Echelon and Southern California Edison Deliver Energy Savings in Innovative California Energy Commission Program
December 10, 2001 09:12:00 AM ET
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2001-- Open Systems Alliance Member VaCom Technologies Provides LonWorks Integration for SCE
Echelon Corporation ELON announced today that they are working with Southern California Edison (SCE) to deliver energy savings to companies using Non-Road Electric Vehicles such as forklifts, golf carts or production transports. SCE recently won a contract with the California Energy Commission to deliver an 8 MW electric demand savings as part of the Commission's Innovative Peak Load Reduction Program. Open Systems Alliance member and Echelon Authorized Network Integrator VaCom Technologies has been authorized by SCE's program administrator, Honeywell DMC Services, to install LonWorks(R) enabled battery charger control panels at facilities that have applied to join the program. SCE customers that subscribe to the program can realize an energy cost savings of up to $600 per forklift per year with minimal impact to their business operations while helping the state avoid on-peak electricity shortages.
"We feel that using technology in user/provider programs is the smartest and most beneficial means of achieving the long term energy management and cost reductions that our customers need," said Dick Cromie, SCE's program manager. "We proposed this program to the CEC because it's a great opportunity to put the proof behind this belief and provide our customers long-term savings with virtually no negative impact on their business operations." According to SCE, as many as 1,800 non-road electric vehicles in their territory including forklifts, golf carts, and other types of electric vehicles in warehousing, food processing, and other types of facilities are candidates for the LonWorks driven battery charger energy management systems by June 2002. SCE's contract will involve as many as 100 - 200 customers, which equates to a penetration of 3% - 5% of the available market of non-road electric vehicles.
"Echelon is a provider of truly open, end-to-end, solutions for energy management," adds Frits Bruggink, Echelon's senior vice-president of sales and marketing. "We are taking what we've learned in creating the technology for the world's largest energy management project of over 27 million homes (in Italy), and applying that knowledge and expertise through our partners, and directly, to markets around the world."
According to Doug Scott, VaCom's president, "When considering the SCE project, three key factors defined our solution -- installed cost, need for 'built-in' performance monitoring by phone or the Internet, and ease of future expansion. With a LonWorks based control panel, not only did we get a low-cost, targeted solution using robust field-proven technology, we are also installing a system with unmatched flexibility. By taking advantage of the LonWorks open standards based platform, we are also able to provide SCE and its customers with the most capable and cost-effective solution on the market." The LonWorks control panels use Echelon's LonPoint(R) modules, i.LON(TM) 1000 Internet Server, and LonMaker(TM) integration tool to control the battery chargers, enable Internet command and control and allow for easy installation.
About the Peak Load Reduction Program
Southern California Edison applied to the California Energy Commission (CEC) in June 2001, proposing a program to reduce industrial electric vehicle on-peak charging loads. Funding had been made available to the CEC under Senate Bill 5X to help California save energy during peak demand periods, and the program will pay customers to install energy management equipment on their battery charging systems, up to $150 per kilowatt (kW) shifted from on-peak to off-peak weekdays during the 2002 summer months. With over 70,000 electric forklifts, golf carts and industrial electric vehicles in the SCE service territory, it became apparent that many customers could conveniently and easily shift their battery charging to off-peak times if they had the proper control equipment.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving more than 11 million people via 4.3 million customer accounts within a 50,000-square-mile area within central, coastal and Southern California. More information is available at sce.com.
About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation is the creator of the LonWorks(R) platform, the world's most widely used standard for connecting everyday devices such as appliances, thermostats, air conditioners, electric meters, and lighting systems to each other and to the Internet. Echelon's hardware and software products enable manufacturers and integrators to create smart devices and systems that lower cost, increase convenience, improve service, and enhance productivity, quality, and safety. Thousands of companies have developed and installed more than 16 million LonWorks based devices into homes, buildings, factories, trains, and other systems worldwide.
The protocol underlying LonWorks networks and the signaling used by Echelon's power line and free topology transceivers have both been adopted as standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Echelon is also a founding member of the LonMark(R) Interoperability Association, an open industry forum of hundreds of leading manufacturers, integrators, and users dedicated to promoting the use of interoperable LonWorks devices. More information is available at lonmark.org. Further information regarding Echelon can be found at echelon.com.
Echelon, LonWorks, LonMark, the LonMark logo, and the Echelon logo are trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. LonPoint, LonMaker, i.LON, and Bringing the Internet to Life(TM) are trademarks of Echelon Corporation. Other marks belong to their respective holders.
This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties pertaining to the timing and level of customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for Echelon's products and services, and other risks identified in Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Contact Information:
Echelon Corporation
Steve Nguyen, 408/938-5272
qnguyen@echelon.com |
