Echelon Unifies Multiple Energy Control Standards and Delivers Blueprint for Future-Proofed Smart Sustainable Buildings

CHICAGO, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) today announced a suite of new tools and products for building owners, specification writers, integrators, and energy management application developers. The offerings will enable building professionals to integrate the world's leading devices, applications, and building automation standards (LonWorks® and BACnet®), and thereby architect energy-efficient buildings that are "grid-aware" and therefore can respond to emerging grid requirements. The offerings being announced today build on Echelon's proven, open standard, multi-application platform and leverage more than 20 years of real-world experience in the buildings industry. 

• Open Building Specification Guide – a proven approach to help building professionals define and architect open, energy efficient and grid-aware buildings.
• LonWorks/BACnet Gateway Application – an application that integrates LonWorks and BACnet systems and enables a truly open building architecture.
• OpenLNS Network Operating System – a new, royalty-free network operating system and environment for developing, deploying, and managing building automation and energy management systems and supporting multiple grid-aware applications.
• Building Energy Management Toolkit – software tools and wizards that enable a multi-site organization to rapidly incorporate third-party devices and multiple applications to build a customized energy management solution.
• Router 5000 Module – based on proven FT 5000 technology, this product is used by OEMs to build routers that increase the scalability and survivability of LonWorks-based smart building networks.

"Commercial buildings consume about 25% of all electricity worldwide today, so boosting efficiency in the commercial sector is crucial to reducing operating expenses and carbon emissions. To meet these challenges, new energy management technologies are starting to transform the way in which businesses, government agencies, and utilities manage and reduce energy consumption in buildings," said Eric Bloom, research analyst at Pike Research, a leading market research firm focusing on global clean technology. "Smart, 'grid-aware' buildings that can respond to real-time grid conditions upstream will play a particularly important role in stabilizing the electricity grid given that demand and supply are more variable than before. To achieve grid-awareness, however, building professionals need complete interoperability between historically disparate building systems. Bridging the gap between LonWorks and BACnet achieves this level of interoperability and is an important step in architecting smarter, grid-aware buildings."

"The industry needs to move beyond the notion that LonWorks and BACnet are competing standards – they are both open standards that have complementary strengths and real-world buildings are hybrids of both," said Varun Nagaraj, SVP of Product Marketing and Management at Echelon. "We also have to make our solutions as low cost and easy to use as possible. Today's announcement includes our new royalty-free OpenLNS operating system, a truly open specification guide, and tools for integrating leading applications and devices are a big step forward in that direction."

Open Building Specification Guide

The Open Building Specification Guide will enable building professionals to architect an interoperable system from top to bottom. The guide, which is a collection of standards and documents, initially focuses on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Subsequent releases will expand the scope of this specification to include other critical building functions. The specification stipulates how to maintain an open procurement environment both for the initial install and for the life of the building. To download a copy of the Open Building Specification Guide, please go to www.echelon.com/myspec.

LonWorks/BACnet Gateway Application

The reality of today's building systems is that they utilize a variety of open and proprietary standards, which can create interoperability challenges. Echelon has collaborated with ConnectEx, Inc., a software developer, to address this challenge for the two leading building standards – LonWorks and BACnet – to offer a new gateway application for the Echelon SmartServer. Running this application on Echelon's SmartServer allows system integrators to commission, add, modify, and connect LonWorks-based products within a BACnet management system. The application will provide a BACnet management console with a full system view and interoperability down to the device level to achieve comprehensive monitoring and control. To request a beta trial of the gateway application, please contact ConnectEx, Inc. at [email protected] or [email protected].

OpenLNS Network Operating System

The royalty-free Echelon OpenLNS network operating system enables software developers to build applications that can commission, configure, monitor, control, diagnose and repair any LonWorks-based device in a building control network. These applications can implement a wide range of policies determined by the building professional to balance comfort and energy savings, including how to respond to a request from the grid for energy reduction or a signal from the grid with variable pricing. A building enabled by the OpenLNS network operating system is more manageable and not locked into any specific device vendor or system integrator. The OpenLNS beta will be available in February and will be generally available in 2H 2012. OpenLNS will not have any royalty or credit fees. To apply for the OpenLNS beta program, please go to www.echelon.com/OpenLNSbeta.

Building Energy Management Toolkit

The Building Energy Management 1.1 toolkit for multi-site organizations, running on the Echelon SmartServer, includes over a dozen wizards and templates that allow companies to rapidly integrate third party sub-meters and third-party software applications for energy monitoring, analytics, and real-time energy control. As a result, building professionals can build an energy management and control environment customized to their unique needs and achieve energy conservation of up to 30%. Interested developers looking to integrate their enterprise applications can register to download the toolkit beta at www.echelon.com/BEMToolkit.

Router 5000 Module

As buildings become smarter, there is an increasing need for automation systems to include a larger number and variety of building control devices. The new Echelon Router 5000 module allows OEMs to offer routers that can be used to build scalable and survivable device networks that incorporate the appropriate physical media. The Router 5000 is part of the Echelon 5000 series product line that includes the FT 5000 Smart Transceiver and the Neuron® 5000 processor. The Router 5000 will be available in February and pricing and delivery information can be obtained by contacting [email protected].

Demonstrations at the AHR Expo

Echelon will demonstrate an integrated LonWorks and BACnet building system at the AHR Expo in Chicago, Illinois on January 23-25 in Echelon's Booth #3436. The company will also demonstrate its Building Energy Management 1.1 toolkit running on an Echelon SmartServer and showcase multiple energy analytics, building management and grid applications. Copies of the Open Building Specification Guide will also be available. For more details on the AHR Expo, please visit http://www.ahrexpo.com/.

About Echelon Corporation

Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is the world's leading open-standard energy control networking company. Echelon technologies connect more than 35 million homes, 300,000 buildings and 100 million devices to the smart grid, and help customers save 20% or more on their energy usage. With more than 20 years of experience in energy control, Echelon delivers a wide range of innovative solutions to commercial and electric utility customers. More information about Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.   

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 uncertainties pertaining to market acceptance of Echelon's OpenLNS, Building Energy Management 1.1 toolkit and Router 5000 and other products and the timing and level of customer orders; risks relating to the timing of availability of Echelon's OpenLNS, Building Energy Management 1.1 toolkit and Router 5000 and other products; risks that Echelon offerings do not perform as designed or provide the expected benefits, and that liability may accrue as a result; 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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