Industrial Partnership Agreement to Deliver Smart Metering and Smart Grid Solutions to Spain and Portugal

Seville (Spain) and Zurich (Switzerland) July 14, 2010 – Landis+Gyr and CURRENT’s European entity CURRENT Technologies International GmbH, have signed an agreement to deliver smart, open and interoperable energy management solutions. The agreement is a key ingredient in addressing the challenge to come in implementing smart grid and smart metering technologies in Spain and Portugal.

Landis+Gyr and CURRENT have joined efforts to deliver standards-based smart grid solutions by integrating CURRENT’s PRIME technology into the Landis+Gyr Gridstream advanced product line.

“This agreement puts Landis+Gyr in the pole position for the deployment of smart metering in Spain and Portugal. Together with CURRENT we will build a PRIME interoperable path, which will support utilities – either directly or in stages – in implementing the smart grid,” said Javier Jime_nez, CEO, Landis+Gyr Spain.

“Interoperability of standards-based smart grid products, including smart meters, is one of the key foundations of an interconnected system spanning the customer, distribution, and transmission grids. In order to ensure the seamless flow of data, interoperability becomes the crucial factor. Open standards form the necessary basis for interoperability. CURRENT partnered with the expertise of Landis+Gyr provides utilities with low investment solutions that are easy to deploy and deliver fast measurable results that get the job done," said Angel Herna_ndez, General Manager of CURRENT Group Europe.

Due to increased pressure on European distribution systems to handle intermittent renewables, increased load, and new forms of electricity generation along with new two-way communications and data management systems, traditional energy infrastructure is shifting to real time smart systems.

As the world’s leading provider of integrated energy management solutions, Landis+Gyr is also a key member of the PRIME Alliance along with CURRENT. For the deployments with CURRENT, Landis+Gyr combines its state-of-art E450 residential smart electricity meter, which implements PRIME power line communication technology, with its Gridstream AIM software solution – both essential ingredients for establishing powerful smart metering infrastructures, a key step towards realizing the smart grid.

Under the terms of the cooperation agreement, Landis+Gyr will now offer CURRENT Smart Grid® products, which provide seamless integrated solutions, making grids more reliable and efficient. The offer includes the full range of CURRENT hardware and software smart grid products. CURRENT hardware includes the meter data concentrator, intelligent sensors and advanced communications equipment. CURRENT’s OpenGridTM software makes advanced metering possible and optimizes the operation of the distribution grid.

This partnership provides customers in Spain and Portugal with an end-to-end solution that is market proven, designed for simple and speedy implementation.

CURRENT and Landis+Gyr are committed to implementing standards-based, interoperable products and driving international standardization initiatives into the Spanish and Portuguese markets. With these agreements, CURRENT and Landis+Gyr have established the basis to provide “PRIME-interoperability” as a key feature of the Landis+Gyr Gridstream solution portfolio for Spain and Portugal.

 

 

 

About CURRENT

CURRENT Group, LLC delivers innovative and industry-leading intelligent solutions that optimize the distribution system and offer utilities new ways to monitor and manage the health of the grid. Through CURRENT’s distributed sensing, monitoring, and analytical technologies, utilities are better able to understand, predict and respond to system disturbances and faults, identify where inefficiencies are, and enable the smartest possible sourcing and distribution of power.

CURRENT’s state-of-the-art technologies are being implemented by utilities around the globe and are being utilized in the largest and most advanced demonstration projects in the world. CURRENT is a private company founded in 2000 that is backed by leading investors including Liberty Associated Partners, EnerTech Capital, Google, Inc., and Goldman Sachs & Co.

CURRENT is headquartered outside of Washington, DC, with offices throughout the United States and in Switzerland, and has representation in Australia, France and the United Kingdom.

For more information, visit http://www.currentgroup.com.

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading provider of integrated energy management solutions tailored to energy company needs. With a global presence and a reputation for quality and innovation, Landis+Gyr is unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Today, the Company offers the broadest portfolio of products and services in the electricity metering industry, and is paving the way for the next generation of smart grid. With annualized sales of more than US$1.25 billion, Landis+Gyr operates in 30 countries across five continents, and employs nearly 5,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better.

Gridstream is Landis+Gyr’s complete energy management offering that addresses all of a utility’s energy needs in one, thereby providing a solid foundation for the installation of smart metering and, ultimately, the development of the smart grid.

About PRIME

The PRIME ALLIANCE (PRIME = PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) is focused on the development of a new open, public and non-proprietary telecom solution which will support not only smart metering functionalities but also the progress towards the smart grid. Power line communication is the most suitable and natural technology to provide the needed telecoms performance, even in complex underground electricity grids. PRIME calls for a new public, open and non- proprietary telecommunications architecture that will support the new AMM functionality and enable the building of the electricity networks of the future, or smart grids. PRIME is based on OFDM multiplexing in CENELEC-A band. The end objective of PRIME is to establish a complete set of standards on an international level that will permit interoperability among equipment and systems from different manufacturers.

For more information, contact:

Lori Reslock
Vice President Global Marketing
CURRENT Group, LLC, USA
Phone: +1 301 944 2824
Mobile: +1 518 637 2179

John Harris
Vice President and Head Communications EMEA
Landis+Gyr AG
Phone: +41 41 935 6439
Mobile: +41 76 315 36 10