Cyan Holdings plc (AIM:CYAN.L), announces that it has received an important initial order for wireless monitoring of electricity meters in India. Cyan is a fabless semiconductor company providing wireless utility metering and lighting control products based on its feature rich, low power, microcontroller chips.
The initial order of 10,000 units represents one of the smallest of several tenders that Cyan understands are currently open in the Indian market. The end customer is a global tier 1 meter manufacturer. This customer was sourced by our partner Future Electronics which secured the order on behalf of Cyan and continues to provide local support.
Cyan products are being quoted into further tenders from both this and other end customers. The tenders range in size up to 100,000 units, several of which, like this order, are understood to require installation this year. The tenders are a necessary pre-condition for attacking a market which Cyan believes will run to multi-million annual installation of both new and replacement meters.
Cyan has been working with a number of established meter manufacturers in India since early 2009 in anticipation of an increasing demand for wireless and specifically mesh connected meter reading and monitoring solutions from utility companies.
Several manufacturers have, in recent months, reported a substantial increase in the volume of tenders for wireless electricity meters with increasing demand for mesh connection capability. Cyan has developed a product specifically for the Indian market that offers point to point ("P2P") meter reading from a handheld reader. This product matches the functionality of some existing wireless systems but also offers the ability to access meters from an office at any time over the mobile telephone network.
Because the Cyan wireless meter product supports the existing meters' communication protocol it provides an easy interface to different manufacturers' existing meter hardware. Existing systems can be upgraded at installation, or at a later date to support both remote access and mesh operation.
Cyan has also incorporated a number of features developed for other markets including data encryption and usage profiling, the latter will help reduce the proportion of energy lost to theft. The exact proportion of electricity not paid for is unknown, but the problem is widespread and estimates for India are in the region of 30% to 40% of all electricity generated. Cyan has successfully demonstrated features that, from customer comments, it believes will significantly assist in reducing this figure.
Cyan believes that the ease of adoptability its product offers, confers a substantial strategic advantage upon the Company as it is asked to bid on new tenders. The Cyan product not only matches the functionality of some of the principal existing systems used by Indian utilities, but crucially allows an "over the air" upgrade to already installed meters, providing for remote office access and full mesh networking. Compatibility with existing meter hardware and the phased introduction of new wireless features reduces barriers to early adoption by utility companies and minimises the risk of installing meters that become obsolete as mesh networking becomes widespread.
Kenn Lamb, CEO of Cyan Holdings plc commented:
"This order confirms that the technology that Cyan originally developed for the gas metering market in China can be deployed in a broad range of utility metering markets globally. By developing low-cost, mesh connected products that work in frequency bands offering greater range and penetration within buildings, Cyan now has a core technology that is particularly applicable to utility metering and lighting."
"Through multiple trials working with a broad range of customers in different countries, Cyan has developed additional features that when layered on top of our core capability enhance the benefits of adding wireless connectivity, and reduce the payback period making Cyan the more cost effective option. As the year progresses I am confident that Cyan will make further announcements of initial and repeat volume orders in lighting and metering markets around the world."
Enquiries:
| Cyan Holdings plc Kenn Lamb CEO |
Tel: +44 (0) 1954 234 400 |
| Cenkos Securities plc Stephen Keys / Camilla Hume |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7397 8900 |
| Hansard Communications Ltd John Bick / Kirsty Corcoran |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7245 1100 Tel: +44 (0) 7872 061007 |