Eandis Selects Elster Group Technology Solution for Deployment of Belgium's Largest Smart Meter Pilot

KORTRIJK, Belgium, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- EnergyICT, an Elster Group company, announced today that Eandis, one of Belgium's largest electricity and gas grid companies, has successfully deployed components of Elster's EnergyAxis® portfolio of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions to power Belgium's largest integrated Smart Metering pilot.

As part of the Smart Metering pilot, Eandis is installing 4,200 Elster smart electricity and gas meters, along with EnergyICT data concentrators and a hosted EIServer meter data management (MDM) application, in the towns of Leest and Hombeek, near Mechelen, Flanders. The deployment also includes Elster power line carrier (PLC) technology and Coronis radio technology.

Eandis is working to meet increasing demand for improved energy efficiency, and move towards a more flexible Smart Grid that can incorporate alternative energy sources.

Eandis is using elements of Elster's EnergyAxis AMI solution based on European PLC technology to enable real-time, remote, two-way communication between the Smart Meters and a central MDM system. Data collection will be conducted through data concentrators to a hosted version of EnergyICT's EIServer, a market leading data management application. EIServer will process the data and supply detailed consumption information to Eandis, enabling improved management of energy resources and the Smart Grid.

In the future, the Elster solution will provide Eandis the ability to monitor energy consumption and load in real-time, while managing fluctuations in supply and demand. This pilot will help Eandis determine its strategy for future Smart Grid deployments and support of greater energy efficiency and future technologies such as electric vehicles.  

"EnergyAxis provides the full suite of end-to-end solutions that electric, water and gas utilities need to modernize infrastructure and experience marked improvements in efficiency and conservation," said Frank Hyldmar, executive vice president of Elster Integrated Solutions. "In this case, Elster and EnergyICT's capabilities have been combined to provide the solution that perfectly fits the needs of this project."

About Elster

Elster is one of the world's largest providers of electricity, gas and water meters and related communications, networking and software solutions, which are key components for enabling energy efficiency and conservation. Its products and solutions are widely used by customers in the manual-read meter and Smart Grid markets.  

Elster has one of the most extensive installed meter 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 both residential and commercial and industrial customers.

With a heritage of more than 170 years of providing metering solutions, Elster enjoys a reputation as a leading innovator and has played, and continues to play, an important role in shaping industry standards with respect to performance, reliability, accuracy and functionality.

Elster was acquired by funds advised by CVC Capital Partners in September 2005. In 2008, Elster generated revenues of euro 1.3 billion or $1.9 billion.

For more information about Elster, please visit www.elster.com.

About EnergyICT

EnergyICT is a pioneer in providing Smart Metering and Smart Grid solutions to utilities in all markets engaging in Smart Metering projects. As one of the top three global market leaders, EnergyICT is specialized in delivering highly advanced ICT solutions and services to utilities, energy suppliers and energy management solutions to end customers. EnergyICT has been part of the Elster Group since September 2009 and realized a turnover of euro 17 million in the same year. With 124 employees worldwide, EnergyICT is headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, and has subsidiaries in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States and Australia.

For more information about EnergyICT, please visit www.EnergyICT.com.

SOURCE Elster Group