LONDON — (Marketwire) — 08/02/11 — The 2011 Frost & Sullivan European Market Share Leadership Award in the Smart Meters Market is presented to . Echelon has been instrumental in spearheading the smart meter revolution in Europe.
With the highest installed base market share of 95 per cent in Italy, 60 per cent in Denmark, 40 per cent in Sweden, the current largest deployment of 100,000 meters undertaken by Echelon in Norway and other projects in Finland and Austria have resulted in the company holding a cumulative share of about 81 percent in smart meter deployment until 2010.
“The Echelon Networked Energy Services (NES) system is the control networking infrastructure for the smart grid which enables intelligent distributed control applications and devices that deliver maximum reliability, survivability and responsiveness,” remarks Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Neha Vikash. “Over 100 projects and deployments and numerous pilots with utilities around the world have proven that the NES system for smart metering delivers a solution with extremely high levels of reliability, accuracy, and security.”
The NES system helps utilities reduce operating costs, provide expanded services and help energy users manage and reduce their overall energy use. It offers a highly flexible infrastructure that can be adapted to changing customer, operations, and regulatory needs.
Grid intelligence provided by the NES system includes line management intelligence wherein utilities can better monitor outages, reduce service restoration time, and verify that service has been restored. By measuring and detecting events related to voltage surges and sags, over-current conditions, phase changes, long and short outages, and total harmonic distortion, the system also provides information related to power quality.
“It also provides power line communication statistics; diagnostic data can alert utilities to potential faults or fatigue in distribution lines,” adds Vikash. “Moreover, since the NES network is attached to each transformer, it can provide unique information about the transformer, as well as aggregate information into circuit models that identify substation, capacitor, and transformer related issues that would otherwise require explicit monitoring through costly additional hardware and networks.”
Echelon–s NES system uses the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) as a basic standard. OSGP has become a de facto standard for smart meters and smart grid infrastructure communications with more than three million meters already installed.
“More than just a protocol for smart meters, OSGP provides secure, scalable control networking services for any device connected to the low voltage power grid,” states Vikash. “It also provides critical information related to the distribution line, which further improves reliability and lowers operating costs.”
Through its efforts to standardise the OSGP as a European and an international standard, Echelon has armed electric utilities with the ability to buy –best-of-breed– products and to avoid vendor lock-in that increases costs and reduces innovation.
Echelon–s extensive line of products support the delivery of solutions and services in a variety of areas pertaining to smart grids such as micro distribution management, loss and theft detection, demand response, home control, industrial automation and others.
The company–s utility products business comprises of products for distribution automation and metering such as Echelon Control Operating System (COS), Edge Control Node (ECN), NES system, data concentrators and meters while its commercial products include system and component products under the LonWorks Platform that enable energy control networks for creating intelligent infrastructures in cities, buildings and homes.
The Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Share Leadership is presented to the company that has demonstrated excellence in capturing the highest market share within its industry. The Award recognises the company–s leadership position within the industry in terms of revenues or units, as specified.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.
About Echelon
Echelon and the Echelon logo are trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market acceptance of Echelon–s technology offerings, and the risk that such offerings do not perform as designed; and other risks identified in Echelon–s SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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