Greentech Lead Asia: Echelon Corporation, a provider of
energy control networking for the smart grid, smart city and smart building
applications, and Holley Metering, a smart metering vendor in China, will form
a new joint venture company in China.
Zhejiang Echelon-Holley Technology will focus on the
development and sales of advanced smart metering products for China.
The new company will be headquartered in Hangzhou, China,
and will develop advanced smart metering and related solutions that deliver
performance, reliability and expanded functionality to China’s developing smart
grid.
Echelon Corporation said the partnership will leverage
Echelon’s Silicon Valley energy control networking innovation center. The joint
venture is majority owned by Echelon. Echelon and Holley Metering will both
contribute cash and resources into the new company.
Echelon and Holley Metering are expected to leverage
their strengths through this cooperation. The partnership will create
significant value, not only for the two companies involved, but also for the
customers, distributors, OEMs and other agents throughout China. This
transaction is a highly constructive development in the industry.
“We are delighted to broaden our partnership with
Holley Metering to serve the larger smart grid market in China. With a mandate
to connect 300 million homes and businesses to the smart grid over the next
five years, Chinese utilities will need to leverage the best the world has to
offer,”said Ron Sege, chairman and CEO of Echelon.
“We are extremely excited to utilize Echelon’s
field-proven technologies and leverage their extensive experience gained by
connecting more than 35 million homes and 300,000 buildings to the smart
grid,” said Jin Meixing, chairman of Holley Metering.
The Echelon-Holley joint venture is expected to be
operational in Q3 2012.