Echelon's Control Operating System (COS) Software Now Enables Fortum to Reach Beyond the Smart Meter
New COS-enabled modules use Echelon Power Line and ZigBee® communication links to promote energy awareness and consumer choice
(San Jose, CA – May 3, 2011) – Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) today announced that its Control Operating System (COS) software will run on new optional Echelon® open standard power line and ZigBee® communications modules now available for NES smart meters. The new modules, CNX 3000 for power line and CNX 2000 for ZigBee, enable utilities to easily and reliably connect to a range of building information and control devices such as In-Home Displays (IHD), thermostats, load controllers, motion detectors and temperature probes via the NES smart metering infrastructure. This, in turn, allows electric utilities to use the Echelon COS software to provide new energy efficiency opportunities, while further improving customer satisfaction by giving building owners and consumers insight into energy usage patterns and control over their energy consumption. Fortum, the largest utility in Finland and a leading energy company in the Nordic countries, Russia and the Baltic region, is currently piloting the COS-enabled CNX 2000 and preparing for a CNX 3000 pilot in Finland, and has plans for full production rollout of CNX 3000 and CNX 2000 in 2012.
"The earliest smart meter deployments are reaching completion and a raft of new deployments are starting," said Stuart Ravens, principal analyst of Ovum and lead author of the new report 'Home Area Networks: the Future Battleground for Consumer Relationships', in a statement. "However despite the significant strides utilities have made in delivering value to consumers from their deployments, it is becoming clear that there is yet more opportunity for the utility to engage this most important constituent of the smart grid. With its COS-enabled technology, Echelon has extended its reach into the home, making consumers more aware of their energy consumption and more active in the smart grid of the future."
The Echelon COS software, first introduced in September 2010 (as ECoS) and running on Echelon's Edge Control Node, is the Smart Grid's first open standard control platform that can run third party control applications at the edge of the grid. The Echelon COS software provides an open and secure application framework for monitoring and controlling devices at the edge of the grid - the critical point where the distribution network connects to customers. The COS software enables developers to easily build applications, or "COS apps," to make local, autonomous control decisions in near real-time for maximum reliability, survivability and responsiveness.
"Our mission is to help utilities around the world improve energy efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction and lower cost, and we are very pleased to team with Fortum in this pursuit," said Michael Anderson, Echelon's Senior Vice President of Utility Markets. "Echelon's products have always been software-driven, and bringing them all together with Echelon COS software adds even more power and flexibility to our solutions."
Echelon COS software is delivered on Control Network Connection (CNX) modules that are optional components of Echelon NES smart meters and other smart devices. The COS software, combined with Echelon open standard power line communications (PLC) or ZigBee wireless technology, makes an NES smart meter part of a building energy network for home or commercial applications. With the communications modules, a utility can reliably connect a residential gateway or IHD to the grid using the existing power lines. The resident or building owner can then use energy and power quality data to inform consumption decisions, and the utility can better manage its distribution grid and even issue demand response commands to in-home and in-building devices. The CNX 3000 and CNX 2000 will be available for Echelon's IEC meter family with an expected ship date of Q1 2012, while shipments to Fortum will start later this year.
The Echelon power line equipped CNX modules are compatible with the open LonWorks® control networking standard, proven in more than 100 million control devices worldwide and used in products from many of the world's leading building automation companies including Carrier Corporation, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Philips, Schneider, and Trane. Existing suppliers of LonWorks networks based home solutions include Samsung Electronics, Kyondong Networks, and Voltalis.
The ZigBee Smart Energy compliant CNX 2000 module seamlessly extends an NES based smart metering infrastructure with a wide range of wireless products that monitor, control, inform and automate the delivery and use of energy.
About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is the world's leading open standard energy control networking company. Echelon technologies connect more than 35 million homes, 300,000 buildings and 100 million devices to the smart grid, and help customers save 20% or more on their energy usage. With more than 20 years of experience in energy control, Echelon delivers a wide range of innovative solutions to commercial and electric utility customers. More information about Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.
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Echelon, LonWorks, 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 market acceptance of Echelon's CNX modules and other products and the timing and level of customer orders; risks relating to the timing of availability of Echelon's CNX modules and other products; risks that Echelon offerings do not perform as designed or provide the expected benefits, and that liability may accrue as a result; 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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