OKLAHOMA CITY, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- After a detailed competitive bidding process OG&E announced today it has entered into agreements with industry leaders Corix Utilities (US) Inc.; EnergyICT; Comverge, Inc.; Silver Spring Networks, and Global Energy Partners to provide critical elements of its Positive Energy® Smart Grid Program, beginning with full deployment in Norman, Okla. next year. OG&E will utilize smart grid technology to reduce operations costs and provide customers with more information to help them manage their energy use and save money. The company projects this technology will help OG&E maintain reasonable electricity rates and continue highly reliable delivery of electricity to its customers. Corix Utilities will coordinate installation of GE smart meters for all residential and most businesses in Norman between February and May of 2010 and will install smart meters when the smart grid is expanded into the rest of OG&E's service territory. The new smart meters will operate very similar to existing meters but also will transmit electricity information through a wireless network to OG&E for billing and service purposes. Smart meters also can serve as communications gateways with devices or appliances in customers' homes. EnergyICT (an Elster Group Company) will provide their scalable meter data management solution (MDMS) which specifically meets OG&E's comprehensive business and technical requirements for the program. The ElServer MDMS will manage among other information, all automatic metering infrastructure (AMI) data and complex billing rates, and provide validation, estimation, editing (VEE) and interfaces to third party systems. Comverge (NASDAQ:COMV) has been selected as OG&E's partner to provide multiple services including full marketing support to recruit 2-3,000 Norman customers in the first four months of 2010 for a time-of-use pricing pilot program. Participants will receive information in almost real-time regarding the price of electricity and the amount being used. Comverge also will schedule installation of home area network devices for the study and provide technical support to study participants. Also, newly announced is Silver Spring will provide the overall home area networking and demand response solution, including their new web portal, CustomerIQ (formerly known as Greenbox). CustomerIQ will provide energy usage information for the Norman customer study. Greenbox provided a portal for OG&E's initial customer study in northwest Oklahoma City begun in the summer of 2008. (Information about the Oklahoma City study and interviews with customers is available on the home page of http://www.itsyoursmartgrid.com/ by clicking on the video entitled "Oklahoma Gas & Electric".) Silver Spring will provide the in-home devices and programmable communicating thermostats for the Norman study, too. Global Energy Partners, will be responsible for measurement and verification of results for the Norman customer study to ensure the statistical validity of the results. OG&E will make future product and marketing decisions based on the customer response data. "By partnering with some of the industry's best in smart grid technology, we are building an integrated solution that will benefit our customers, our employees, and our shareowners," said Ken Grant, managing director of OG&E's smart grid program. "Now we've moved into high gear for deployment of distribution automation, AMI, smart meter delivery and installation, and customer demand response recruitment in Norman between January and June of next year." A few weeks ago, OG&E announced other smart grid technology partners, including GE Energy delivering the smart meters, Silver Spring Networks the unified network platform and The Structure Group for assistance in business management of smart grid implementation and utility transformation. OG&E recently was named as one of the 100 entities to negotiate for receipt of a Department of Energy stimulus grant for smart grid technology deployment. The $130 million grant could contribute a substantial portion of the cost of full deployment of smart grid technology across OG&E's entire service territory. OG&E is Oklahoma's largest utility, serving more than 775,000 customers in a service area spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. OG&E is a subsidiary of Oklahoma city-based OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE:OGE), which also is the parent company of Enogex LLC, a midstream natural gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma. More information is available at http://www.oge.com/. Corix Utilities (US) Inc. provides field metering services for customers across North America including municipalities, resort properties, gas, water and electric utilities. It is part of the privately owned Corix Group of Companies that specializes in providing products and utility solutions for sustainable infrastructure in the water, wastewater and energy sectors. More information is available at http://www.corix.com/. EnergyICT has offices in Raleigh, N.C., UK, France, the Netherlands, Australia and Belgium. EnergyICT has recently been acquired by Elster Group, the world leader in advanced metering infrastructure, integrated metering, and utilization solutions to the gas, electricity and water industries. More information is available at http://www.energyict.com/. Comverge, with over 3,300 megawatts of clean energy capacity under management, is a leading provider of clean energy solutions that improve grid reliability and supply electric capacity on a more cost-effective basis than conventional alternatives by reducing base load and peak load energy consumption. More information is available at http://www.comverge.com/. Silver Spring Networks is a leading smart grid solutions provider that enables utilities to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions and empower their customers with new ways to monitor and manage their energy consumption. Silver Spring Networks provides the hardware, software and services that allow utilities to deploy and run unlimited advanced applications, including Smart Metering, Demand Response, Distribution Automation and Distributed Generation, over a single, unified network. For additional information, please visit http://www.silverspringnetworks.com/. Global Energy Partners is a premier provider of energy resource planning, program design & implementation and technical services to public and private organizations. Global integrates field experience with a strong practice in planning and technology applications that results in success for our clients. More information is available at http://www.gepllc.com/. DATASOURCE: OGE Energy Corp. CONTACT: Brian Alford of OG&E, +1-405-553-3187, after hours +1-405-553-8593, ; or Joanne Thomson of Corix Utilities (US), Inc, +1-604-575-6136, ; or Shawn Fields of EnergyICT, +1-919-277-0966, ; or Kristin Mastrandrea of Comverge, Inc., +1-973-434-7157, ; or Lisa Magnuson of Silver Spring Networks, +1-415-531-9199, ; or Craig Williamson of Global Energy Partners, +1-720-233-1500, Web Site: http://www.oge.com/ http://www.comverge.com/ http://www.corix.com/ http://www.energyict.com/ http://www.silverspringnetworks.com/ http://www.gepllc.com/

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