Houston, TX, U.S.A. and Doncaster, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- April 10, 2013 - Energy wholesale market services provider EDF Trading, a subsidiary of Électricité de France (EDF), has selected Hansen Technologies’ CIS suite for Energy Retailers as its wholesale energy CIS solution.

Manila, Philippines --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - The Philippines Department of Energy has created an inter-agency steering committee to develop a national smart grid policy framework and roadmap.

The members of the committee include the DOE, which will also serve as chair, National Power Corporation (NPC), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), National Electrification Administration (NEA), National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC).

Chicago, IL, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - Illinois utilities ComEd and Ameren Illinois are to report annually on a set of new smart grid tracking mechanisms and metrics that have been developed in conjunction with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Citizens Utility Board (CUB).

The aim is to help determine how upgrades to Illinois’ electric grid are delivering benefits to consumers by focusing on where they are realizing the benefits of the improvements and the extent of their participation in these opportunities.

Bristol, England and Reston, VA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - British distribution network operator Western Power Distribution has deployed a new 50 Hz version of network assurance solutions provider Tollgrade Communications’ LightHouse distribution line sensors.

WPD is one of six electricity DNOs in the U.K. responsible for the Midlands, South Wales, and the South West, delivering electricity to more than 7.7 million customers over a 55,300 km2 service area.

Copenhagen, Denmark --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - The Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building last week presented the country’s smart grid strategy, under which all households in the country will be supplied with smart metering by 2020.

This marks a major step towards the establishment of an intelligent energy system that will provide opportunities for consumers to manage their energy consumption, states the ministry press release.

Asunción, Paraguay --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - Paraguay’s state power utility Administración Nacional de Electricidad (Ande) is to rollout a pilot project of 10,000 smart meters with the first phase focused on the country’s capital, Asunción.

The $12 million project has been under development for six months, and the details are currently being finalized, said Ande president, Carlos Heisele, following the recent meeting of the government’s energy work group, chaired by President Federico Franco.

Menlo Park, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - SmartGridiX (SGiX) has been established in the United States as an alliance of professionals working to accelerate the adoption of Smart Grid 2.0 systems within the nation’s electricity, gas and water infrastructures (iX).

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 5, 2013 - The Building Technologies Office in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy office is to launch the Low-cost Wireless Meter Challenge to industry to produce a cost effective, wireless metering system capable of electrical energy measurement at various locations in a building and wireless communication to a remote data collection point within the building complex.

Tshwane South Africa --- (METERING.COM) --- April 5, 2013 - The City of Tshwane’s smart metering project was launched Tuesday, under which all Tshwane residents will receive smart prepaid electricity meters.

The project forms part of the city’s Security of Revenue project, which aims to improve service, monitor power consumption and reduce costs.

Austin, TX, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 5, 2013 - The Ember ZigBee solutions, including silicon devices, software and development tools, from Silicon Labs have achieved Golden Unit certification from the ZigBee Alliance for the newly released ZigBee IP specification, the company has announced.

ZigBee IP is the first open standard for IPv6-based wireless mesh networking solutions, providing seamless, end-to-end internet connectivity and a scalable architecture to control low power devices. It was made publicly available last week.

Brussels, Belgium --- (METERING.COM) --- April 4, 2013 - There are no major limitations to the development of a European supergrid and EU policy makers must put in place the regulatory framework to enable large scale interconnection between member states.

This was the call from Friends of the Supergrid chairman, Marcello del Brenna, at the recent Supergrids 2013 event.

London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 4, 2013 - Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem is to fine SSE £10.5 million for what it says are numerous breaches of the company’s obligations relating to telephone, in-store and doorstep sales activities to consumers.

The level of fine reflects the seriousness and duration of breaches, the likely substantial harm that they have caused, and the likely gain to SSE, says Ofgem in a statement.

Koblenz, Germany --- (METERING.COM) --- April 4, 2013 - The COMfor.adapt.E350 module to embed Landis+Gyr’s E350 residential meter in the NES system from Echelon is now available from Görlitz.

With this new feature to integrate a further meter beside the Echelon meter, the COMfor.adapt.E350 provides for the first time the basis for real interoperability on an Echelon platform, the company said in a statement.

Chicago, IL, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 3, 2013 - ComEd’s smart grid modernization program resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 full-time equivalent jobs in Illinois in 2012, the company has reported in a report submitted to the Illinois Commerce Commission.

These include 785 direct and contractor full-time equivalent jobs, including positions at the utility and outside contractors, along with an estimated 1,700 induced jobs representing a broad range of functions required to build a 21st century electric grid, from construction, engineering and system design to manufacturing and administration.

Rome, Italy --- (METERING.COM) --- April 3, 2013 - Enel, coordinator of the Integris program aimed to associate electricity and telecommunications technologies, has announced that the three demonstrations being carried out within the project are about to be completed.

These demonstrations are in Brescia (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Tampere (Finland).

Dubai, UAE --- (METERING.COM) --- April 3, 2013 - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Samsung Gulf Electronics under which the company will develop applications and electronic solutions for use on Samsung products including smart phones, tablets, smarts TVs, and other electronic devices.

Santa Clara, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 2, 2013 - Courtesy of Silicon Valley Power’s SVP MeterConnect program, the City of Santa Clara has become the first city in the U.S. to gain free citywide outdoor Wi-Fi as part of an advanced electric meter upgrade program that uses wireless technology to read meters.

London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 2, 2013 - The U.K.'s largest smart grid project has completed the first stage of its research into electricity consumption after establishing a series of ongoing trials with 12,000 customers.

The £54 million Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR) project is testing a number of innovative solutions to ensure Britain's electricity networks are fit for the future and ready for the mass uptake of low carbon technologies, such as solar PV, heat pumps and electric vehicles.

Arlington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- MARCH 28, 2013 - The Smart Grid Alliance for the Americas led by NRECA International and cooperative utilities in Latin America has been awarded ‘Expansion’ status by the U.S. State Department.

Under the expansion, the Alliance will focus on technical assistance for partner utilities. Plans include increasing partner discussions, information exchanges, and mentoring to encourage peer-to-peer networking. NRECA will also work with the Alliance members to facilitate knowledge transfer to overcome any technical challenges faced in ongoing projects.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- March 28, 2013 - The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in partnership with Austin Water Utility and San Antonio Water System of Texas and American Water, and the support of East Bay Municipal Utility District of California and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, have submitted a proposal to the American Water Works Association (AWWA) to revise national accuracy standards for new water meters.