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Echelon, T-Mobile Announce Smart Meter Partnership

Posted on: Thursday, 23 April 2009, 11:55 CDT

Echelon Corp, a smart power grid company, along with T-Mobile USA announced Thursday a newly forged alliance adopting T-Mobile’s wireless network to link utilities to “smart meters.”

In order to collect power usage and necessary data for the company’s network, Echelon will utilize a first-of-its-kind inserted T-Mobile SIM within a cellular radio module in Echelon’s smart meters, which will enable all Echelon smart meters to communicate back to the utility through the smart grid. As part of the agreement, T-Mobile will be offering users of this system an aggressively cost effective pricing plan for data usage.

The advancement in Echelon’s advanced metering infrastructure is pioneering a transformational movement of the electricity grid into a smart energy network worldwide.

Testing has already begun amongst many U.S utility companies in various projects in hopes that by measuring power demand at the consumer level as well as assisting electricity providers, this smart grid technology will enable the U.S to use electricity more efficiently.

Experts are saying that in terms of facilitating the cultivation of green power sources such as wind and solar, as well as eventually enabling the system to support a fleet of electric cars, this upgrade in the nation’s power grid is absolutely necessary.

Echelon has already shipped more than 100,000 of its smart meters to Duke Energy, a U.S. utility owner, and has exceeded more than 1.6 million worldwide. They are claiming that this partnership with T-Mobile will provide the meters with a cost-effective communications tool.

Its meters cost about $100 per unit before installation cost.

Utilities are now incurring a higher charge for power generated during the high demand daytime hours. If they are able to successfully change part of that usage to early morning or evening hours during times of lower demand, then customers will also be able to share in the savings.

The hope is ultimately to have these smart meters linked to household “smart appliances”, which would enable the consumers to program units to operate during the times of lower demands. Some businesses and factories have been able to receive power at a lower cost in return for agreeing to reduce their demand during those times thus demonstrating the benefits of this technology.

T-Mobile’s embedded SIM is slightly larger than the head of a pin and will be made of silicone rather than plastic which will provide a very small, durable solution built to withstand and overcome challenging environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and various other factors known to damage traditional SIM cards.

T-Mobile expects the potential market to be huge; therefore adopting this small grid device has great implications for the company.

Reuters quotes national director of T-Mobile USA’s M2M division, John Horn, as saying, "There are 300 million electric meters. You've got gas and water on top of that. It's a very, very large opportunity ... billions of dollars".

This wireless technology will be utilized on low-voltage transformers, which allows electricity to be connected between 4 and 10 homes or businesses.

Companies say that with the data being provided from transformers to a utility’s centralized collection point, the power provider can easily recognize and locate problems within the network and ultimately reduce cost and cut time of power outages. 

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On the Net:

• Echelon Corp
• T-Mobile USA
• Duke Energy

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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