FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CURRENT LAUNCHES SMART GRID DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
TAMPA, FL, February 07, 2006 – CURRENT Communications Group, LLC, the nation’s leading provider of integrated Broadband over Power Line (BPL) solutions and services, today announced the formation of an industry-wide network of companies committed to enabling utilities to create their own BPL-based Smart Grids. The initiative highlights CURRENT’s continued leadership in delivering the multi-purpose BPL network, where utilities can more efficiently manage their power grid and residential and business consumers benefit from an alternative broadband service.
CURRENT’s strategic partners in developing Smart Grids for utilities include Badger Meter, Comverge, Corporate Systems Engineering, Landis+Gyr and Sensus Metering Systems. These strategic partners are all market leaders in key utility operations categories such as usage measurement (electricity, gas and water meters) and electricity management (Demand Response). This smart grid team provides utilities broad abilities to monitor and manage their distribution networks from many points all the way down to the individual customer level, taking advantage of broadband real-time network intelligence embedded within this comprehensive suite of CURRENT™ BPL solutions.
“These strategic partners are the first wave of innovators engaged in joint development with CURRENT. They play a key role in increasing the value of BPL by empowering electric utilities cost effectively to improve the reliability and efficiency of their distribution networks,” said Tom Willie, President and COO of CURRENT Technologies. “This is just the beginning. We are broadening the CURRENT Smart Grid Development Network to include other utility hardware and software providers and system integrators.”
CURRENT’s Smart Grid Development strategic partners include:
Energy Measurement: Smart Metering
Landis+Gyr is a leading global provider of advanced metering platforms and solutions for the electric utility market. Following a communication-neutral, open architecture strategy, the company offers the Advanced Data Infrastructure™ (ADI) for Commercial and Industrial (C&I) and mass-market automatic meter reading (AMR) and two-way information-centric applications.
SensusMetering Systems is a leading metering vendor and provides solutions for water, gas, electric, and heat utilities.
CURRENT has developed a BPL Communications Module that integrates into solid state electric meters, allowing them to be read on demand over CURRENT’s BPL networks. CURRENT is working with Landis+Gyr and Sensus to BPL-enable those companies’ complete electric meter product lines.
Badger Meter, Inc. is a leading marketer and manufacturer of flow measurement and control technology, as well as the leader in providing digital connectivity to leading AMR technologies. Its products are used to measure and control the flow of liquids in a variety of applications. Badger has contracted with CURRENT to incorporate Badger's ORION® fixed network AMR system into the CURRENT BPL Communications Module.
Energy Management: Demand Response
Corporate Systems Engineering is a provider of cost-effective direct load control (DLC) solutions, with more than one million load management devices in service in the U.S. Corporate Systems has developed and deployed a distributed load control switch that interoperates with CURRENT BPL networks.
Comverge, Inc. provides innovative solutions that significantly reduce electric utilities' peak power costs and enhance grid reliability, ranging from direct load control to automatic meter reading to price response to grid management solutions. Comverge has successfully deployed Demand Response technology over a CURRENT BPL network
About CURRENT Communications Group
CURRENT Communications Group, LLC, a privately-held company based in Germantown, Md., is the leading provider of broadband over power line (BPL) solutions and services to electric distribution companies worldwide. The CURRENT BPL portfolio includes BPL network equipment, software solutions and services comprised of electric utility applications enabling real-time management of the electric grid. CURRENT also is a fully integrated communications service provider, offering high performance broadband Internet services to consumer and business users over existing electrical infrastructure. Further information about CURRENT is available at www.currentgroup.com.
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