Echelon Corporation and ELO Sistemas Eletrônicos S/A. announced that ELO is completing the deployment of a 3,400 unit pilot -- the Parintins City Project -- with Eletrobras. This utility is serving over 3 million customers. ELO's solution consists of a dual mode smart meter that communicates over power line (PL) or by radio frequency (RF) through Echelon's exclusive Multipurpose Expansion Port (MEP) feature.

Echelon is providing smart sensor and metering sub-systems to ELO, leveraging its proven Energy Control Networking Platform. This project is part of an innovative plan aimed at improving the everyday lives of the customers served by Eletrobras in the Amazon region. Installed smart meters will act as sensors in the distribution network, allowing the detection and immediate intervention in the event of a power failure or line tampering.

Eletrobras will monitor the data from the smart meters, such as time consumption and cost per kWh at different times of day, and can change rates throughout the day, encouraging consumption during off-peak demand. By the end of 2013, ELO will deploy another 12,000 smart meters as part of this project. The project is located in Parintins, a city on an island in an isolated portion of the grid, which will allow monitoring of system performance from generation to distribution and provide customer with status to this new technology.

To integrate the entire area, meters with both PL and RF communications were required to reach all customers. Another technical requirement was to secure the information and sense any tampering, as this territory has one of the highest rates of non-technical losses, largely because enforcement is difficult. To date, 3,400 meters have been installed and the project is meeting its goals of reduced technical and commercial losses, increased security and improved quality of service.