Portugal’s Leading Company in IT Business Solutions Novabase and Distribution Grid Company CURRENT Group Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver Grid Efficiency and Optimization Solutions to the Portuguese Market
LISBOA, PORTUGAL and ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - Electric utilities in Portugal can now more quickly adopt field proven Utility Distribution Smart Grid capabilities through Novabase, the leading Portuguese company in IT business solutions and CURRENT Group, a global leader in providing Distribution Smart Grid Solutions to the world's largest utilities. Under a new agreement between Novabase and CURRENT's European entity CURRENT Technologies International GmbH, the two companies will leverage their core capabilities to deliver joint smart grid solutions to Portugal. Novabase will provide professional services including integration and value-added offerings associated with Distribution Smart Grid along with advanced IT security consulting services to help electric companies identify and mitigate risks to assets, including infrastructure as well as data, applications, IT systems and networks.
CURRENT will provide its Smart Transformer Station platform that includes OpenGridTM Networking, OpenGrid Metering and OpenGrid Distribution using the open and interoperable PRIME metering standard.
"This package of essential ingredients is an important component of Novabase's Smart Grid architecture and will help Portugal's power industry employ Smart Grid technologies in their day-to-day business operations efficiently and reliably," said Luís Quaresma, Executive Director of Novabase.
"These solutions will help electric utilities speed integration of renewable energy sources, improve overall grid operations, and realize a cyber-secure smart grid that is both reliable and resilient in the face of new real time volatility being introduced by intermittent energy sources such as wind. We are pleased to partner with an industry leader such as CURRENT to deliver end-to-end distribution smart grid solutions for our Portuguese customers."
"Today's utilities face unprecedented challenges to improve utility distribution performance and efficiency," said CURRENT CEO Tom Casey. "Integrated distribution smart grid technologies like that of CURRENT partnered with the deep professional services expertise of Novabase in the Portuguese market, provides utilities with low investment solutions that are easy to deploy and deliver fast, measurable results working with trusted partners that get the job done."
About NOVABASE
Established in 1989, Novabase is the leading Portuguese company in IT business solutions. Its turnover was €241 million in 2009. With about 2000 employees in 2009, Novabase operates in markets which include Financial Services, Telecommunications and Media, Government and Healthcare, Energy and Utilities, Transportation and Logistics and Manufacturing and Services. Its main areas of business are the following: Consulting, Infrastructure and services for Digital TV. It also has a corporate venture business known as Novabase Capital. Novabase has been listed on the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange since July 2000. Please visit www.novabase.pt for additional information on the company.
About CURRENT Group
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 engaged in European Union-sponsored projects in partnership with Iberdrola, the world's 4th largest electric utility, among others, to expand the use of Smart Grid technology in the European Union. This year, CURRENT was selected for the second year in a row as one of GoingGreen East's Top 50 Private GreenTech companies. In 2009 alone, CURRENT was honored by the World Economic Forum as a 2009 Technology Pioneer, selected by Venture Beat as one of the World's Top 10 Most Innovative Smart Grid companies, and selected by Dow Jones as one of the Top 10 most Innovative Clean Technology companies in Europe.
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 Switzerland and Singapore, and has representation in Australia, France and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit http://www.currentgroup.com.
