Cooper adds to smart grid offering with acquisition of Eka Systems

Cooper Industries announced it will acquire Eka Systems, Germantown, Md., a manufacturer of RF wireless networking technologies for smart grid communication applications. Through its EkaNet Smart Network technology, Eka Systems provides utilities with an open-standards based wireless advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution that has capabilities such as automated meter reading, power outage detection, enhanced customer billing options and the ability to track and analyze usage data on a near real-time basis. Eka Systems' product offering includes radios, wireless repeaters, meter nodes, gateways and data collection tools and operates over the widely used 900Mhz radio frequency for domestic markets and the 2.4GHz frequency for international markets.

Eka Systems will be integrated into the EAS group, the smart grid platform within Cooper's Power Systems division. "This is the fourth acquisition we have made into our Energy Automation Solutions (EAS) business and demonstrates Cooper's ongoing commitment to being a market leader in utility automation," said Cooper Industries Chairman and CEO Kirk Hachigian.

Details