Echelon Introduces Smart Metering Infrastructure Management Software to Speed and Simplify Smart Grid Deployments
(San Jose, CA - September 9, 2009) - Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) announced today its Networked Energy Services (NES) Element Manager, a powerful network management software designed to reduce the lifecycle costs and improve the efficiency of installing, maintaining and managing smart grid deployments. The new enterprise software provides the tools and information that grid operators need to ensure reliable data management, network management and network performance. Element Manager integrates with existing NES systems and other enterprise applications.
By implementing Echelon’s NES Element Manager, utilities can gain insight into critical network fault, performance, capacity and management metrics required to manage their project’s lifecycle, including installation, configuration, provisioning, management and monitoring.
Element Manager is designed to be easy to use for pilot projects, while providing the power and depth to support full-scale system deployments of millions of meters in an NES system. Through its Web-based, dashboard-style graphical user interface, Element Manager provides insight into overall system performance, including network connectivity, data retrieval and the health of meters and power lines.
The intuitive software interface uses templates to pre-configure complex settings for demand, schedules, power quality, load profiles and time-of-use calendars to reduce the time required to set-up and copy configurations throughout the network. It also provides a high-level, system-wide view into all assets (meters and data concentrators) providing essential information such as location and hardware, software and firmware versions to help avoid conflicts amongst versions and to simplify network maintenance.
“As utilities look to move beyond simple automated meter reading and first generation advanced metering infrastructure to the smart grid, the enhanced functionality of these smart systems raises the expectations about what a utility’s network can do, both today and in the future. This means that the utility’s operations team must be able to better visualize and manage their networks, have the ability to immediately and proactively identify and resolve network issues, attain the highest level of customer service, and reduce operation costs. Element Manager will help them meet those high expectations,” said Bob Machlin, Echelon’s Senior Vice President, Products.
About the Solution
The NES advanced metering infrastructure from Echelon consists of a family of highly integrated, advanced electronic electricity meters accessed via a Web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure. Much more than a simple AMI system focused on billing related services, the NES System provides utilities with a wealth of information about the status, operation and health of the grid that enables them to reduce operating costs while increasing service quality.
About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is leading the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into a smart, communicating energy network, connecting utilities to their customers, enabling networking of everyday devices, and providing customers with energy aware homes and businesses that react to conditions on the grid.
Echelon's NES System – the backbone for the smart grid – is used by utilities to replace existing stand-alone electricity meters with a network infrastructure that is open, inexpensive, reliable, and proven. The NES System helps utilities compete more effectively, reduce operating costs, provide expanded services and help energy users manage and reduce overall energy use. Echelon's LonWorks® Infrastructure products extend the smart grid, powering tens of millions of energy aware, everyday devices made by thousands of companies – connecting them to each other, to the electricity grid and to the Internet. LonWorks based products work together to monitor and save energy; lower costs; improve productivity; and enhance service, quality, safety, and convenience in utility, municipal, building, industrial, transportation, and home area networks.
More information about Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.
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Echelon and the Echelon logo are registered 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 uncertainties pertaining to the development efforts relating to the NES system, including Element Manager; risks associated with the ability of the NES system and Element Manager to 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.
Contact Information
Contact: |
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Julia O'Shaughnessy |
Allyson Stinchfield Atomic Public Relations +1 (415) 402-0230 allyson@atomicpr.com |