Last year, the first utility to piggyback onto the software running in EnergiMidt's data center was Bjerringbro. Next is Kjellerup Elnet. Like Bjerringbro's 3,000 customers, Kjellerup Elnet's 2,500 customers will receive Echelon's NES smart meters and related communications and control infrastructure. These latest deployments continue Echelon's momentum and market leadership position in Denmark, with more than 800,000 Echelon smart meters installed or under contract in the nation. The rollout for Kjellerup Elnet customers is scheduled to be completed early next year.

The new offering from EnergiMidt and Eltel provides smaller utilities and municipalities one of the most cost-effective and quickest paths to achieving the benefits of a smart grid, including hourly meter readings, load control, remote connect/disconnect, better outage management and the ability to integrate water and gas meters into one common system with electric meters. This is particularly important for utility and city leaders who want to modernize grids but have limited resources to achieve their vision.

"EnergiMidt is making grid modernisation swift and painless for neighbouring utilities through this offering that standardizes on our deployment of Echelon energy control networking technologies," said Holger Blok, CEO at EnergiMidt. "We chose Echelon's technology for this smart metering application because its open and extensible framework gives utilities a wide range of smart grid applications. By putting this proven solution in the cloud, any utility can benefit from our experience and can avoid unnecessary expenses that often stand in the way of making the smart grid a reality for many smaller utilities."

"Danish utilities and their customers want a smarter grid but the costs of achieving the vision haven't always made economic sense," said Jonas Vestin, president of Eltel Networks' smart metering business unit. "With this ground-breaking new cloud-based solution, even the smallest utility or municipality can adopt a smart grid with a business case that makes sense for everyone in the value chain, including customers, investors and owners of the utility."

"This solution is a real game-changer not only for Denmark but also for the rest of the world," said Michael Anderson, senior vice president for utility sales and market development at Echelon. "With over 800,000 meters deployed or about to be deployed in Denmark, Echelon has been able to demonstrate to our utility customers many benefits of a smart grid. With this new cloud-based solution, Danish utilities and cities of all sizes can enjoy the benefits of deploying a smart grid today."

Harry Crijns