Bayard Makes Strategic Investment in WACS

WACS, a leading provider of meter data management (MDM) software
solutions and decision management technologies for electric, natural
gas and water utilities with more than 11 million endpoints under
contract, announced today that Bayard Group has taken a minority stake
in the company. Bayard Group is a leading global investor in energy
measurement and efficiency technologies.

Kristine Beck and Dave Hubbard, co-founders of WACS, will continue
to lead the company; they expect to use a portion of the funds for
working capital to enable the company to increase sales and marketing
activity, deepen research and development capacity and hire key
executive and operational personnel. In addition, WACS joins the
Bayard family of companies focused on providing a wide array of energy
management technologies globally. The investment accelerates WACS´
growth prospects among organizations around the world implementing
advanced meter infrastructure (AMI), a growing market projected to
increase by more than 60 percent by 2011.

"We´re pleased to become a part of Bayard´s vision," said Dave
Hubbard, chief technology officer of WACS. "Our team has built the
most advanced MDM solution deployed today. We´re committed to utilize
this funding to enhance our leadership position and continue to
deliver new and innovative analytical solutions for the industry."

Recognized as one of the first companies to identify the market
need for MDM solutions, WACS has offered its best-of-breed solution
since 2001. In fact, WACS´ MDM solution was tested and certified in
2005 by one of the leading systems integrators to scale beyond 10
million meters.

"WACS has shown itself to be the leading MDM provider in the
market today," said Cameron O´Reilly, founder and managing director of
Bayard Group. "We are pleased to have WACS as part of the family and
we´re excited about what WACS can achieve with our other member
companies."

This deal positions WACS to further leverage integration with
other Bayard Group companies, expanding on partnerships like those
already achieved with Cellnet+Hunt at Puget Sound Energy (PSE),
Washington state´s oldest and largest energy utility, to create a
seamless, end-to-end AMI and MDM solution.

"Bayard´s investment underscores our longstanding confidence in
the WACS MDM solution," said Darren Brady, PSE´s chief information
officer and senior vice president of Customer Service & Information
Technology. "PSE is looking forward to seeing exciting new offerings
and benefits that are sure to come from this new relationship between
WACS and Cellnet+Hunt."

As with all Bayard companies, WACS will continue its commitment to
independently partner and support technology providers based on client
needs and preferences.

About WACS:

WACS is a leading provider of meter data management (MDM) software
solutions and decision management technologies for electric, natural
gas and water utilities. The WACS solution offers a flexible,
configurable and highly scalable architecture, enabling it to receive
data from any AMI system and/or manual source. Its world-class engines
and analytics provide utilities with support for critical operational
and business processes. Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered
in Bloomington, Minnesota. For more information, visit
http://www.wacsinc.com.

About Bayard Group:

Since its establishment in 2002, Bayard has committed over US $1.2
billion to the energy measurement and efficiency sector. With
operations in 30 countries, the Bayard portfolio includes Landis+Gyr,
the world´s largest electricity metering company and Cellnet+Hunt, a
leading provider of utility advanced metering and communications
solutions. Other Bayard companies include Ampy Email Metering and
Enermet. For more information on Bayard Group, visit
www.bayard.com.au.