ESCO Technologies' subsidiary Aclara has won an order from Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) to deploy its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution and utility data management software system-wide.
The AMI project was approved by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in April 2010, and the signed contract requires final approval.
SoCalGas intends to install Aclara’s integrated hardware, software and network architecture solution to nearly six million residential and most commercial natural gas customers throughout its service territory.
Aclara’s energy management solution will support SoCalGas to improve operational efficiencies.
The AMI system will also support consumers to fully understand their natural gas consumption and related conservation opportunities.
ESCO chairman and CEO Vic Richey said the company expects the project to begin in fiscal 2012 with SoCalGas building out the AMI network infrastructure and installing Aclara’s meter data management software, both of which are not high-dollar revenue contributors.
"The revenue ramp up on this project is expected in fiscal 2013 as the high volume AMI metering devices are installed, which is expected to drive significant revenues for Aclara in 2013," Richey said.
US-based ESCO is a supplier of special purpose utility solutions for electric, gas and water utilities, including hardware and software to support advanced metering applications and fully automated intelligent instrumentation.
Aclara is an Intelligent Infrastructure technology that providing device networking, data-value management and customer communications to water, gas and electric utilities globally.