News

EANDIS AND INFRAX AWARD AMM SYSTEM CONTRACT FOR ROLL-OUT OF 61,000 METERS

Cuculus GmbH, a developer of smart metering and home control solutions, has been selected to supply its ZONOS platform to Eandis and Infrax’s for their roll-out of 61,000 meters in Belgium.

Eandis is a Belgium based operator of grids for the supply of electricity and natural gas. It is headquartered in Melle and has more than 4,000 employees. Infrax is an operator of utility infrastructure including gas piping, electricity and cable networks and the sewer systems.

Eandis and Infrax undertook a joint tender process for the procurement of Advanced Metering Management (“AMM”) systems. The competitive tender relates to a Phase Two pilot that is expected to lead to a roll-out across the networks of both companies. The pilot will see Eandis roll-out upto 51,000 meters with Infrax installing 10,000 smart meters. Eandis has 4 million meters and Infrax has one million meters already installed in the Belgian market.

Under the terms of the contract Cuculus will implement its ZONOS platform with Advanced Metering Management (AMM) functionality. The Eandis installation is based on its patented Power Line Communication concept in combination with among others broadband and GPRS communication, while Infrax’ installation will communicate over Infrax’s cable network in combination with GPRS.

The ZONOS platform is a comprehensive Advanced Metering Management (AMM) and Meter Data Management (MDM) system with attractive features that makes it easy for utilities to implement and operate smart metering while also providing the functionality to set-up and provide attractive end-customer services based on smart metering data. The system is open and works within the existing system infrastructure of a utility.

Both installations will manage and communicate with multi utility controllers as well as meters from various manufacturers. Advanced functionality, such as remote meter firmware upgrades is included in the agreement. Meter readings and communication will take place at 15 minute intervals (Gasmeters: 1 hour). Scalability, security and interoperability were key factors in the tender process. Eandis and Infrax also require that all systems are fully scalable in order that their chosen partner is able to roll-out across their networks, subject to a successful Phase Two pilot.

Kjartan Skaugvoll, Cuculus CEO, commented: "We are delighted to have won this contract. Eandis and Infrax have conducted a comprehensive tender where we have been able to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of our platform. We see the award as a major step outside our home market and are pleased to have been given the opportunity to work with Eandis and Infrax on their innovative smart metering deployment."

CUCULUS STRENGTHENS SUPERVISORY BOARD

DR. GOTTFRIED NEUHAUS, FOUNDER OF NEUHAUS PARTNERS, AND PIETER TRIENEKENS, SEASONED ENERGY EXECUTIVE, JOIN SUPERVISORY BOARD

Cuculus GmbH, developer of smart metering and home control solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Neuhaus and Mr Trienekens to its supervisory board, where they will join Chairman Dr Albert Fischer, Managing Director of Yellow&Blue Investment Management BV.

Dr Gottfried Neuhaus is the founder of Neuhaus Partners, one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, which invests primarily in companies in the information technology sector. The firm has a strong track record and, since its inception in 1998, has entered into 55 investments and 47 of these as a lead investor. During his time at the helm, Dr Neuhaus has overseen two IPOs, nineteen trade sales, three buy backs, and ten insolvencies. Prior to this, Dr Neuhaus established another company, Neuhaus Computer KGaA, in 1979, which produced hardware and software for process automation. In the mid 1990s, he successfully sold Neuhaus Computer to a strategic investor, French electronics and telecommunications company SAGEM. His activities at Neuhaus Computer ended in 1997.

Pieter Trienekens, also joining the Supervisory Board, is a seasoned executive who has held several Executive positions at Gasunie. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of KEMA, an energy consultancy firm with worldwide operations, and of two local Dutch healthcare organisations. His extensive experience in the gas industry spans 25 years and includes positions as CEO of Gas Transport Services (GTS) and executive director at GTS parent company Gasunie, a key player in the European gas industry. While at Gasunie, he was responsible for major investments such as the Dutch liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and the recently opened Northstream gas pipeline. Through this, as well as his work in international sales for Gasunie, he built an extensive network of contacts worldwide. Prior to this, he spent 8 years at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs where he was responsible for energy policy and upstream arrangements with Dutch oil and gas producers.

Dr. Albert Fischer, Chairman of the Cuculus Supervisory Board, commented: "I am delighted that Gottfried and Pieter have decided to join us on the Cuculus Supervisory Board, which will be considerably strengthened by the appointments. Dr Gottfried Neuhaus has a wealth of experience in venture capital as well as in entrepreneurship as the founder of two highly successful companies. His knowledge of the technology sector and understanding of the challenges facing young businesses will be invaluable in developing Cuculus’ business strategy and market position."

"Pieter Trienekens, our other addition to the supervisory board, has a strong background in business development and international sales and negotiations in the energy sector and will help us to forge new industry connections and build business. In addition, his experience in government policy will make him a valuable source of advice on regulatory issues facing energy companies. As Chairman of the Board, I very much look forward to working with them both."

