SINGAPORE, 6^th December 2018 – EDMI Limited, a global smart metering solutions leader, will celebrate 40 years of operation on 7^th December 2018.  Today, its customers include some of the world’s largest energy companies, including distribution network operators, utilities and service providers, across 100 countries with over 11 million metering points and systems deployed globally.

Born in Brisbane Australia, EDMI was originally established as “EDMQ” (Electronic Design and Manufacturing Queensland), in a small shed in 1978. It initially began life, not in metering, but as an engineering consultancy that delivered smart solutions for diverse projects such as irrigation systems, digital scoreboards, and consumer energy use monitors. It became EDMI (Electronic Design Manufacturing International) in 1982, and soon after found a niche in developing innovative solutions in the metering world.

In 1990, EDMI introduced its first smart electricity meter (the Mk1), at a time where no similar grid interconnect meter existed in the market. The Mk2 meter followed in 1994; and the Mk3 meter released in 1996 became a transmission mainstay for many years.

Now in its 40th year, EDMI offers a range of end to end metering solutions with smart electricity and gas meters, across transmission, commercial and industrial, residential and sub-metering markets. Along with meters, it develops communication devices and software for meter data management (MDMS), head end solutions and data analytic systems. EDMI’s global headquarters is in Singapore, with ~1500 employees across 14 countries, and owned by leading Japanese smart metering company Osaki Electric.

“Celebrating 40 years is testament to our commitment to developing innovative products collaboratively which our customers can rely on, and we thank them for their enduring support,” said Mr. How New Seng, Chief Executive Officer at EDMI.

“Continuing to leverage our heritage in providing quality smart metering products, we are now evolving to create solutions that will facilitate the transformation of the energy market as we shift to a cleaner, intelligent and distributed energy ecosystem; from smart grids, to smart cities and beyond,” he concluded.

To commemorate and reflect on EDMI’s 40 years, Mr. How took the opportunity to meet with EDMI founders, Mr. John Flood and Mr. Neil Gibson, captured in a video interview. To watch this, click here.

Joined by End Users, the uCIFI Alliance Promotes Open Source Wireless Networking Solutions To Free Customers from Dependence on Proprietary Technologies

Amsterdam, June 27, 2018 – An international alliance of market leaders from across the smart city, smart energy and IoT network sectors joined cities and utilities today in announcing they will develop an open source, multi-transport wireless networking technology and data model that will unlock these markets by eliminating the dependency on proprietary solutions.

Meeting during the IoT Tech Expo Europe in Amsterdam, the uCIFI Alliance said that smart Internet of Things (IoT) projects for managing streetlights, parking, traffic, waste collection, power grids, metering and other applications are launched continuously by cities or utilities around the world. Despite this proliferation of projects, network owners face a hurdle to either integrate multiple proprietary systems and APIs or deal with a dependence on single-source suppliers for network hardware or software layers.

The uCIFI Alliance’s goal is to free end customers of their dependence on single-source suppliers and to drastically reduce the complexity for device suppliers and integrators to deliver data and services in a consistent manner regardless of the underlying network.

Founding industrial members of the uCIFI Alliance include Kerlink, a global leader in end-to-end network solutions dedicated to the IoT; EDMI, a worldwide leader in smart energy solutions, and Schréder, a global leader in smart street lighting. They were joined in the alliance launch by Engie and ST Engineering Electronics and pioneering end-customers, such as Sibelga (Belgium), the Brussels utility, Auckland Transport (New Zealand), and Nantes Metropole (France).

‘Unnecessarily complicated’

“Bringing smart technologies to the world’s municipalities and power-and-water suppliers allows tremendous efficiency in delivery of services, while dramatically increasing convenience for end users,” said Yannick Delibie, co-founder and CTIO of Kerlink. “But cities and utilities often have to untangle a host of unnecessarily complicated technical details to deploy their smart networks, which delays launch and adds cost. The uCIFI Alliance is committed to promoting simple, cost-efficient, open source wireless networking references to unlock the full potential of these smart networks.”

With LPWAN networks, each device supplier has its own data format, cloud and API. In addition, only proprietary solutions exist with sub-GHz long-range mesh networks. The founding companies of the uCIFI Alliance, and the cities and utilities that support this open initiative, share a common vision that these markets will be opened up if cities and utilities have the choice among competing but interoperable vendor products based on an open source code base.

Based in Beaverton, Oregon, USA, the non-profit alliance will specify a unified data model and interface across multiple IoT networks, including LoRaWAN^TM, NB-IoT and an open-source sub-GHz long-distance mesh network that shall also be specified by the alliance. This will provide both device-to-device and device-to-cloud IoT communication to cities and utilities independently from any proprietary vendor. In order to provide a truly open source implementation of the uCIFI specification, the alliance has chartered the Newticity project under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. Runtime, a global IoT networking provider, is leading the implementation of this free and open source wireless reference stack.

‘Rich toolkit for solutions providers and customers’

The standardized open source, sub-GHz long-range Wi-SUN-compliant meshing networking technology specified by uCIFI will complement existing transports, such as LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and Bluetooth 5/Mesh creating a rich toolkit for solutions providers and their customers. This will provide higher network performance and allow device-to-device communication for use cases such as dynamic outdoor lighting and energy demand response.

“We are really excited about uCIFI. It will enable EDMI to offer a new generation of smart energy solutions, providing our customers with an alternative option for connecting their smart devices both in the utility and IoT space,” said How New Seng, CEO at EDMI. “With more bandwidth and an even more reliable network, we will provide more data and more services to our customers. Joining forces in the uCIFI Alliance with other IoT market leaders makes it possible to develop the only open and interoperable sub-GHz mesh network, requested by many of our customers”.

