NRGi Denmark Selected Echelon for Smart Grid Project
Echelon in collaboration with Eltel has won a $16 Million smart grid solutions contract with Demark’s largest utility company NRGi. According to Echelon NRGi has selected their Networked Energy Services (NES) smart grid control system for its customers throughout its services territory. The solution features Echelon’s award winning software, which provides monitoring, application control and sensing for low voltage grid and smart meters. It is expected to serve approximately 150,000 NRGi homes and business customers.
Through the Echelon Control System (ECoS) platform, the NES system enables any device, speaking any protocol, connected over any network to be integrated into local decision making and connected securely to enterprise IT systems through virtually any IP network. It enables intelligent distributed control applications and devices that deliver maximum reliability, survivability and responsiveness.
Echelon’s NES smart grid infrastructure consists of a web services based network operating system that interacts with a family of highly integrated, advanced electronic electricity meters and other smart grid devices over an IP network infrastructure.
Unlike metering systems with a dedicated radio per metering point, the NES system enables multiple devices to share a single IP connection through the use of the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) and Echelon's proven standards-based powerline networking technology. This decreases the per-point connection cost, enabling the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system. Echelon’s open system interfaces allow the system to be cost-effectively expanded, adapted, and customized to meet the needs of utilities today and in the future.
“We continue to delight our customers with the reliability and performance we’ve experienced with the NES open and extensible system, along with high-value system features, such as Automatic Topology Management, power quality sensing and energy savings products we can introduce into the home. With the NES system we are implementing an extensible smart grid control solution rather than just smart meters,” said Soren Sorensen, CEO of NRGi.
Echelon may also sell software maintenance services and spare parts for growth through 2026. Shipments are targeted to begin in the second quarter of this year, with the initial deployment phase expected to be completed within 12 months.