Cuculus GmbH experienced strong growth: Expansion in Leipzig

Cuculus GmbH, specialist for smart metering and smart home solutions, expands capacity with new development and support center in Leipzig.

The opening of the new center is a result of the continuing growth of the software company headquartered in Ilmenau. The center will be opened in November. Cuculus has an outstanding position in the German and European market. With the new location in Saxony next to the headquarter in Thuringia and the sales offices in Frankfurt/Main, Munich and Bergen (The Netherlands), Cuculus creates the scale to satisfy the continued demand for smart metering and smart home projects both in Germany as well as in the European countries.

Leipzig, located in the heart of Europe, has an excellent infrastructure and is well connected as a traditional transportation hub. This makes it a perfect location for Cuculus expansion. „As part of our growth, it was a special concern that partners and customers can optimally reach our new center – whether by car, train or plane – because our business is becoming increasingly international“, explains René Böringer, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Cuculus GmbH. An extensive study was done prior to selecting Leipzig. Ultimately Leipzig was chosen based on the high density of university educated candidates as well as the excellent access to infrastructure and transportation.

Cuculus aims at more than a doubling of staff for the coming business year to satisfy demand from national and international customers. The possibility to recruit qualified employees both in Ilmenau and Leipzig is the key to realizing this ambition. The new location will help make this possible. „We hope that vacancies can be filled as fast as possible with talented and motivated employees willing to take on the challenge to produce and serve our customers with innovative solutions“, says Gunnar Scharfe, Chief Operating Officer at Cuculus.

RHEINENERGIE CHOOSES AMM/MDM SYSTEM FOR THEIR ROLL-OUT OF 30,000 METERS

Cuculus GmbH, a developer of smart metering and home control solutions, has been selected to supply its ZONOS platform to RheinEnergie to support the roll-out of 30, 000 meters in Germany.

RheinEnergie has used the Cuculus ZONOS platform since 2009 when the system was first deployed for a smart metering pilot with 3,000 meters. The platform was used in pilots undertaken with employees and customers designed to identify the best way to present smart metering data in the home. ZONOS was applied to manage the smart metering technology infrastructure measuring electricity, gas and water consumption. The pilots were also used to review various infrastructure related technologies.

Based on the success of the pilots RheinEnergie has engaged Cuculus to supply its ZONOS platform to support a 30,000 meter deployment, one of the largest ever roll-outs of smart meters in Germany.

The ZONOS platform is a comprehensive Advanced Metering Management (AMM) and Meter Data Management (MDM) system with attractive features that makes it easy for utilities to implement and operate smart metering. It also provides the functionality to set-up attractive end-customer services based on the data. The system is open which is critical to ensure it works within the existing system infrastructure of a utility.

RheinEnergie will use the ZONOS platform in conjunction with SAP’s IS-U EHP5 Interface for Smart Metering (MDUS). The required processes have been analysed and used to realize the data model and storage concept. This made it possible to implement functionality and adapt various components to provide an integrated seamless solution. The smart metering solution enables installation and problem resolution processes, regular and on-demand meter reads as well as the exchange of system messages, alarms and statistics to the connected systems.

Wolfram Bennerscheidt, Rheinenergie commented: “The very positive experience from our earlier pilots gives us confidence that Cuculus will meet our expectations. Smart Metering is complex and will lead us to explore new frontiers. We are pleased that in this project we can continue to benefit from Cuculus’ flexibility and focus on finding solutions. ”

Rene Böringer, Cuculus CCO, commented: “We are delighted that RheinEnergie has chosen the Cuculus platform to support their extensive roll-out of smart meters. RheinEnergie is a leader within the field of smart metering in Germany and we look forward to work with them to help realise the potential of this key project.”

Cuculus GmbH, developer of smart metering and home control solutions, announces the completion of a strategic financing round. The funds will be used to gain market share and establish international presence as well as to further product developments. Existing shareholders will now be joined by T Venture, the Venture Capital Company of Deutsche Telecom. In February 2010, Yellow&Blue Clean Energy Investments joined KfW, High-Tech Gründerfonds, SIEGMUND Beteiligungsgesellschaft and the Company’s management team investing €2.6 million.

Founded in 2007, Cuculus helps utilities deliver ‘Smart Metering’ by connecting electric, gas and water meters to a technology platform that can be integrated with existing systems. The Company also offers ‘Home Control’ services which provide a technological infrastructure allowing home appliances and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be effectively managed. Cuculus manages projects for a number of German utilities and maintains a strong network of partners, developers and device manufacturers across Europe.

Kjartan V. Skaugvoll, Cuculus CEO, commented: “We are delighted to have closed this financing round, and that T-Venture has decided to invest in our Company. The aim of this round was twofold: to create a solid financial base for our further expansion and to get a strategic shareholder on board. We are now well positioned for further growth and to help our customers deploy smart metering and smart home services.”

Thomas Claus, Investment Manager at T Venture said: “We are pleased to be involved with such a forward-thinking and ambitious company. Cuculus has an attractive customer proposition and an impressive track record of growth to date. We are looking forward to working with them and helping to realise their plans for future expansion.”

