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LONDON (Alliance News) - Cyan Holdings PLC saw its shares rise Tuesday after it said the Brazilian pilot for its smart utility metering product had been successful and the first orders are expected later this year, and as it got its first order in India for a retrofit metering infrastructure system.
Cyan has said in March that its CyLec smart meter had been deployed in a pilot project in Brazil for the first time. The company had developed a CyLec retrofit module specifically designed to fit to static electricity meters in Brazil in December, allowing utility firms to read meters wirelessly. Its partner in Brazil then fitted a pilot advanced metering infrastructure set-up on a small number of retrofit units for an unnamed utility.
In a statement Tuesday, Cyan said the first pilot had been successful and its Brazilian partner, Nobre de la Torre, had been able to confirm that Cyan's technology can be successful in Brazil under local telecommunication law restrictions.
A second pilot using the retrofit unit has been requested to demonstrate that the consumer's power supply can be remotely connected and disconnected without having to send utility staff on site, in the event of non-payment and to also prevent fraud, Cyan said.
"Nobre has also informed Cyan that they have contracted with a Brazilian contract equipment manufacturer, who will build volume orders of the new retrofit product on Nobre's behalf. Nobre have reported that they expect first orders in the fourth quarter of 2014 and anticipate volume shipments in 2015," it said.
Cyan said it is also now developing another retrofit system that will allow connection to several meters through a single radio module, after a request from a Brazilian utility.
"From the information that Nobre have gathered, we understand that the retrofit solution is going to be very competitive in Brazil, where consumer smart metering deployments have not gone ahead due to the high cost and complexity of US developed smart metering solutions," Cyan Chairman John Cronin said in a statement.
Separately, Cyan said that a consortium led by Aquameas Instrument Pvt. Ltd has been selected by Essel Utilities for the first deployment of Cyan's retrofit CyLec advanced metering infrastructure product in India.
"After the first meeting between Essel, Aquameas and Cyan, in February 2014, the project has moved quickly to a decision by Essel to place an initial order for a 5,000 unit CyLec AMI retrofit solution," Cyan said in a statement.
Cyan launched its CyLec retrofit module, which is specifically designed to provide smart metering functionality to static electricity meters, in December 2013. The module is a small self-contained box that connects to an installed meter via an existing communications interface on the meter. That makes it a cost-effective way that utilities can make gas and electricity meters "smart" without having to install brand new meters.
Cyan Holdings shares were up 15.2% at 0.19 pence early Tuesday.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1
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