Sensus Metering Systems and Officials of the Public Utility District No. 1 of Benton County (Benton PUD) in Kennewick, Washington, has announced a 15-year definitive agreement between the parties for mass deployment and operation of the Sensus FlexNet AMI solution.

Benton officials will deploy the FlexNet advanced two-way RF-based AMI system to approximately 45,000 residential and commercial electric customers between 2008 and 2011.

"We evaluated a host of potential vendors during our rigorous RFP selection process and we are convinced that Sensus is the vendor best suited to meet our AMI needs," said Jim Sanders general manager for Benton PUD. "Field visits to Sensus FlexNet installations confirmed Sensus already delivers the reliable technology solution we require for urban and rural coverage, with the power and flexibility for future advanced applications."

The Sensus FlexNet AMI solution provides Benton with two-way communications to Sensus iCon electric meters enabling on demand reads, remote connect/disconnect services, outage verification and remote firmware upgrades, among a host of other features. FlexNet also establishes the platform for additional customer service and systems-related Smart Grid benefits in the future.