Panasonic's Home Energy Management System Receives European Utility Award 2010

Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation announced its Home Energy Management System (HEMS) has received the European Utility Award 2010 in the Customer Excellence category at the 12th Annual Metering, Billing/CRM Europe conference and exhibition in Vienna, a leading and innovative utility trade show in Europe. Panasonic became the first Japanese company to win this recognition.

The Customer Excellence Award honors an innovative service in the field of energy in Europe that brings high levels of customer satisfaction and a change in customer behavior. Panasonic was recognized for its pioneering initiative to spread customer-oriented, user-friendly and fully-featured home energy management solutions to homes in Europe through its partnership with SEAS-NVE, Denmark's largest consumer-owned energy company.

"What really separates the Panasonic offering from others is the way in which it relates to the customer in an intuitive, non-technical, fun, aesthetic and customizable manner, moving beyond the industry's standard of graphs and numbers. The Panasonic approach brings functionality, practicality and appeal together," the award citation says.

Towards a low carbon society, Europe has seen increased activity in field testing and commercialization in the HEMS related areas such as smart meters and smart grids. With HEMS at the core, Panasonic continues to promote its comprehensive environment and energy solution business through participation in pilot projects organized by utility companies in Europe.

• Metering, Billing/CRM Europe

The Metering, Billing/CRM Europe conference and exhibition is held annually in Europe. Approximately 150 companies including meter makers, IT vendors and utility service providers took part in the exhibition held from September 22 to 24 in Vienna, Austria this year. Major European utility companies reported on their pilot schemes at the conference. The trade show is used as a forum to explore and learn the trends of the energy market as well as business meeting. For more information, visit http://www.metering-europe.com/

• European Utility Awards

Metering, Billing/CRM Europe gives the European Utility Awards every year in three categories: Business Performance for improved profitability, cost reduction and value creation in the European energy market; Customer Excellence for distinguished services to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and bring a change in customer behavior; and Innovation for innovative projects such as energy measurement and customer management. This year, Germany's Elster received the Business Performance Award and Italy's ENEL won the Innovation Award.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of 7.42 trillion yen (US$79.4 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2010. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York (NYSE: PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net.