Rongwen to Install One of World's Largest LED-based Street Lighting Solutions with Control Networking Technology from Echelon

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) today announced that Rongwen, a key Echelon customer in China, has been awarded a project to provide a lighting control system with 48,000 light emitting diode (LED) street lights for the prefectures of Dongguan and Foshan in Guangdong province.  With controllable street lights, the prefectures will be able to cut energy costs and carbon emissions by a factor of two to three, with controls providing 30% more savings than just using high-efficiency LEDs. Additional benefits include improving LED life expectancy, reducing maintenance costs, and reducing light pollution. When installed, this project is expected to be one of the largest installations of controllable LED street lights in the world.

The solution being deployed is built on the open ISO/IEC 14908 standard for control networking. Rongwen provides the LED fixtures and management software and implements the ISO 14908 standard using Echelon's Power Line Communications (PLC) transceivers and segment controllers. Rongwen also provides the financing, project management, and ongoing operations using an ESCO model.

Guangdong province, which has a population slightly smaller than Japan's and economic output roughly equivalent to South Korea's, has ambitious energy efficiency targets set by the provincial government. Bloomberg New Energy Finance in its report titled "H1 2013 Energy Efficiency Market Outlook" states "If Guangdong province is to meet its target [for energy efficiency], these are the type of announcements that we should be expecting," further adding that "projects are considerably cheaper when rolled out at scale." This pronouncement is consistent with Rongwen's expectation that the LED street light project will expand to more than 100,000 lights by 2014. 

"Controllable LED street lights provide a great opportunity for Rongwen to contribute to China's leadership position in green technology and energy efficiency," said Mr. Li Zhixiong, president and CEO of Rongwen, one of the largest street lighting companies in China. "Our partnership with Echelon and the use of their standards-based controls technology allow us to provide the most competitive solution in the market today."

"Rongwen's success demonstrates that the combination of LED lighting and Echelon's intelligent controls greatly increases energy efficiency and reduces maintenance costs," said Varun Nagaraj, senior vice president at Echelon. "We are excited to be part of the Rongwen and China success story, and we are excited about the potential of similar solutions throughout China and elsewhere."

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 market acceptance of Echelon's technology by itself or combined with other applications or offerings; 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; 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