Landis+Gyr to Further Enable Utilities with Acquisition of PowerSense

ZUG, Switzerland, May 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Landis+Gyr, the global leader in energy management solutions, today announced that it has acquired PowerSense, a global player in smart grid technologies, and will integrate it into its portfolio. With this development, utilities the world over will benefit from a cost effective, scalable and modular solution which has already proven itself in a large roll out. This solution enables utilities to balance and better manage grids in their medium and low voltage distribution network. Further benefits include the provision of key smart grid applications sensing and secondary transformer monitoring.

PowerSense services a fast developing area of the smart grid market, sensors, which is forecast to grow significantly over the next decade across Europe, and the market shows similar potential in North America and the Asia Pacific region. PowerSense develops and produces high-quality supervision and control systems for the power distribution industry. These supervision and control systems have been designed to retrofit and digitalize existing power distribution infrastructures. This enables grid operators to meet the challenges of the future power grids, where an increasing number of distributed power generation options and unpredictable loads will drastically change the power consumption patterns.

Andreas Umbach, CEO at Landis+Gyr says, "PowerSense solutions have been tested and successfully proven in a major rollout in Australia at Ausgrid and in a number of pilot projects internationally. Their patented optical sensor technologies, as well as smart grid monitoring and controller products, perfectly complement Landis+Gyr's portfolio. This acquisition sees the start of a powerful and attractive next generation of products, giving our customers a unique advantage to manage energy better in the fast developing world of smart grid applications."

PowerSense's product line has been designed for digitizing existing power distribution infrastructure, to create an end-to-end Smart Grid solution. This solution is realized by retrofitting sensors onto the existing medium  and low voltage power cables, transformers and switch gear, but also by integration of already installed, electronic devices located at the substation level. When further combined with Landis+Gyr's and Toshiba's existing grid management offerings the product synergies become even more powerful for adopting utilities.

Jesper Klingsten Nielsen, CEO of PowerSense, says, "The PowerSense solution has been developed directly with our customers and so exactly meets market expectations. Landis+Gyr's acquisition of PowerSense will dramatically strengthen developments in the smart grid field globally. This powerful combination will have positive impact on the smart grid space, delivering solutions which enable utility use cases, including better outage management, improved power quality and optimization of asset life."

Since its inception in 2006, PowerSense has sold and delivered products and services to 35 utilities throughout the world, and offers solutions for a number of smart grid applications, including distribution grid management, fault management, the integration of renewable energies and power balancing technologies. Landis+Gyr plans to integrate PowerSense into its European operations.

About PowerSense

The company was spun off from DONG Energy, a Danish power utility, in 2006. It is based in Holte, near Copenhagen. The company is owned by NES partners, a private equity investor in Copenhagen and by DONG Energy. The company currently employs 16 people and their target markets are Europe and ANZ. PowerSense offers optical based medium voltage sensors and a monitoring and control system for MV/LV distribution grid management. Their in-house developed optical sensor technology is very robust, unique and patent protected in various countries.

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management products tailored to energy company needs and unique in its ability to deliver true end-to-end advanced metering solutions. Today, the Company offers the broadest portfolio of products and services in the electricity metering industry, and is paving the way for the next generation of smart grid. With annualized sales of more than US$1.6 billion, Landis+Gyr, an independent growth platform of the Toshiba Corporation (TKY:6502) and 40% owned by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, operates in 30 countries across five continents, and employs 5,200 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better. More information is available at landisgyr.com.

SOURCE Landis+Gyr