Echelon Corporation announced that Tollgrade Communications Inc., a leading provider of distribution monitoring and service assurance test solutions for the utility industries, has developed an application for Echelon's Control Operating System (COS) that delivers end-to-end smart grid analytics to prevent outages, reduces operating expense through asset and vegetation management, and protects revenue for utilities. The Tollgrade application, LightHouse™ runs within the COS software platform on Echelon's Edge Control Node (ECN).

 

"Open, flexible data analytics capabilities will be an essential element of successful smart grid deployments," said Clint Wheelock, president of Pike Research. "Our analysis indicates that the hardware, software, and services that enable smart grid data analytics will represent one of the highest-value investment opportunities for utilities over the next few years, as they will provide the necessary intelligence to achieve a more stable and reliable grid."

 

"Through our collaboration with Tollgrade, utilities can now benefit from the kind of innovative, smart energy applications we had in mind when we developed Echelon's COS," said Ron Sege, president and CEO of Echelon. "This application leverages the power of Echelon's energy control networking platform to move the grid beyond centralized reading of meters to a truly open, intelligent and distributed system that can monitor and react to an increasingly dynamic and demanding environment. As demand for electricity grows and its supply becomes increasingly distributed, utilities can now enhance customer experience through improved reliability, accelerated response times and increased efficiencies."

 

The joint solution utilizes Tollgrade's medium voltage sensors deployed on the distribution grid and Echelon's NES software (System Software and Element Manager), combined with LightHouse Sensor Management System (SMS) software, at the utility head end. Using Echelon's open COS platform, the ECN reports on important critical data and analytics points from Tollgrade's LightHouse medium voltage sensors deployed on the medium voltage grid and sends that much needed real-time grid intelligence back to the a utility's operations center. This data can then be used to analyze detailed information on electrical loads and momentary and sustained outage events and accurately identify fault locations. By collecting circuit load measurements, efficiency improvements can be made through load balancing. With the introduction of this open, flexible solution, Echelon and Tollgrade are allowing utilities to achieve the benefits of a smarter grid faster. This means utilities can have the two-way grid analytics and intelligence needed to achieve a more stable and reliable grid today, while future-proofing their smart grid investment.

 

"Echelon's COS platform is an ideal complement to our LightHouse distribution grid monitoring solution," said Ed Kennedy, president and CEO of Tollgrade. "Utilities today are working to improve the reliability and efficiency of the grid. These improvements require dynamic, real-time intelligence. The integration of Tollgrade's LightHouse solution with the COS platform adds intelligence and control to the distribution grid, providing direct benefits to both utilities and consumers."

 

Built on Echelon's 20 years of proven, trusted and unmatched experience in control networking and software innovation, COS provides an open and secure framework for monitoring and controlling devices at the edge of the grid – the critical point where the distribution network connects to customers. COS enables developers to easily build applications that make local, autonomous control decisions in near real-time for maximum reliability, survivability and responsiveness.

 

With investment in one open platform, COS allows utilities to meet next generation demand response challenges, optimize local grid efficiency, predict power outages before they occur and rapidly restore service, and implement other smart grid services.