Echelon’s Networked Energy Services’ (NES) Energy Control System has been selected as one of five solutions in a 50,000 home smart metering pilot project by PermEnergo, one of Russia’s largest utilities. ENERGOAUDITKONTROL, Echelon’s NES smart grid infrastructure system, was awarded a contract for networking 10,000 homes in a pilot project, being monitored by the Russian government as a potential model for the country.
PermEnergo expects the pilot project's installation is expected to start this summer and be completed by the end of 2011. It’s estimated to save its customers up to 20% of their electricity usage while lowering its operating costs and improving the overall efficiency of the grid. The PermEnergo pilot project falls under a federal program called “Count. Save. Pay.”, a key part of Russia’s plan for infrastructure modernization, and has attracted the personal interest of President Medvedev. 
The pilot project follows closely on an early March Russian-American smart grid summit in the Kaluga region of Russia, where ENERGOAUDITKONTROL presented their Echelon-based smart grid solution.
The summit was a follow up to a meeting held in July 2009 between the U.S. President Obama and Russian President Medvedev, to open a dialog and establish contacts among smart grid companies from the two countries. The summit discussed laws and regulations for the development of the smart grid in the U.S. and Russia, as well as continued a dialogue on economic and financial mechanisms.
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