Solar panels equipped with Echelon-controlled DC-to-AC micro-inverters gain efficiency and reliability at lower total cost
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) announced that Direct Grid Technologies, LLC, a manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) micro-inverters for utility and commercial grade solar power generation, will be adding Echelon energy control networking to its micro-inverter products. Micro-inverters convert electricity generated by PV panels from direct to alternating current at the individual panel. This increases the overall reliability and efficiency of the entire solar power installation. By integrating the solar panels into a power line communicating energy control network with Echelon's technology, Direct Grid can offer improved diagnostics, remote management and control, and lower the life cycle cost of the installation. The energy control network can be leveraged by Direct Grid and its customers over the lifetime of the panel installation, even as PV panel technology advances.
As part of its strategy to transform the electricity grid into a distributed, reliable and survivable energy control network, Echelon is working with its commercial customers to inject intelligence into their products so that they can analyze and act immediately in response to dynamic grid conditions to maximize efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness. Echelon is focusing this work with companies providing solar power solutions, smart street lighting and building energy management. Today's announcement with Direct Grid is the latest deliverable on this strategy.
"PV panel efficiency is constantly improving but by small increments. Adding energy control networking to our micro-inverter products allows us to address efficiency at a system level and provide substantial additional performance improvement," said Frank Cooper, Direct Grid's president and principal. "Echelon's energy control network multiplies the benefits of micro-inverters and gives us tremendous system control capabilities as well as insight into what is happening throughout the installation – system wide, by rows of panels, and at the individual panel. Efficiency and control are the combination that our customers want."
According to Direct Grid, using Echelon's energy control networking technology was the right choice because it integrates well with other equipment, scales easily and cost effectively to meet the expanding needs of Direct Grid customers because it is more reliable and less costly to install and maintain than competing systems. Echelon's power line signaling technology, combined with its industry-leading SmartServer energy manager, has proven field reliability in the energy industry, delivering exceptional performance in utility and commercial applications with tens of millions of homes and more than a 100 million devices.
Anders Axelsson, Echelon's senior vice president, commercial markets added, "Our energy control networking technology coupled with innovations like Direct Grid's micro-inverters combine control of energy supply and demand right at the edge of the grid, facilitating the evolution of the smart grid. This combination is a big step forward in delivering low-cost, reliable, manageable, renewable energy."
Find out more about power line signaling and the SmartServer at http://www.echelon.com/products/transceivers/powerline/ and http://www.echelon.com/products/cis/smartserver/.
More About the Echelon and Direct-Grid Collaboration
Direct Grid has added Echelon's ISO standard power line smart transceivers to each micro-inverter. The micro-inverters communicate with Echelon's i.LON® SmartServer to access Direct Grid's WattTrack™ software for visualizing tracking, harvesting and performance data. The power line based network allows Direct Grid to reliably communicate amongst thousands of panels over hundreds of acres. Increased efficiency and lower costs come from a number of areas:
- Panel isolation;
- Decreased line loss;
- Improved diagnostics; and
- Prediction, identification and faster resolution of maintenance issues.
The energy control network allows Direct Grid to identify individual panel performance changes, minimize the cost of maintenance through improved diagnostics and visibility, and provides detailed performance logs for auditing and compliance purposes. The SmartServer's sophisticated control software, standard web services, LonWorks® network, and Modbus interfaces allow Direct Grid installations to be integrated with other equipment, building systems, and energy management services.
About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is leading the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into a smart, communicating energy network, connecting utilities to their customers, enabling networking of everyday devices, and providing customers with energy aware homes and businesses that react to conditions on the grid.
Echelon's NES System – the control networking infrastructure for the smart grid – enables intelligent distributed control applications and devices that deliver maximum reliability, survivability and responsiveness. Through the Echelon Control System (ECoS) platform, the NES system enables any device, speaking any protocol, connected over any network to be integrated into local decision making and connected securely to enterprise IT systems through virtually any IP network. The NES System helps utilities compete more effectively, reduce operating costs, provide expanded services and help energy users manage and reduce overall energy use.
Echelon's LonWorks® Infrastructure products extend the smart grid in to smart buildings factories, homes and other systems, powering tens of millions of energy aware, everyday devices made by thousands of companies – connecting them to each other, to the electricity grid and to the Internet. LonWorks based products work together to monitor and save energy; lower costs; improve productivity; and enhance service, quality, safety, and convenience in utility, municipal, building, industrial, transportation, and home area networks.
More information about Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.
Echelon, LonWorks, i.LON, and the Echelon logo are registered trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
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 market acceptance of Echelon's products and the timing and level of customer orders; risks relating to the timing of availability of Echelon's power line smart transceivers and i.LON SmartServers; risks that Echelon offerings do not perform as designed or provide the expected benefits, and that liability may accrue as a result; risks relating to market acceptance of Direct Grid's solutions that incorporate Echelon's products; 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.
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