[November 29, 2011]

WattBoss™ Maker Electranetics, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Ink Deal to Expand Access to Smart Grid Technology

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and Electranetics, Inc. have entered into a national relationship to provide NRECA members with price discounts on Electranetics' WattBoss™ Total Consumer Energy Control devices beginning in 2012. Electranetics will be a featured supplier in NRECA's National Discount Program, which provides electric cooperatives with more than 100 discounts on business products and services.

The state-of-the-art Smart Grid WattBoss IQ Outlets, IQ Light Switches and IQ Control Boxes produced by Electranetics allow electricity consumers to identify priority and non-priority electrical devices, lighting and HVAC and to select at what energy price they should be turned on, off or put into standby mode.

WattBoss software provides usage information by device so that an electricity consumer-either a business or family-can have meaningful cost-cutting plans and projections. Energy consuming devices are managed by the WattBoss iPULSE™ software that puts energy efficiency improvements on "cruise control." For instance, if a television has not been used from midnight until 6 a.m. for an entire month, WattBoss will prompt the consumer that it is turning off the televiion at the wall thereby eliminating the need for costly standby power. The consumer can then accept or reject the efficiency prompt.

"I understand that the WattBoss will also give electric co-ops a way to easily shed loads when conditions on the grid require," said Glenn English, NRECA's CEO. "WattBoss outlets are one of the new generation of Smart Grid products that can help our members. They have applications for all our Smart Grid areas of focus and investment including communications, efficiency and demand response, reliability and power quality and distributed generation and renewable energy."

"Electranetics is pleased to enter into this national relationship with NRECA to help make the Smart Grid practical for consumers," said Electranetics CEO Michael H. Freeman. "This is a win-win. Because WattBoss-connected non-essential devices can be shut down according to a consumer's pre-selection and then automatically repowered, it also provides a great tool for rural electric utilities to load shed and load shape. If potential brownout situations develop, lower priority items pre-selected and pre-enrolled by the consumer are turned off, providing a rural electric utility with quick response that prevents potential brownouts."

WattBoss (www.WattBoss.com) provides other consumer benefits, including ground fault circuit interrupters/arc fault circuit interrupters (GFCI/AFCI) safety and security monitoring features, remote medical device monitoring and home/business security, and enabling consumers to have a high-speed wired home network for consumer audio, data, and HDTV.

NRECA (www.nreca.org) is the national service organization for more than 900 rural electric utilities that provide electricity to approximately 42 million consumers in 47 states and sell approximately 12 percent of all electric energy sold in the United States. Most NRECA members are consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives.

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