May 06 2005

TANTALUS BRIDGES DIGITAL DIVIDE
TUNet Support for Residential and C&I Solid-State Meters

Vancouver , BC, Canada – May 06, 2005 – Tantalus announces that it now supports a variety of singlephase and polyphase electricity meters. These new meter solutions, both electromechanical and electronic, will be displayed at the North American Transmission & Distribution Exposition in Toronto on May 10 and 11, 2005.

By extending the Tantalus Utility Network (TUNet®) to include both solid-state and electromechanical meters, Tantalus takes a significant step in product evolution and provides its utility customers with affordable wireless communication capabilities for new and existing residential and commercial meters.

The TUNet wireless meter module fits seamlessly under-the-glass of new and existing meters. The two-way connection between the meter and the utility enables the utility to gather up-to-the-second reads, monitor voltage, and detect power outages and restorals in real time. TUNet provides the communications backbone on which a utility can add new services and introduce smart metering initiatives such as demand-response programs and time-of-use billing that enable consumers to better manage their electricity consumption.

As an independent developer, Tantalus is committed to ensuring that utilities can select metering solutions based on their specific needs, and not on the commercial needs of a particular vendor.

“Combining TUNet’s communication capabilities with feature-rich residential and commercial solid-state meters provides utilities with an unprecedented view of their network and the power to control many applications. The convergence of electronic meters with wireless communication generates more precise energy measurement data and offers real-time access to that data,” says Eric Murray, Tantalus’ VP of Sales and Business Development. “TUNet enables utilities to take full advantage of this information and provide consumers highly accurate energy monitoring and powerful management tools to assist in every situation and environment – commercial and residential, urban and rural.”

TUNet – the Tantalus Utility Network – is an efficient two-way, long-range communications network designed to support a full range of utility applications including advanced metering, outage management, power quality monitoring, load management, and distribution automation. These features make it both practical and cost-effective for a utility to introduce advanced services such as demand response programs and time of use billing.

About Tantalus
Founded in 1989, Tantalus is a privately owned wireless communications company that designs, develops, and markets two-way, real-time data communications networks to monitor and control electric, gas, and water utilities. The Tantalus Utility Network helps utilities extend the capacity of their energy delivery infrastructure by giving them a snapshot of their entire distribution system at any point in time. This real-time network is designed specifically for utilities and supports outage management, power quality monitoring, advanced meter reading, load management, and distribution automation.