(SAN JOSE, CA– June 11, 2008) -Echelon Corporation(NASDAQ: ELON) announced that ENERGOAUDITCONTROL (EAC), a Russian engineering company and value-added reseller of Echelon’s Network Energy Services (NES) advanced metering system, has ordered an additional 80,000 smart meters, extending the scope of an advanced metering project in Russia announced last year. With this latest order, the project has increased in size to approximately 180,000 networked meters. Shipments are already underway and are expected to complete next month. Total revenue to Echelon under the extension is anticipated to be approximately $6.8 million.
“We are very excited about the opportunities in the Russian market and about the success our partner EAC has had with their project,” said Frits Bruggink, Echelon’s senior vice-president, utility solutions. “There is no greater sign of success than a happy customer releasing additional orders. This project also demonstrates the power of the NES system to offer multiple services over a common networking infrastructure. NES gives utilities the tools and information they need to improve customer care and billing systems, to forecast energy demand with more accurate and timely data, to balance loads across the system more accurately and, by doing so, to lower cost while increasing service quality and reliability.”
“We believe the project we are working on is unprecedented in the Russian market in terms of its scope and capabilities. Our engineers have implemented a powerful and unique solution built on the NES system. Together with Echelon we are building a showcase designed to establish EAC’s leadership position in the emerging Russian advanced metering market,” said Silvian Seu, EAC’s CEO.
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. Unlike systems with a dedicated radio per metering point, multiple NES meters can share a single IP connection through the use of Echelon's proven standards-based power line networking technology. This drives down the per-point connection cost and enables the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system. Additional information about the August 2007 framework agreement between EAC and Echelon may be found at http://www.echelon.com/company/press/2007/eac_russia.htm.