Landis+Gyr (SIX: LAND) and Berkeley Electric Cooperative have agreed on a contract for an extensive smart grid technology deployment to connect advanced metering, load management and street light automation on a single network.

Berkeley Electric, the largest cooperative utility in South Carolina, is deploying Landis+Gyr’s Gridstream® Connect IoT platform for grid management. It features a multi-purpose RF mesh network which enables communication with advanced meters, intelligent sensors, and switches. The smart grid project also includes 110,000 advanced meters, 55,000 street light controllers and 33,000 load control devices for improved reliability, efficiency, and customer service.

“We recognized the need to connect to more devices and access more data to manage the rapidly changing power requirements of our members. While our cooperative’s top priority remains delivering reliable power, we are also expanding other services and ensuring we provide support for distributed energy resources and electric vehicle integration,” said Dawn Pascoe, AMI Leader at Berkeley Electric.

Gridstream Connect supports a wide range of intelligent devices for grid management and the ability to run software apps on those devices for a variety of purposes. The street light controllers and load management devices both feature metrology functions and can run programs that expand their capabilities to multiple functions.

“This is a groundbreaking project that demonstrates the many ways smart grid technology can impact utility operations and customer service,” said Jim Richardson, Senior Director of Sales at Landis+Gyr. “We’re excited to be working with a forward-looking cooperative like Berkeley Electric to help set a foundation for grid modernization programs in the future.”

About Berkeley Electric

Berkeley Electric Cooperative is the largest, not-for-profit electric cooperative in South Carolina. It serves over 100,000 member accounts in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.