China's Leading Smart Meter Supplier, Holley Metering, Wins New Customers Based Upon Echelon Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), a global leader in energy control networking for smart grid, smart city and smart building applications, today announced that it reached a significant milestone in a key targeted growth region, China. Echelon's power line communications (PLC) technology and Control Operating System (COS) powered data concentrator module have been granted China State Grid approval through its joint venture, Zhejiang Echelon Holley Technology Co., Ltd. The joint venture has also received from Holley Metering Limited its first order for meter modules that incorporate Echelon's PLC technology for use in a 30,000 smart meter pilot deployment in Inner Mongolia and been selected for a pilot in Fuping county, located in the Shanxi province. These two projects represent significant opportunities for the partnership; Inner Mongolia is expected to add 10 million new smart meters over the next five years and the Shanxi province is targeting 10 million new smart meters over the next three years.

The Inner Mongolia project started three years ago with other PLC technologies but, based upon the reputation of Echelon's PLC technology, Inner Mongolia has selected Echelon for this 30,000 unit deployment now that the Echelon Holley joint venture's meter module that incorporates Echelon's PLC technology has received State Grid certification. When the deployment is completed in January 2013, the utility has plans to expand to a larger scale.

The Fuping pilot is being managed by the local utility, part of the Shanxi provincial utility. The 1,000 meter pilot using Echelon PLC technology has delivered nearly a 100% read rate. Many more meters using the Echelon Holley joint venture communications modules will be installed over the next few months to expand this pilot. If the Fuping pilot performs well, it could expand to other cities or counties in the Shanxi province that are services by the Shanxi utility.

In addition to the Inner Mongolia and Fuping projects, the Echelon Holley joint venture has also sold its communications modules that incorporate Echelon technology for use in 11,000 smart meters in smaller pilot projects at 10 sites in five provinces.

"Echelon's strategy of bringing our Energy Control Networking platform to China via our joint venture and local smart grid partners is starting to show results," said Ron Sege, chairman and CEO of Echelon. "This is part of our company's strategy to target growing markets and lay the groundwork for selling multi-application edge-of-the-grid solutions around the globe with great local partners such as Holley Metering."

State-owned China State Grid Corporation, the world's largest grid operator and power distributor, has outlined and is aggressively delivering on its five year plan to upgrade China's electricity grid. State Grid promises reliability of no less than 99.9% and on-site response within 45 minutes to repair service in urban areas. To reach these goals, they created a rigorous suite of tests that vendors must pass in order to participate in the future State Grid project to upgrade its 120 million meter market over the next three years.

"With China State Grid approval and pilot underway, Echelon Holley is making significant strides in the Chinese smart grid market," said Jin Meixing, chairman of Holley Metering, a leading smart metering company in China.

About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is an energy control networking company, with the world's most widely deployed proven, open standard, multi-application platform, selling complete systems and embedded sub-systems for smart grid, smart city and smart building applications. Our platform is embedded in more than 100 million devices, 35 million homes, and 300,000 buildings and powers energy savings applications for smart grids, smart cities and smart buildings. We help our customers reduce operational costs, enhance satisfaction and safety, grow revenues and prepare for a dynamic future. More information about Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.

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Echelon 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 market acceptance of Echelon's technology by itself or combined with other applications or offerings, including offerings by Zhejiang Echelon Holley Technology Co., Ltd.; and other local partners such as Holley Metering; the risk that Echelon's offerings by themselves or combined with other applications or offerings do not perform as designed or do not offer the expected benefits and savings; risks associated with international sales; the timing of orders and the possibility that pilot orders may not expand into full deployments; 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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SOURCE Echelon Corporation