Echelon and Industry Experts Honor Leading Smart Grid Companies with 2011 Innovator of the Year Awards
Utilities NRGi and Vattenfall and Analysts Frost & Sullivan and Pike Research Recognize GreenWave Reality and System Level Solutions for Bringing New Benefits to Customers
Echelon Corporation announced that GreenWave Reality and System Level Solutions (SLS) have received its 2011 Innovator of the Year awards. The Awards were presented at Echelon's annual Smart Grid Conference held on October 17-20 in Prague, Czech Republic.
The Echelon Innovator of the Year awards received by GreenWave Reality and SLS spotlight outstanding achievements and commitment in the areas of technology expertise and service specialization that result in new energy efficient services for customers. Participants in the Innovator of the Year awards were judged by both Echelon's Smart Grid Conference attendees and a panel of industry experts, comprised of energy utilities NRGi of Denmark and Vattenfall of Sweden and industry analyst firms Frost & Sullivan and Pike Research. Winners were selected based on uniqueness of innovation, usefulness of application and value to customers based on market need and benefits achieved. Ideal innovations are real-world tested and interoperable via open standards.
"I'd like to congratulate the winners of the Echelon Innovator of the Year award. GreenWave Reality and SLS represent some of the very best customer benefits and technical achievements of the Smart Grid," said Ron Sege, chairman and CEO of Echelon. "We are excited for these innovations because they will not only offer additional value and benefits to customers worldwide, but they also represent a commitment to true open standards such as Open Smart Grid Protocol."
"GreenWave Reality is honored to be aligned with an industry leader such as Echelon by receiving this prestigious award," said Martin Manniche, chairman and CTO, GreenWave Reality. "Our solutions deliver great value to consumers by marrying the power of the smart meter with advanced home services, while delivering on the future of the Smart Grid."
GreenWave Reality is a global innovator in the emerging Smart Home Services market, providing products and services that include energy visualization and management, connected lighting, smart heating controls and lifestyle services such as home monitoring. GreenWave Reality offers a standards-based monitoring and control platform, providing tools for utilities and service providers, which give increased visibility to energy usage on the grid while strengthening their relationship with consumers. GreenWave Reality offers consumers an affordable solution with an industry-leading experience to save energy and improve their lifestyle. The company is implementing its solution with a number of leading global utilities in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States.
"We are honored and humbled to receive this award from Echelon and their Smart Grid Partner audience," said Paresh Patel, president and CEO, System Level Solutions. "We are pleased to be at the forefront of the new paradigm in networked energy services with intelligent devices that bridge the Smart Grid and Smart Home. Our eCommander technology enables utility companies and consumers to better work together and achieve more energy efficiencies locally."
SLS is an integration specialist providing the most creative solutions for intellectual property, hardware/software design and manufacturing that help customers get to market faster. SLS created the eCommander, the world's first energy management console that allows bi-directional information between the utility and customer over Echelon's proven Power Line Communications (PLC) technology. SLS is working towards a complete ecosystem of devices for the new generation eco-friendly families that prefer to stay informed about their energy usage.
About Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP)
OSGP is a communication protocol used to communicate with smart meters and smart grid devices. Prior to being proposed as an International and European open standard, OSGP became a defacto open standard for the smart metering market, where it is used to communicate securely and reliably with millions of smart meters and other smart grid devices. Energy Service Network Association (ESNA), a non-profit corporation composed of utilities, manufacturers, and integrators, is responsible for publishing, maintaining, and certifying devices compatible with the OSGP specification.