Cisco, Yello launch new smart meters in Germany

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco and German Yello Strom said on Wednesday they are equipping 70 German households and small companies with novel meters to help cut their future bills and carbon footprints.

In a joint statement, the U.S. company and Yello, a Cologne-based unit of south-western utility EnBW, said the units will measure the power usage of electrical appliances at 15 minute intervals to inform both users and suppliers.

"This kind of technology leads to consumption decreases of around 10 percent and a further 15 percent or so can be time-delayed," they said in a joint statement, citing surveys.

Yello, which has 1.4 million power customers across the nation, has been the first company since 2008 to offer its clients such "smart" meters as companies globally test them.

Talking to Reuters, Chris Dedicoat, president of Cisco Europe, said the roll-out of the latest devices was cost-neutral to Yello customers and preceded wider possibilities to create smarter grids in the center of Europe in the future.

"As Yello has a technological head-start, it can offer the platform for more intelligent grid management," he said.

This could make it possible for households to feed their own electricity into the grid, to allow utilities to manage household appliances remotely to cut peak demand, and to better manage grids once more wind power comes on stream, he said.

Efforts are underway worldwide to upgrade power distribution networks, which is especially important for Europe's fragmented grids stemming from times of national economic planning.

Germany also wants to accommodate a lot more renewable power in future for which it needs new approaches to grid steering.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)