Iberdrola - Prime Alliance Launched

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First PRIME ALLIANCE meeting was held in April 2009, at Iberdrola headquarters in Madrid. Following the example of other industrial standards, this alliance has to be understood as a pioneer initiative focused on the development of a new open, public and non-proprietary telecom solution which will support not only smart metering functionalities but also the progress towards the Smart Grid.

Powerline communications is the most suitable and natural technology to provide the needed telecoms performance, even in complex underground electricity grids.

The PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) initiative was originally conceived as an answer to Iberdrola's need for a future-proof, cost-effective AMM solution. During its evolution in the last year, it has evolved into a solution for the overall Smart Grid deployment which will contribute definitively to energy efficiency improvement and ultimately to addressing the pressing issue of climate change.

The overall performance of the system fully complies with requirements for a new, stable metering infrastructure that is set to become a fundamental part of the Smart Grids. The revolutionary openness of the PRIME solution and its focus on interoperability as a way to decrease costs in a competitive framework, has been arising an unprecedented level of interest within the industry and markets. For this very reason a decision was taken by several of the most committed parties to set up the PRIME Alliance.

PRIME Alliance remains unique in that it shuns proprietary technologies and is the result of an open, cost-oriented effort among many different partners seeking to develop a future market for common benefit. Royalties and patents are definitely not part of the core PRIME specification. Ownership of the PRIME specification is uniquely public.

PRIME Alliance is the result of a particular effort of coordination that brings up multiple partners from different industrial sectors to work together to develop a new solution. PRIME Alliance members firmly believe that they can offer a competitive solution for a new growing market that will boost revenues in the coming years.

The principal and founding members of the PRIME Alliance include some of the most important global companies within their specific business area: utilities, semiconductors providers, meter manufacturers and technology industrial partners.

PRIME Alliance is open to all potential partners who agree to actively support and promote an open and public specification for the benefit of the end-user and all industry stakeholders. Founding members are: Iberdrola, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Landis+Gyr, Itron, Current Group, Ziv Group and Advanced Digital Design.

For further information please contact PRIME Alliance at ami.info@iberdrola.es