IBM announced that it has begun a new coalition to accelerate the adoption of <A HREF="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21348.wss">Intelligent Utility Network technologies</A> and solutions on a global basis. CenterPoint Energy's electric transmission and distribution subsidiary, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC, is the founding member of a group of utility companies working with IBM on this initiative.

The CenterPoint Energy IUN is based on a service oriented architecture and is built using IBM WebSphere Modeler software, an IBM DB2 database, and IBM WebSphere Portal software.