The agreement will see the two companies form a strategic partnership to jointly develop smart metering and smart grid solutions targeted for commercial launch from mid 2012 onwards.
Landis+Gyr and Huawei’s immediate focus will be to support the UK’s roll-out through the joint development of a universal communications hub that will provide a common solution for every home in the country and offer energy utilities worldwide the opportunity to optimise the deployment of hundreds of millions of smart meters. A joint innovation centre and product development plan will be set up to pursue opportunities in the wider market, such as smart homes and cities.
"This is a very significant partnership for two reasons,” said Steve Cunningham, UK & Ireland CEO at Landis+Gyr. “Firstly, it confirms that the ICT industry is now taking an active stake in the development of smart energy solutions and secondly, it again demonstrates the willingness of the biggest names in industry to embrace collaboration in the pursuit of effective, open and cost efficient smart metering solutions.”
"We are very excited to be exploring the energy sector together with Landis+Gyr," said Tim Watkins, Vice President of Huawei Europe. "Huawei has rich experience in the ICT business and has been working with many vertical energy industry customers across the world, but the collaboration with Landis+Gyr is the first major breakthrough for us in the UK. This agreement will enable both our companies to collaboratively identify solutions, maximise resources, mitigate risk and reduce cost, which will help speed up development within the energy sector."
Landis+Gyr is currently working with British Gas on the UK’s first major deployment of smart meters.