Silicon Valley-based Echelon Corporation announced on June 7 that its Edge Control Node (ECN) has been Verizon (News - Alert) 3G-certified. The ECN runs Echelon’s Control Operating System software, which provides grid-wide distributed intelligence and control – and enables utilities to run smart grid applications at the “edge of the grid,” closest to the consumer.

Certifying the ECN product through Verizon Wireless’ Open Development program ensures that utilities can use the nation's premier wireless network as the backhaul for their smart grid systems.

“Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) supports Echelon in its effort to provide smart grid infrastructures that allow utilities to leverage existing, reliable, wireless networks instead of burdening rate-payers with private backhaul networks,” Aparna Khurjekar, executive director of Business Solutions at Verizon Wireless. “Making such a field-proven, reliable system like Echelon's available to customers using our network is a great addition to the solutions we offer in the smart grid market.”

Michael Anderson, Echelon’s senior vice president of Utilities, commented, “Service providers like Verizon Wireless build, maintain, and secure wide-area communications networks better than anyone. That’s their job. Utilities build and maintain the grid. That’s their job. Marrying the two by using our COS-powered ECN equipped with a Verizon Wireless wide-area backhaul delivers fantastic performance and carrier-class reliability to the grid, and the highest value to consumers.”

ECN is capable of hosting smart grid apps – such as intelligent outage restoration, residential solar inverter management, and real-time energy availability information for electric vehicle chargers –  in a fashion similar to Android (News - Alert)-based smartphones.

Coupled with Echelon's NES System, the leading smart grid solution in Europe and leading next-generation power-line-based smart grid solution in the United States, the ECN 7000 series enables utilities to create smart grids that react in near-real time to remove stress from the grid, provide consumer-facing benefits, and incorporate almost any existing metering system to protect a utility's existing investments

Echelon technologies connect more than 35 million homes, 300,000 buildings, and 100 million devices to the smart grid, and help customers save 20 percent or more on their energy usage. For more information, visit the Echelon website.

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