March 9, 2007—Echelon Corporation, a global networking company that provides solutions for managing energy, resources, and environments, announced that Clevertronics and White Lite Industries have selected Echelon’s LonWorks power line communication products for their advanced emergency lighting systems in Australia.
The selection of Echelon’s technology by these two emergency lighting suppliers shows the trend taking hold in Australia, as White Lite and Clevertronics now offer solutions that use the lighting power cabling infrastructure as the data network.
Australia has one of the more rigorous mandatory testing requirements for emergency lighting systems. These systems, comprising emergency exit signs and battery powered backup luminaires, must be tested at least once every six months. Traditional emergency lighting systems in Australia rely on twisted pair media to communicate emergency luminaire status information back to a central monitoring system. This required installing new wires for the system, whereas with Echelon’s technology the existing power lines can be used for communication, which reduces both installation time and cost. Furthermore, the new LonWorks based system can be easily expanded in the future, even by third-party service companies.
Launched in 2003, Echelon’s Networked Energy Services system is an open, extensible, advanced metering infrastructure that can bring benefits to every aspect of a utility’s operation, from metering and customer services to distribution operations and value-added business, according to the company. For more information, visit the Web site.
