Aclara DRMS Brings Comprehensive Load Control to Cuming County Public Power District

ST. LOUIS, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aclara®, a leader in Intelligent Infrastructure technologies for utilities and part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE), today announced a contract with Nebraska's Cuming County Public Power District (CCPPD) to deploy the Aclara Demand Response Management System (powered by Calico). CCPPD, a long-time Aclara customer, has agreed to purchase the solution to expand the load-control capabilities of its existing TWACS network infrastructure.

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"We are pleased to have found a solution that will allow us to better forecast, reduce, and manage load while leveraging our existing investments," said Elwood Moore, general manager, CCPPD. "The Aclara DRMS is the fastest, simplest, most cost-effective choice for improved load control today – one that will help us to manage costs for our members, reduce peak loads, and respond more effectively to load reduction requests from our wholesale power supplier."

This CCPPD commitment comes less than 12 weeks after Aclara and Calico announced a strategic partnership to provide an integrated set of advanced load control, analytics and demand response (DR) solutions to municipals, cooperative utilities, wholesale power cooperatives, and IOU customers.

"We envisioned a powerful solution for demand-side management, analytics, and forecasting capabilities that met electric-utility requirements for maximum effectiveness in handling demand-response events. We see this roll-out as the first of many that confirms this vision," said Brad Kitterman, president, Aclara.

The Aclara DRMS will enable CCPPD to dramatically improve upon its traditional load-control model with flexible demand-response capabilities and powerful analytics through a unified command-and-control center. With DRMS, CCPPD will be able to gain control of irrigation loads, automatically initiate and terminate events in response to signals from its wholesale power provider, maintain load levels based on a pre-defined threshold, and much more.

The Aclara DRMS provides new and existing customers with a single point of analysis and control for comprehensive management of a broad portfolio of load reduction programs. Operators gain better event control and an improved ability to shape and shift load to manage demand reduction before, during, and after events. The centralized dashboard delivers the analytics necessary for superior visibility and insight into available and planned DR events, the flexible scheduling and initiation of events necessary to better manage demand, and a single view of each consumer for improved support, notification, opt-in/out, and settlement. It leverages proven software connected to Aclara's fixed network solution to simplify and shorten program implementation, lowers costs by unifying analytics and consolidating existing systems, and eliminates the challenges common to siloed load-control systems. Key features include:

• Command and Control – A one-stop shop for complete demand response management allows utilities to create, test, execute and fine-tune load management programs through a host of approaches and device types.
• Unified Analytics – Operators improve decision making by unifying all relevant internal and external data, and gain insight through advanced analytics and forecasting.
• Consumer Engagement – Consumers monitor their energy usage and costs with Aclara's industry leading consumer data presentment portal.
• TWACS® technology – Widely deployed two-way data collection network offers robust integration, storage and management.
• Home Automation and Control – the Aclara DRMS includes off-the-shelf integration with a broad variety of control devices, including smart thermostats, home area networks, load controllers, EV charging stations, lighting controls, HVAC systems, and more.

With more than 300 installations and millions of connected end points, Aclara is the de facto standard for quality and reliability in the industry.

About Aclara
Aclara represents the industry's leading Intelligent Infrastructure technologies for providing device networking, data-value management, and customer communications to water, gas, and electric utilities globally. Over 500 utilities in nine countries rely on proven Aclara solutions to connect with their customers. Aclara Technologies LLC is part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ESE), St. Louis. Create Your Intelligent Infrastructure ™ www.Aclara.com.

SOURCE Aclara