Danish utility to use Echelon's smart grid systems

San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon (Nasdaq: ELON) announced today that the Danish utility SEAS-NVE has awarded an advanced metering infrastructure project to Echelon partner Eltel Networks, based in Finland, with the meter data management system and enterprise software tools to come from Germany's Görlitz, another Echelon parter.

Under the project, which is targeted to begin in the fourth quarter of this year be complete by the end of 2011, Eltel will deploy Echelon networked energy services advanced metering infrastructure to approximately 390,000 SEAS-NVE customers.

Over the life of the project, the deal is expected to generate approximately $40 million in revenues for Echelon.

"This project represents the largest advanced metering project awarded yet in Denmark," said Frit Bruggink, senior VP of utility solutions at Echelon.

Echelon's system consists of a family of integrated electronic electricity meters accessed via a web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure.

Multiple meters can share a single IP connection through the use of the technology, which the company said drives down the per-point connection cost and enables the system to easily incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system.