Networked Energy Services Appoints RMS as Strategic SADC Region Partner

San Jose, CA, June 29^th, 2018: Networked Energy Services Corporation (NES), a global smart grid solution provider with the industry’s leading Energy Applications Platform (EAP^TM), announced today it has selected and appointed RMS as its Master VAR (Value Added Reseller) of all its products and solutions for the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region. NES chose Remote Metering Solutions (RMS) because of its compatible long-term strategy and proven success in the region. RMS relies on partnering with the best smart meter solutions available to bring to reality its core purpose ‘to make the metering, recovery, billing, collection and payment of utilities a non-issue in the lives of as many people as possible’.

RMS, with its headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa, supplies dependable utility metering solutions to listed property funds, corporate clients, residential communities and municipalities. As part of these solutions, RMS delivers trustworthy utility consumption data and enables its clients to achieve accurate utility consumption recovery in excess of R5bn annually. RMS provides a holistic solution that not only involves smart metering, but also offers a customized solution for its clients’ utility management requirements. RMS aims to be at the forefront of innovation, technology and expertise, leveraging its partnership with NES, in order to dominate the utility and revenue solutions industry in South Africa. A few years ago, RMS decided to build their business around OSGP (Open Smart Grid Protocol) based technologies including the NES Patagonia Energy Applications Platform. The Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) is a family of specifications for implementing smart metering and smart grid applications. About 60 international utilities are using OSGP for their smart metering technology. Hendrik Greyling, the RMS CEO, is a Board Member of the OSGP Alliance, which is an independent global, not-for-profit association that promotes the adoption of the OSGP.

With the commencement of this agreement, RMS is now the sole importer of NES products and services for the region, and will redistribute to all approved VAR distributors in the region. This will enable NES and all VAR partners to more effectively manage stock levels and distribution to the benefit of all clients. Furthermore, RMS and NES are committed to entrench the NES brand in the region and provide all the necessary technical support locally, while being able to call on the broad range of expertise from NES to solve unique South African challenges.

“We have used the NES System and products for a number of years now and have found the company to be an ideal partner for our utility management eco-system. By strengthening the relationship between RMS and NES, we believe the brand will be ideally positioned to become the de facto standard by which all utility management systems are measured,” said Hendrik Greyling, RMS CEO and Board Member of the OSGP Alliance. “With more than 50,000 NES smart meters deployed by RMS nationally, RMS is at the forefront of providing smart grid metering solutions to its clients and has a proven methodology and eco-system that ensures accurate and verified billing data is delivered to our customers on time.”

The market value of the commercial property portfolios, where RMS manages the utility metering and billing, is in excess of R350bn, and extends to more than 2,000 buildings. This involves managing more than 12,000 utility supply accounts and billing more than 80,000 customers each month. With more than 70% market share of the Listed Property Sector, RMS is an ideal partner for NES to drive aggressive growth in the region.

"NES has worked with a number of VAR partners in South Africa, and we believe that appointing RMS as the Master partner will benefit everyone involved: RMS, other VAR Partners, their clients, and of course NES as well,” said Mark Ossel, NES Vice-President Global Alliances and Strategic Partners. “SADEC is a growing region and we believe that our joint solution provides keys features, such as secure and reliable communications, accurate identification of losses, and a future-proof architecture, which will ensure success in the region.”

About Networked Energy Services Corporation (NES)

Networked Energy Services Corporation is a global smart energy leader in the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into an energy control network, enabling utilities to provide their customers with a more efficient and reliable service, to protect their systems from current and emerging cybersecurity threats, and to offer innovative new services that enable active, intelligent use of energy. NES was formed as a result of the spinoff of Echelon Corporation’s Grid Modernization Division in October 2014. NES is headquartered in the US with R&D centers located in Silicon Valley, North Dakota and Poland, and sales offices throughout the world. NES’ smart grid technology is used in nearly 40 million smart meters and other smart end devices around the world. NES is a member of the OSGP Alliance, a global association of utilities and smart grid companies, which promotes the Open Smart Grid Protocol and cooperates to provide utilities greater value by enabling true, independently-certified, multi-vendor interoperability based upon open international specifications and standards.  You can find out more information about NES, its Patagonia Energy Applications Platform^TM (including grid management software, distributed control nodes, and smart meters) and services at: www.networkedenergy.com.

About Remote Metering Solutions (RMS)

RMS is a multi-level organisation, focused on the Utilities and Energy Management Environment, and also expanding into the Revenue Management sector. RMS has been active in the Utility Management industry for the past 7 years, the Metering Industry for over 25 years and the Energy Efficiency industry for more than 12 years. RMS’ mission is to close the gap between the suppliers and consumers of utilities at all levels (Eskom/ Municipal – Commercial – Residential) and provide solutions, technology and systems which are created in terms of our operational involvement in and understanding of the industry. RMS has an exemplary track record with some of the largest listed property funds as well as large private clients. RMS is one of the few companies globally that have the full range of technology, systems, skills and knowledge to provide a holistic, comprehensive utility management solution across the entire value chain. With offices in Pretoria, Sandton, Durban and Cape Town and a staff compliment in excess of 100 people, RMS is well positioned to manage the entire process across the total client portfolio on a national basis. www.remotemetering.net.

About OSGP Alliance

The OSGP Alliance is the global non-profit association dedicated to promoting the adoption of the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) and infrastructure for smart grid applications towards a future proof modern smart grid. Its members come from the key stakeholders in the industry, including utilities, hardware manufacturers, service providers and system integrators, who all share a common goal and vision; promoting open standards for energy demand side management, smart grid and smart metering systems. The OSGP Alliance’s vision is a strong participation of key industry stakeholders working together to realize the next generation smart grid leading towards the long-term goals of the smart grid: affordability, security and sustainability. More information about the OSGP Alliance can be found at www.osgp.org.