“With uCIFI, Schréder will provide the first truly open and interoperable smart streetlight solution, supporting both LoRaWAN and sub-GHz mesh with uCIFI-compliant interfaces, while existing solutions are proprietary and make cities depend on a single network or device supplier. The uCIFI Alliance is a real opportunity for Schréder to continue being the most innovative company in our field and to provide a new generation of smart city applications to our customers around the world”, said Nicolas Keutgen, Chief Innovation Officer at Schréder.

“Kerlink’s existing outdoor and indoor LoRaWAN gateways will soon be upgradable to also support uCIFI open mesh networks”, said Delibie, who also is CEO of Kerlink’s U.S. subsidiary, Kerlink Inc. “This will provide our customers’ end users with the ability to control, command and monitor millions of both constantly powered and battery-powered devices, thanks to the native combination of uCIFI mesh and LoRaWAN networking technologies, without the need to deploy extra infrastructure”.

“Joining the uCIFI Alliance reinforces ST Engineering Electronics’ efforts to ensure our WISX IoT solutions continue to adopt an open standard approach, delivering greater benefits to our customers and industry partners,” said Yao Shih Jih, General Manager, Info-Comm Systems, ST Engineering Electronics. “Our IoT solutions can be deployed across domains and industries, allowing seamless data exchange, analytics and sharing of software and tools for multiple applications on a common IoT platform. This will lead to the adoption of IoT with a shorter market cycle, enabling our customers to fully embrace the benefits of IoT interoperability.”

Together, the uCIFI Alliance members connect millions of devices every year. The alliance partners will conduct field tests of the uCIFI unified data model and the uCIFI open-source mesh sub-GHz networking technology prior to September 2018 and release a first open source version to member companies by end of the year.

To get more information about uCIFI and to join the alliance, go to https://ucifi.com or send an email to contact@ucifi.com

 About uCIFI

In uCIFI, “u” stands for Utilities. “CI” stands for Cities. “uC” refers to micro-controllers in IoT devices. “CIFI” reminds WIFI, the interoperable home wireless network on which many devices from many competing suppliers can interconnect, like uCIFI aims to be for IoT wireless communication networks for Smart Cities and Utilities. Finally, uCIFI refers to UNIFY because uCIFI’s objective is to provide a unified data model whatever the underlying wireless network is: LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, open source long-range MESH and others in the future.

SINGAPORE, 10^th April, 2018 – In its 40^th year, EDMI Limited, a global smart metering solutions leader, has now delivered more than 10 million smart meters for electricity and gas globally. Its customers include some of the world’s largest energy companies, from distribution network operators and utilities to service providers, across 88 countries. EDMI also provides market-specific integrated end-to-end solutions.

EDMI’s metering business began in the high voltage transmission and distribution markets with its main focus on high accuracy, feature-rich products. Leveraging its experience in high-end products, EDMI has expanded its business to commercial and industrial and residential markets, with full end-to-end smart metering solutions, including software and communications.

“Transmission and distribution markets require high voltage specific meter solutions, in low volumes unlike residential. While we have since expanded into different markets and expect our volumes to increase at a higher rate than ever before, hitting the 10 million meter milestone is a remarkable achievement,” said How New Seng, Chief Executive Officer at EDMI. “Given this coincides with our 40 year anniversary, it is testament to our continued reliable and innovative solutions” he said.

EDMI was established originally as “EDMQ” in Australia, finding early penetration into the metering industry with its Mk1 electronic revenue meter. This year, on the 7^th of December, EDMI marks 40 years since its formation.

SINGAPORE, 1 February, 2018 – EDMI Limited, a leading smart metering solutions provider, has launched a new automated manufacturing line at EDMI Electronics Sdn Bhd (EESB), EDMI’s principal manufacturing plant in Senai, Malaysia. With this new line, productivity will increase almost threefold compared to the non-automated lines at EESB. The automated manufacturing line will be dedicated to the production of SMETS2 smart electricity meters for Great Britain, with the intention to adapt to other models in the future.

The fully automated manufacturing line, from the Surface Mount Technology (SMT) line to packaging, enables seamless production of smart meters in high volume and of superior quality with minimum operator intervention. The Auto Insert and Selective Soldering technologies are also introduced for Through-hole components mounting to produce consistent quality, which is due to become more popular across manufacturing sites globally in the future. Furthermore, the line is equipped with a high traceability system that intelligently detects a failure of every single component instantly, which further enhances the quality of production.

Implementation of this line was in preparation of the high demand of smart meters for the residential rollout in Great Britain, where EDMI has contracts with some of the major energy suppliers in the country to provide its CPA (Commercial Product Assurance) certified electricity and gas meters. Developed based on Design For Manufacture (DFM) principles to simplify processes enabling lean manufacturing, also ensures the meters are built to a consistent high level of quality, reliability and flexibility to better meet customer demands. The semi-automated gas meter production line is also being optimised in tandem ahead of full scale manufacturing.

The new line opening ceremony was held at EESB on 26th January 2018, where the new automated line commissioning was demonstrated to the management team from EDMI, as well as those who have contributed to the project. EDMI adapted the automated line based on the manufacturing technologies from Osaki, the parent company of EDMI, and one of the leading meter companies in Japan.

“We are proud to launch our new fully automated manufacturing line, enabling us to provide high quality smart meters with far shorter manufacturing times, meaning greater value and benefits to our customers”, said Mr. How New Seng, Chief Executive Officer at EDMI. “Utilising Osaki’s extensive experience of automated manufacturing lines to satisfy rigorous quality standards for the Japanese market, helped to ensure a successful implementation which we are proud of. We look forward to building additional automated lines for other products in the future.”