Mar 25 2010
Aztech Associates Inc., a leading manufacturer of products for energy conservation and demand management, and Elster, today announced the launch of the latest generation of an in-home display (IHD) enabled by Elster's EnergyAxis® system.
The Aztech IHD communicates with smart meters through Elster's EnergyAxis advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network, providing homeowners with current energy usage data.
Aztech's exclusive arched light bar provides at-a-glance notifications of time-of-use periods, while the easy-to-read screen displays accurate and detailed information with both graphics and text, featuring English, French or Spanish-language support.
"Aztech is proud to be one of Elster's long standing technology collaborators," said Geoff Salter, president and CEO of Aztech. "Our in-home display is targeted at families who want an easy-to-use tool that provides them with information that can be used to reduce their energy consumption."
"This feedback loop can raise energy awareness and assist families with energy usage decisions, resulting in a significant savings on their utility bills," said Salter.
Aztech and Elster have performed joint field trials of the EnergyAxis enabled Aztech IHD for more than a year, and Aztech plans to make the product commercially available this spring.
"Energy conservation is one of the best ways consumers can reduce their utility costs and promote long term environmental sustainability," said Mark L. Munday, president and CEO, Elster, North America. "Our collaboration with Aztech Associates is another example of Elster's commitment to develop and deploy field-proven Smart Grid solutions that deliver real benefits to utilities and their consumers."
EnergyAxis, a field-proven Smart Grid solution with more than 3.5 million endpoints deployed with utilities across North America, enables utilities to:
- Realize operational efficiencies
- Implement demand response programs that can conserve resources and reduce costs, especially during periods of peak demand
- Improve customer service
- Reduce outage response and repair time
- Provide real-time information to end consumers to allow them to better manage their energy consumption; and
- Conserve environmental and economic resources by reducing the loss of electricity, gas and water as they move from the supply source to homes and businesses