Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Project Goes Live

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SEATTLE, WA AND MOORPARK, CA – October 24, 2012 – The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project is going live today with the launch of an innovative system that increases the efficiency of energy usage by providing two-way communication between smart devices that consume electricity and energy generators and distributors. The University of Washington is hosting a special event today to celebrate the milestone and unveil the technology, known as “transactive control,” that is expected to save UW hundreds of thousands of dollars on power bills. The Project’s interoperability testing partner, QualityLogic, will be on hand to discuss the importance of interoperability to the success of the system, as well as the benefits the Project has brought to the company.

“At QualityLogic, we’re responsible for functional conformance and interoperability testing of the transactive control system,” said James Mater, general manger of QualityLogic’s smart grid business. “Our work with the Pacific Northwest Project has helped set the foundation for how participants connect with one another. The Project has also given QualityLogic the opportunity to expand our interoperability testing expertise into new fields and enabled us to hire and retain employees in four U.S. states,” Mater continued.

The Project is expanding existing electric infrastructure and testing new smart grid technologies and will eventually reach approximately 60,000 customers in five states.

The Pacific Northwest team combines energy providers, utilities, vendors and research organizations, and the study involves metered customers in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Co-funded by project participants and the DOE through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the infrastructure improvements will eventually reach approximately 60,000 customers.

For more information, visit  www.pnwsmartgrid.org/.

ABOUT QUALITYLOGIC

QualityLogic was selected by the OpenADR Alliance to develop a conformance and interoperability test tool for OpenADR compliant products, and by Itron to develop and conduct testing for its ChoiceConnect® ERT® Certification Program. QualityLogic is the testing partner for the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration, the largest project of its kind in the U.S. The Company offers interoperability, conformance, and certification test solutions for other Smart Energy technologies and is an active participant in Smart Grid standards activities, including the OpenADR and ZigBee Alliance, OpenSG, SGIP, GWAC, MultiSpeak and others.

Departments ranging from IT to Marketing look to QualityLogic to ensure the quality of their websites, provide independent validation of competitive advantages, and develop and execute certification programs for their partners.