CONTACT INFORMATION

Advanced Utility Systems
www.ausc.com

TORONTO, CANADA; February 21, 2001 - Advanced Utility Systems is pleased to announce that four electric utilities have gone live with CIS Infinity, Advanced Utility Systems' Customer Information and Billing Solution. Tay Hydro Electric Inc., Mid-Ontario Energy Services, Haldimand County Hydro, and ELK Energy Inc. have all completed their implementations of CIS Infinity, with all modules operational.

The four electric utilities are located in the Province of Ontario, and will be using CIS Infinity to Handle complete customer relationship management activities, including billing, inventory management, customer contact management, and service management. In addition the software will be utilized to meet the demands of electric deregulation, as the Ontario market is scheduled for wholesale and retail market opening later in 2001. The introduction of retail and wholesale competition in the Ontario electric market will necessitate a complete revamp of previous practices and processes, and major changes will be required to Customer Information Systems. Each of these utilities was faced with replacing their existing software, and selected Advanced Utility Systems to provide a solution to help retain their competitive position.

For Tay Hydro the choice was straightforward. According toll King the Treasurer "We knew of Advanced Utility Systems from other utilities in the province, and they told us that Advanced had a solution that would do what we needed. After seeing CIS Infinity, we were impressed with the functionality of the system and the features our previous software was lacking". Added King, "With the market opening to competitors, and drastically changing the way we do business, we needed to find a solution we could count on."

Mid-Ontario Energy, Haldimand, ELK, and Tay selected Advanced in the summer/fall of 2000 unsure of the actual date planned for wholesale and retail competition, and of the exact role of their utilities in a deregulated market. As a result they needed to act quickly and decisively to ensure they could have a CIS solution implemented in time for the changes in the market, while also allowing themselves flexibility to respond to changes in market conditions. For these reasons they selected CIS Infinity. And with hindsight it is clear that the need for flexibility was crucial - the timing for market opening was changed; rules and conditions needed to operate the market are still being clarified, all while electric customers bombard their local distribution companies with questions and concerns. According to Patricia Sorbara, the President of Advanced Utility Systems, while the market is still fluid, CIS Infinity is ready for full deregulation. "Our development team has capitalized on our open architecture, and object oriented programming to make CIS Infinity flexible enough to deal with changes, and powerful enough to process all elements of customer enrollment, electronic bill transfers, time-of-use pricing, complex billing and unbundled billing."

For each of Haldimand, Tay, Mid Ontario and ELK their users had to be trained on the use of CIS Infinity while also preparing for the impact of deregulation. For Haldimand and ELK Energy they also faced amalgamations. "Amalgamation posed many challenges for us," said Mary Jo Albanese, Customer Service Supervisor with Haldimand, "but the team from Advanced were extremely responsive to our needs. They had been through it with other clients and were able to help us when we needed it. As the market opens CIS Infinity will enable us to not only meet legislative rules and regulations, but also allow us to build our market."

About Advanced Utility Systems Corporation:
Advanced Utility Systems Corporation is privately owned and operated software and services Company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company has grown from its 1997 start-up to serve over 40 North American water, electric and natural gas utility clients with its billing and customer service software CIS Infinity. The team at Advanced Utility Systems delivers whatever it takes to develop the ideal solution for the utility market. For additional information visit www.ausc.com.

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