IBM announced today it has signed an eight-year agreement to install and manage a new utility services billing system for the City of Austin that is designed to improve customer service while preparing the city for broader green energy initiatives.

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The new billing system will support the city's electric, water and waste-collection operations and other city operational fees. It will have an open architecture, be compatible with other city systems, and be capable of providing real time access to information for customers and employees. The goal is to provide a single point of contact for customers through multiple communications channels for utility-based products and services.

More importantly, the billing system, when combined with new meters the city plans to deploy this fall, will allow the city to begin implementing a smart electric grid. By providing consumers with real-time information on their energy consumption, smart grids help customers better manage their energy usage and lower their monthly bills. For utilities like Austin Energy, smart grids make it easier to detect outages and integrate cleaner, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

"The City of Austin has long been at the forefront of green energy initiatives, so we are excited to work with the city on this new billing system, which will lay the groundwork for the development of a smart grid in Central Texas," said Jeff Smith, vice president, Communications Sector Solutions, IBM.

IBM and the City of Austin are members of the Pecan Street Project (www.pecanstreetproject.org), a consortium of public and private partners including Austin Energy, Austin Technology Incubator, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, The University of Texas at Austin, Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GridPoint, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and SEMATECH. The group's goal is to design a clean energy infrastructure, business model and proving ground for tomorrow's energy technology.

The new billing system consists of the Oracle Customer Care and Billing application running on IBM WebSphere and IBM Tivoli middleware.

IBM and Smart Grid

Infrastructure investments are at the forefront of stimulus packages around the world to spur economic growth. Smart systems are transforming energy grids, supply chains, water management and the healthcare industry to name a few. Modernizing the power grid provides consumers with the information to understand their energy usage and take actions to reduce wasteful use and integrate renewable energy sources like solar and wind.

IBM is working with clients in nearly 50 smart grid engagements across emerging and mature markets. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works -- how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts -- can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/26094.wss.

About IBM

For more information on smart utilities at IBM visit: http://www.ibm.com/energy.

  Media Contact:
  Jeff Tieszen
  IBM Media Relations
  512-286-2279
  jtieszen@us.ibm.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: jtieszen@us.ibm.com

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SOURCE: IBM