Echelon wins Duke Energy smart grid contract

Echelon on Monday announced a big smart grid win: Duke Energy will use its networked energy services (NES) system as it updates its electric delivery systems for 4 million customers over five states.

Duke Energy's territory covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Duke Energy's five year deployment plan includes the rollout of 700,000 smart meters in Ohio. Duke Energy also plans to roll out 800,000 smart meters in Indiana pending regulatory approval.

According to Echelon, Duke Energy's initial order is for $15.8 million with deliverables at the end of the quarter. Echelon expects to garner $150 million in revenue from the deal.

Echelon's NES metering family includes digital electricity meters that access Web-based data via a network operating system over IP networking infrastructure. In a nutshell, these tools will allow Duke Energy to gauge the status, operation and health of its grid.

Here's a diagram of how the system works:

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com