Echelon, an open-standard energy control networking company, announced that GreenWave Reality and System Level Solutions (SLS) have received its 2011 Innovator of the Year awards.

The company presented the awards at Echelon's annual Smart Grid Conference held on October 17-20 in Czech Republic.

GreenWave Reality, a provider of products and services that include energy visualization and management, and SLS, a provider of solutions for intellectual property, hardware/software design, showed outstanding achievements and commitment in technology expertise and service specialization that result in new energy efficient services for customers.

“We are honored and humbled to receive this award from Echelon and their Smart Grid Partner audience,” said Paresh Patel, president and CEO of System Level Solutions.

Echelon's Smart Grid Conference attendees and a panel of industry experts including energy utilities NRGi of Denmark and Vattenfall of Sweden and industry analyst firms Frost & Sullivan and Pike Research (News - Alert) judged participants for the Innovator of the Year awards.

The judging panel selected winners based on uniqueness of innovation, usefulness of application and value to customers based on market need and benefits achieved.

“GreenWave Reality is honored to be aligned with an industry leader such as Echelon by receiving this prestigious award,” said Martin Manniche, chairman and CTO of GreenWave Reality.

The innovations of these two winners will offer additional value and benefits to customers worldwide. It also represents a commitment to true open standards such as Open Smart Grid Protocol.

“I'd like to congratulate the winners of the Echelon Innovator of the Year award. GreenWave Reality and SLS represent some of the very best customer benefits and technical achievements of the Smart Grid,” said Ron Sege, chairman and CEO of Echelon, in a statement.

Recently, Echelon announced that its partner, ELO Sistemas Eletronicos, a supplier of digital electricity meters in Brazil, is the first meter manufacturer in Brazil to receive approval from the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) agency, for its complete product portfolio-including single phase, poly phase and current transformer meters-that conform to the stringent Brazilian market standards.