Fortum picks Telvent for Finland's largest metering project

Spain-based Telvent (Nasdaq:TLVT) said today it signed a deal to design, install and launch an advanced metering infrastructure project for Finnish utility Fortum starting in 2011.

Fortum, the largest utility in Finland, plans to deploy the system to more than 550,000 homes and businesses by 2014. The project is the largest for advanced metering in the country, which has 3.1 million electricity customers.

Telvent, which is expected to manage and operate the system for six years after it's completed, estimated the cost of the project at €120 million ($175 million).

Telvent is a value-added reseller of San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon's networked energy services (NES) system. The system consists of integrated electricity meters accessed through a Web-services network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure.

Echelon (Nasdaq:ELON) expects to earn $50 million to $60 million during the project, which it said provides it a foothold from which to expand to other Nordic countries.

Shares of Echelon were up more than 21 percent to close at $12.25 today.

Fortum said the system is expected to provide energy saving and home automation programs for homeowners, hourly measurements of energy use to retail customers, and bi-directional net energy measurement for customer-owned alternative energy generation.

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