São Paulo, Brazil and San Jose, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- October 13, 2011 - Smart meters from EDP Brazil and ELO Sistemas Eletronicos (ELO) have become “firsts” in Brazil to receive approval from the country’s national metrology agency, Inmetro.

EDP Brazil’s MD-1400 meter, which is the first to have been developed by a local utility with development in partnership with Ecil Informática, is a single phase meter. The meter is complemented with a remote communication solution comprised of a network coordinator element with HAN and NAN and remote management system.

EDP Brazil, part of the EDP Group and controller of EDP Bandeirante and EDP Escelsa, plans to pilot the meter in the city of Aparecida in São Paulo state, starting in Q4 2011.

ELO, partner in Brazil of Echelon Corporation, is the first local company to receive approval for its complete product portfolio, including single phase, polyphase and current transformer meters. Echelon is providing the smart metering sub-systems to ELO, including powerline control and communication technology and embedded firmware for smart meters. In conjunction with Echelon’s Control Operating System (COS)-powered control nodes and datacenter-based system software, ELO can provide an open standard multi-application control network solution customized for the Brazilian market.

“Brazil is the clear regional leader in South America in terms of its market size, development of a smart meter regulatory framework and attractive market conditions,” according to Ben Gardner, president of research firm Northeast Group, LLC.  “The benefit case driving smart meter deployments in Brazil includes the reduction of non-technical losses and improved reliability to help keep the country on track to achieve GDP growth of 4% or more in the medium term.”