CURRENT Group Demonstrates Industry’s First Comprehensive Smart Grid Smart Transformer Station (STS) Solution for European and Asia Pacific Utilities

  • CURRENT has released and is demonstrating the industry's first comprehensive Smart Grid solution for primary and secondary transformer stations with utility partner ELMŰ at EUTC in Budapest, Hungary.
  • Smart Transformer Station (STS) consists of a complete portfolio of Smart Grid infrastructure hardware and software products providing flexible solutions for communications, sensing and analytics, advanced metering, device, data, and event management.
  • CURRENT® Smart Transformer Station is focused on solving real-world utility distribution Smart Grid issues by reducing the cost of backhaul communications to transformer stations, providing unprecedented asset connectivity and visibility to devices within the station, allowing full remote management and visibility into transformer operating parameters and conditions through cutting edge IP-based sensing and analytics technologies, and providing for fully open, interoperable meter collection for utilities advanced meter deployments.

Budapest, Hungary - November 04, 2009 - CURRENT Group, LLC, a leading global Smart Grid company, announced and is demonstrating at the European Utility Telecom Council Annual Meeting taking place in Budapest, Hungary this week the industry's first comprehensive Smart Grid portfolio specifically designed to solve distribution and metering challenges in European, Australian, and Asia Pacific utility grid architectures. CURRENT's solution, the CURRENT Smart Transformer Station, provides a flexible, open, and cost effective suite of products to solve real-world "smart grid" problems facing utilities worldwide.

Solutions for Wide Scale Smart Grid Deployments
The CURRENT Smart Transformer Station product portfolio focuses on addressing four main ingredients of comprehensive Smart Grid deployments:

  • Communications - Enabling low-cost robust communications to and within primary and secondary transformer stations through a modular, secure, upgradeable communications gateway solution.
  • Sensing and Analytics - Providing transparency to grid asset conditions through cost effective, easy to deploy, remotely managed sensing solutions.
  • Metering - Addressing meter communications and collection capabilities through fully open and interoperable meter concentrator solutions.
  • Device, Data, and Event Management - Providing user-based remote visibility into all aspects of Smart Grid operations through software systems tailored specifically to utility networking / telecom, distribution engineering, and customer related personnel.

"Utilities around the world have recognized that there are serious challenges in operating a distribution network in an environment of aging infrastructure, retiring workforces, centralized and distributed renewable energy sources, and increased desire from customers to have visibility into their energy consumption," said Tom Willie, Senior Vice President of Products and Technology for CURRENT. "These challenges will require them to invest in solutions that provide for greater connectivity and control over grid devices, greater transparency into grid conditions, and greater responsiveness in communicating and providing information to their end users of electricity. The CURRENT STS solution is tailored to specifically provide utilities with a solution to these expanding challenges."

Smart Transformer Station
The CURRENT Smart Transformer Station solution consists of hardware infrastructure and supporting software systems targeted at solving these connectivity, transparency, and metering challenges:

  • Communications and Connectivity - The communications and connectivity component of the Smart Transformer Station is accomplished through the CURRENT Communication and Connectivity Engine (CCE) that provides an IP-based, remotely managed, modular, card-based infrastructure platform for large primary or secondary transformation stations.
  • Sensing and Analytics - The CURRENT Smart Transformer Station portfolio provides for industry leading cost-performance sensing capabilities for the direct measurement, edge analysis, and event alarming of primary and secondary feeder operating parameters.
  • Metering and Meter Collection - The CURRENT Smart Transformer Station portfolio is rounded out with the CURRENT Station Data Concentrator (SDC) portfolio that provides for fully interoperable, open PLC-based meter-to-collector communications and integrated DLMS/COSEM [IEC 62056] meter collection capabilities while maintaining easy remote management and upgrade capabilities inherent in all of the CURRENT Smart Transformer Station solutions. The CURRENT SDC release also marks the milestone of being the first meter collection platform entirely based on non-proprietary communications protocols. This milestone was clearly demonstrated through the PRIME Alliance interoperability demonstration held at the Metering Barcelona conference in early October.

CURRENT Delivers Proven Solutions in the World's Most Advanced Demonstration Environments
In the United States, Xcel Energy deployed CURRENT's technology in its SmartGridCityTM project (www.xcelenergy.com/smartgridcity) in Boulder, Colorado, the world's first fully integrated Smart Grid community. The system is actively providing Xcel Energy with a portfolio of smart grid technologies designed to provide environmental, financial and operational benefits. CURRENT provided the hardware, software and support to transform the local power distribution grid into a robust electric system communications network, providing high-speed, two-way communications, sensing and Smart Grid analytics.

Along with the market announcement of the CURRENT Smart Transformer Station, CURRENT is demonstrating the solution during the EUTC conference and within a live network of the local utility ELMŰ in transformer stations close to the conference venue. "We are excited to be the first European utility to install the Smart Transformer Station solution for demonstration at EUTC Budapest. We believe communications, transformer supervision, and metering will play a critical role in creating the Smart Grid. Hungary and ELMŰ as well are preparing the implementation of smart metering and Smart Grid. In this process this opportunity with CURRENT is a great help for us and we are thankful for that," said Mr. Orlay Imre, of ELMŰ's Network Optimization Division.

CURRENT will expand the live demonstration to a full trial installation during the coming weeks and will work closely with ELMŰ in customizing the system to best suit ELMŰ's Smart Grid needs.

About CURRENT
CURRENT Group, LLC delivers innovative and industry-leading intelligent solutions that optimize the distribution system and offer utilities new ways to monitor and manage the health of the grid. Through CURRENT's distributed sensing, monitoring, communications and analytical technologies, utilities are better able to understand, predict and respond to system disturbances and faults, identify where inefficiencies are, and enable the smartest possible sourcing and distribution of power by the utility to their customers.

CURRENT's state-of-the-art technologies are being implemented by utilities around the globe. CURRENT is a member of the Xcel Energy SmartGridCityTM consortium that also includes Xcel Energy, Accenture, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Ventyx, GridPoint, OSIsoft and SmartSynch. Xcel Energy's SmartGridCityTM is utilizing the fully integrated CURRENT Smart GridTM solution that combines advanced sensing technology with two-way real-time communications, 24/7 monitoring and enterprise analysis software and related services to provide Xcel Energy with location-specific, actionable intelligence on its electric distribution grid. CURRENT is also engaged in European Union-sponsored projects in partnership with Iberdrola, the world's 4th largest electric utility, among others, to expand the use of smart grid technology in the European Union. This year, CURRENT was honored by the World Economic Forum as a 2009 Technology Pioneer and selected by Dow Jones as one of the Top 10 most Innovative Clean Technology companies in Europe.

CURRENT is a private company that is backed by leading investors including Liberty Associated Partners, EnerTech Capital, Google, Inc., and Goldman Sachs & Co.

CURRENT is headquartered outside of Washington, DC, with offices throughout the United States and in Zurich, Switzerland and has representation in Australia, Brazil and Singapore. Additional information can be found at http://www.currentgroup.com/.

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