Brazil Chooses Landis+Gyr as Country’s First Approved Smart Meter Systems Provider

Landis+Gyr, the global leader in energy management offering utilities next generation smart grid solutions, has received approval to deploy the first Advanced Metering Solution to be used in Brazil, empowering consumers across the country to better manage their energy. The Landis+Gyr SGP+M System will allow Brazilian utilities to provide up-to-date energy information to help Brazilians control their energy use, cut energy costs, reduce environmental impacts and better protect against energy theft. Following the system’s certification by Inmetro (the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality), Landis+Gyr plans to install 200,000 new endpoints by the end of this year.

The Inmetro certification comes after nearly two years of extensive studies and rigorous testing of more than 300,000 devices across several utilities. During this time, Inmetro and Landis+Gyr worked closely to develop a sustainable electronic metering system that is tailored to fit Brazil’s needs as the country works towards modernizing its electrical grid.

“With the Inmetro certification, our technology will help millions of people in Brazil to better manage their personal energy consumption and benefit from the savings associated with conservation,” said Alvaro Dias, Executive Vice President of Landis+Gyr South America. “We are proud to work with Brazil’s administrative bodies to help ensure the Country’s energy future.”

Landis+Gyr’s SGP+M System provides a two-way flow of data between customer meters and utility back-end systems. With this two-way data flow, utilities will be able to offer customers a broad array of service options that enhance the efficiency and reliability of the electric grid. Customers will benefit from more information, expanded choices, and simpler, smarter management of their energy use. Utilities gain the advantage of lower operational costs and reduced non-technical losses, and in turn are able to offer faster, higher quality service, as well as dedicate more resources to the development of new products and services.

Smart metering is expected to revolutionize energy management and grid security across the globe, with Brazil leading the way in South America. Landis+Gyr’s 100% Brazilian-made SGP+M System will be crucial to bolstering local utilities’ income recovery processes and helping utilities prevent and fight non-technical losses such as meter tampering, energy theft, and lack of payment. According to data from the National Agency for Electric Energy, Brazil loses approximately $4 Billion from energy theft each year.

In 2008, for the eighth year in a row, Landis+Gyr has been listed as “one of the top ten firms to work for in Brazil” by the prestigious Exame magazine. The Landis+Gyr facility of 450 employees located in Curitiba prides itself on its high level of innovation and is one of the most modern plants in the Landis+Gyr network, exceeding both Brazilian and global energy sector quality standards. Moreover, just this April, Landis+Gyr received two prestigious awards for customer service excellence from forward-looking Brazilian utilities, Light S.A. and Ampla, part of Grupo Endesa, which supply energy to the state of Rio de Janeiro.

ABOUT LANDIS+GYR

Landis+Gyr is the leading provider of integrated energy management solutions tailored to energy company needs. With a global presence and a reputation for quality and innovation, Landis+Gyr is unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Today, the Company offers the broadest portfolio of products and services in the electricity metering industry, and is paving the way for the next generation of smart grid. With annualized sales of more than US$1.25 billion, Landis+Gyr operates in over 30 countries across five continents, and employs over 5,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better.

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ECUADOR’S ELECTRICA DE GUAYAQUIL SELECTS ELSTER FOR FIRST TWO-WAY AMI SMART GRID DEPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AMERICA

Raleigh, NC, September 27, 2010Ecuador’s Largest Electric Utility to Deploy Elster’s EnergyAxis® for Improved Customer Service and Billing Processes

Elster announced today that Electrica de Guayaquil (EDG), the largest electric utility in Ecuador, has selected the Elster EnergyAxis® Smart Grid solution for one of South America’s first two-way advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployments.

EDG will rely on Elster’s EnergyAxis® to accelerate its billing process, more quickly respond to customer requests and reduce commercial losses.

EDG provides electric power services to more than 550,000 residents across Ecuador. For the initial phase of its Smart Grid project, the utility will deploy the Elster EnergyAxis® solution to more than 4,500 residential, commercial and industrial locations to enable remote meter reads, and will deploy more than 250 low voltage AGI nodes for load balance.

The two-way AMI deployment enables EDG to remotely connect/disconnect service using Smart Meters, reduce its time-to-response to customer service requests and gain real-time access to meter data to accelerate the billing process from 10 days down to one day.
“With its proven track record, including more than 80 AMI deployments across the globe, Elster EnergyAxis® was the clear choice,” said Diego Sanchez, commercial manager, EDG.

“EDG is dedicated to improving energy efficiency and providing our customers with timely responses to all of their energy needs. Elster EnergyAxis® will be integrated across our existing IT infrastructure to enable enhanced customer services and near immediate identification of commercial losses,” Sanchez added.
The Elster EnergyAxis® Smart Grid solution will be integrated with EDG’s existing commercial applications, including the utility’s geographic information system, to provide future Smart Grid benefits such as outage management and the ability to more efficiently deploy maintenance crews. EDG’s Smart Grid AMI deployment relies on Elster’s EnergyAxis® for radio communications technology that enables bi-directional mesh communication with each Smart Meter, helping to reduce operating costs.
“As an industry leader, Electrica de Guayaquil is showing great initiative in implementing one of South America’s first Smart Grid projects involving two-way communications,” said Mark Munday, CEO and President of Elster Solutions.

“Every Elster utility customer has unique technical requirements, but nearly identical goals—to improve energy efficiency and customer service. EnergyAxis® is specifically designed to meet the business needs of utilities with customized Smart Grid technology solutions,” Munday added.

EnergyAxis®, a field-proven Smart Grid solution with more than 4.5 million endpoints deployed with utilities across North America, enables utilities to:

  • Realize operational efficiencies;
  • Conserve environmental and economic resources by reducing the losses in electricity, gas and water grids;
  • Reduce outages, and improve outage response and repair time;
  • Improve customer service and consumer choice;
  • Implement demand response programs that can conserve resources and reduce costs, especially during periods of peak demand;
  • Provide real-time information to end consumers to allow them to better manage their energy consumption; and
  • Detect and reduce non-technical losses.

About Elster
Elster is one of the world’s largest electricity, gas and water measurement and control providers.  Our offerings include distribution monitoring and control, advanced smart metering, demand response, networking and software solutions, and numerous related communications and services – key components for enabling consumer choice, operational efficiency and conservation. Our products and solutions are widely used by utilities in the traditional and emerging Smart Grid markets.

Elster has one of the most extensive installed revenue measurement bases in the world, with more than 200 million metering devices deployed over the course of the last 10 years. It sells its products and services in more than 130 countries across electricity, gas, water and multi-utility applications for residential, commercial and industrial, and transmission and distribution applications.

Elster was acquired by funds advised by CVC Capital Partners in September 2005.