For decades utility meters for water, gas and electricity consumption measurement and billing applications have remained technically stagnant. However utility deregulation and opportunities to use meters as the entrance to buildings for the supply of additional value added services have spurred important technical innovations to both utility meters and associated equipment and systems. Today, your utility meters are probably read by a human meter-reader who walks from one house to the next. Systems that will connect your meters to the Internet, and send their readings electronically to your local utilities, are now in the prototype stage.

Mr. Dane Ehrich, Vice President of Technology and CTO for Invensys Metering Systems, will describe such advances as seen in ultrasonic gas meters, solid-state electricity meters, Internet connectivity for all types of utility meters systems, and other value-added services available by using a utility meter as the gateway to a building. Mr. Ehrich will discuss both the technical aspects and the business environment and models used to justify the deployment of such systems.

Dane Ehrich is Vice President of Technology and CTO for Invensys Metering Systems, a leading global provider of revenue grade meters and associated meter reading systems for water, gas and electricity utilities. He holds degrees in engineering and business from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of New Hampshire. Prior to joining BTR, predecessor to Invensys, in 1995, Mr. Ehrich held several positions as a design engineer and engineering manager in areas such as semiconductor manufacturing, process automation and optical micro-device manufacturing. Additionally, he held positions in technical marketing and business management in companies involved with electronic instrumentation used in such areas as process control and utility performance monitoring. His current responsibilities within Invensys include oversight of Metering Systems' technology resources, intellectual property management, new technology investigations and coordination of technical activities with other businesses (including universities and consultants), both inside and outside of Invensys.

From the Co-Presidents: Thanks again to all of you who have renewed your memberships and donated to SEC's scholarship fund. 2002 should be a banner year for the SEC. This month’s program is another excellent opportunity to meet a business and technology leader from our community. Please join us in March and see the SEC's web site http://www.scieng.org to find out more about upcoming events.