Echelon Corporation has announced two microgrid deployments in India and South Africa. These installations integrate distributed generation to compensate for disruptions in power supplied by utilities. The deployments are built on Echelon's open-standard, multi-application energy control networking platform powered by its Control Operating System (COS) and incorporate application software and services from its local partners Grene Robotics and Power Meter Technics (PMT). The first-of-its-kind in the two countries, the micro grid deployments involve dynamically managing demand and energy supply mix for a residential community and a retail mall to deliver reliable service cost-effectively, a release from Echelon noted.

The Indian deployment is at Palm Meadows in Hyderabad. The site is an 86-acre integrated gated community with 335 homes and residential services.

The Palm Meadows community ties into the grid at a dedicated substation and sources energy in bulk from the utility. The community also runs diesel generators and will incorporate solar generation in the future. Residences within the community are equipped with Echelon smart meters that connect into data concentrators at distribution transformers and feed near real-time usage information to the Networked Energy Systems (NES) system software. Echelon partner Grene Robotics' Skynet management application automatically turns on local generation if utility-delivered power is inadequate. The Skynet software interfaces with the NES system software and creates a bill for the customer reflecting the customers' actual use of lower cost grid power and more expensive local power.