the way for the next generation of smart grid. With annualized sales of more than US$1.25 billion, Landis+Gyr operates in over 30 countries across five continents, and employs nearly 5,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better.

For more information about Landis+Gyr, please visit the corporate website at http://www.landisgyr.com

SOURCE: Landis+Gyr

CONTACT: Oliver Williams, FD, +44-(0)20-7269-7294, oliver.williams@fd.com