EXHIBIT 99.1

[LETTER HEAD OF ITRON]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                  ITRON COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF SILICON ENERGY
         Acquisition Strengthens Itron's Energy Management Solutions and
     Expands Itron Into A New Market - Selling to Energy and Water End Users

SPOKANE, WA. -- March 4, 2003 -- Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) announced today that
it has completed the acquisition of Silicon Energy for a total consideration of
$71.2 million. Silicon Energy is a leading provider of enterprise energy
management software solutions that enable utilities, energy service providers,
state and local government, and large energy users to efficiently manage and
apply energy consumption data and rate information, optimize the delivery and
use of energy, mitigate risk, control energy costs, and optimize energy
procurement.

Silicon Energy software enables utilities to streamline the process of
collecting, validating, and warehousing meter information; calculate and
validate bills; optimize distribution assets; improve customer service; and
manage peak demand. For large commercial and industrial energy users, Silicon
Energy software uses billing, metering, production and weather information from
multiple, geographically dispersed sources to forecast and budget energy
consumption, allocate costs, and control overall energy demand and costs. In
addition to software, Silicon Energy offers a comprehensive selection of
professional and support services to its customer base.

The $71.2 million in consideration includes payment for the outstanding shares
of stock of Silicon Energy, repayment of approximately $4.2 million in
convertible debt, and other consideration. Itron will finance a portion of the
purchase price with a $50 million term bank loan, which will bear interest of
approximately 4.5% per year, and will be payable over three years.

During the last week of February, Silicon Energy signed two important EEM Suite
software license agreements with a large regulated electric and gas utility and
with a Fortune 10 manufacturer. The $1.3 million utility order was placed for
Silicon Energy's Distribution Asset Optimization solution, while the EEM order
will support the manufacturer's financial management, operations and procurement
initiatives on a global basis to assist in lowering operating expenses and
mitigating risk. Commenting on these orders, LeRoy Nosbaum, Itron chairman and
CEO said, "Receiving these big wins is a great start to this acquisition. We are
delighted with the interest we are seeing in our distribution asset optimization
solutions and the growing acceptance of enterprise energy management with large
energy users."



[LETTER HEAD OF ITRON]

"With the acquisition of Silicon Energy, we now have a knowledge platform that
makes it easy for our customers to gather, manage, and exchange relevant data
among all market participants - both within the utility and outside the utility
operation," said Nosbaum. "Itron's knowledge platform provides the information
our customers need to reduce costs, defer capital expenditures, maximize the use
of existing assets and resources, integrate their systems and operations, and
optimize their reliability and efficiency."

ABOUT ITRON
Itron is a leading technology provider and critical source of knowledge to the
global energy and water industries. More than 2,800 utilities worldwide rely on
Itron technology to deliver the knowledge they require to optimize the delivery
and use of energy and water. Itron delivers value to its clients by providing
industry-leading solutions for meter data collection, energy information
management, demand side management and response, load forecasting, analysis and
consulting services, transmission and distribution system design and
optimization, web-based workforce automation, commercial and industrial customer
care and residential energy management. Itron's website can be found at
www.itron.com

Caution concerning forward-looking statements:

     This release contains forward-looking statements concerning Itron's
     operations and financial performance. These statements reflect the
     Company's current plans and expectations and are based on information
     currently available to it. They rely on a number of assumptions and
     estimates, which could be inaccurate, and which are subject to risks and
     uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to vary
     materially from those anticipated. Risks and uncertainties include the
     ability of the Company to effectuate additional initiatives for improving
     growth and profitability, including expected transaction synergies, the
     rate and timing of customer demand and signing of orders for the Company's
     products, and other factors which are more fully described in the Company's
     Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and Forms
     10-Q for 2002 on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Itron
     undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking
     statements.

For more information please contact:

Mima Scarpelli
Vice-president, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
(509) 891-3565
mima.scarpelli@itron.com

Additional information about Silicon Energy can be found at
www.siliconenergy.com.