Product category:
Electrical Services
News Release from: Echelon | Subject: Advanced meter infrastructure solution
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 July 2006
Echelon advanced meter infrastructure
solution
Echelon advanced meter infrastructure solution extends to Australia with integral energy project win .
Echelon Corporation, a global networking company providing technology and solutions for controls, smart metering, and energy and environment management, today announced that Echelon's Networked Energy Services (NES) System has been selected for an advanced metering project in the Australian market by Integral Energy, one of the largest utilities in New South Wales The project, which will initially serve 3,000 residential customers in Sydney with a possible option to extend to 7,000, marks an important step in the Australian marketplace where various governmental agencies at the state and national level are considering regulations mandating some level of advanced electricity metering infrastructure
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 5 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The NES System provides Integral Energy with an advanced metering solution that can allow them to offer their customers better service and the ability to reduce energy consumption - without a negative impact on the quality of services or consumer habits.
Karen Waldman, Integral Energy's General Manager Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, said, "We are taking the initiative to get ahead of increasing energy demands in the Australian market by investing in advanced metering solutions like the NES System".
"This is the first large scale project in Australia of this technology, which transmits data about customers' energy usage and power quality two ways along existing power lines".
"This technology provides significant benefits at a much lower cost than traditional means of remote meter reading, lowering the potential costs of a full roll out".
Waldman added, "The meters can assist customers to better manage their energy usage by providing more information on their energy consumption and providing the technology to support more innovative prices".
"The meters also provide additional functionality designed to allow Integral Energy to improve its service to customers, such as remote reconnection and disconnection, increased information about the quality of the power supplied and real-time notification of outages".
"Integral Energy's project is very significant for us in many ways," said Ken Oshman, Echelon's CEO and chairman".
"Not only is it our first NES win outside of Europe, it was a win in a highly competitive tender, in a marketplace that is actively moving towards more advanced metering systems".
"Integral Energy is making a bold statement about the NES system and the Australian market's need to adopt advanced metering systems that are truly flexible, valuable and long-lived".
"We believe that the NES business and the move towards 'next generation' smart metering has reached a tipping point in the last six months with Vattenfall and E.ON in Sweden, Nuon in The Netherlands, and now Integral Energy in Australia all selecting the NES system".
Echelon's NES system provides an open, bidirectional, and extensible infrastructure that enables a comprehensive range of utility applications that can bring benefits to every aspect of a utility's operation, from metering, to customer services, to distribution operations, to value-added services.
The system enables a comprehensive set of energy services, including: two-way automated meter reading; multi-tiered billing; time-of-use and real-time pricing; prepaid metering; remote electrical disconnect and reconnect; distribution system asset optimization; electricity outage detection and restoration management; blackout and brownout elimination; comprehensive revenue protection; real-time direct load control; power quality measurement; and extensive tamper detection features.
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