Cuculus and ckc have integrated the ZONOS smart meter solution to work with an unbundled SAP IS-U system. The proof of concept covers all process steps required to upgrade customers from traditional tariffs to smart metering tariff plans. This includes all installation and set-up steps including making the information available so customers can view their consumptions data in a secure environment on their personal web portal.

Many smart metering projects are currently in the transition from pilots to real larger scale implementation. This frequently requires integration to SAP IS-U or other core systems. Such integration is critical to reach acceptable operational costs levels and assure data consistency for smart metering implementation. The integration starts by providing data sets for metering points to a MDM like ZONOS as well as the monthly read meter levels from the MDM to SAP IS-U.

The integration was done by using SAP EHPs 3 and 4 (AMI 1.0) which requires the implementation of some of the processes which are expected to be part of the MDUS concept in SAP AMI 2.0. Netweaver PI/XI and enterprise services were used to enable SAP to trigger meter inventory synchronization, meter installation jobs, on demand meter reading jobs and update of user data to grant access to the Smart Metering web portal. In the other direction ZONOS is sending meter level data, alarms and other useful messages to provide management information to the customer operations team. Data, jobs and responsibilities within SAP were distributed according to the market role rules required to guarantee strictly unbundled operations between a grid operator and an energy supplier.

Within this cooperation, Cuculus is responsible for providing and adapting the ZONOS-MDM platform, while ckc is responsible for data integration and process integration of ZONOS and SAP IS-U. With the resulting set-up SAP works with the ZONOS platform with the different head-end systems, older meter reading solutions or meters directly are connected to the ZONOS. ZONOS streamlines all data structures, protocols and processes on a common interface.

Cuculus and ckc are well prepared for integration projects based on the MDUS concept, but can also work with older EHPs of SAP. The proof of concept can be demonstrated with live meters and metering data.

A second integration project will take place during the second quarter of 2011. In this project Cuculus and ckc have been asked by an utility client to fully integrate ZONOS Smart Home solution with the client’s SAP system.

Cuculus and ckc you will find in Hall 7.0, Smart Energy – booth.

Cuculus presents from 8th to 10th February in Essen the flexible ZONOS platform as ideal solution for smart metering and smart home. You will find Cuculus in hall 7 at the “Smart Energy Gemeinschaftsstand”.

Former MD of NUON joins smart metering company

Cuculus GmbH, developer of smart metering and home control solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kjartan V. Skaugvoll to the position of Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Source: Meer Met Minder Energie
CEO Kjartan V. Skaugvoll

Mr Skaugvoll joins the Company with a wealth of experience and a strong track record in the energy industry. He served for nine years at utilities giant Nuon, where he was Managing Director for retail operations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Nuon is an energy company based in the Netherlands that serves around 2.6 million consumers, businesses and organisations producing and supplying gas, electricity, heat and cooling as well as a range of energy-saving products and services.

During his time with the company, he maintained Nuon’s position as the market-leader and expanded its services from simply supplying energy to the home and businesses to helping customers improve their energy efficiency. Mr Skaugvoll has also held senior positions with the telecoms provider KPN, and has worked as a management consultant for Monitor Company in the U.S. and in Europe.

Cuculus’s management team is strengthened by the appointment of Mr Skaugvoll who will join the Company’s board. He will work closely with co-founders Rene Böringer, Chief Commercial Officer, and Gunnar Scharfe, Chief Operating Officer.

Kjartan V. Skaugvoll, newly-appointed CEO, commented: "I am extremely pleased to be joining Cuculus at such an exciting time in the Company’s development. I’m looking forward to working with the board to advance Cuculus’ technological solutions that rise to the ever-more important challenge of managing energy transition through smart metering and smart home offerings."

Cuculus co-founder Rene Böringer said: "We are delighted to welcome Kjartan to the board as Chief Executive and I look forward to working with him. His extensive contacts and experience in the utility and telecoms sectors will be a real asset to Cuculus as we look to secure significant contracts and become the leading smart-metering firm in Central Europe."

Cuculus GmbH takes over ScatterWeb’s Smart Metering customers and projects

Cuculus GmbH – a specialist for Smart Metering and Smart Home solutions – now offers the ZONOS Smart Metering Platform and corresponding services also to previous ScatterWeb’s customers.

The business activities of ScatterWeb have recently been acquired by a third party. In the course of the take-over, the newly formed company decided to abandon the company name and to refocus their core business. As a result, all Smart Metering activities were suspended. The company previously combined own radio-based solutions for reading out meters with the ZONOS Smart Metering Platform. Together with an end-user platform, the solution was offered under the name ENER-Dat. This product name will not exist any longer.

The new customers of Cuculus are now able to choose from a wide range of meters and hardware supported by Cuculus. Smart meters and MUCs (Multi Utility Controller) can be directly controlled by the advanced meter reading (AMR) engine of the ZONOS Platform. Customers can benefit from the new versions of Meter Data Management (MDM) and Energy Data Management (EDM). Enhanced interfaces for accounting and billing data as well as process integration into downstream systems (e.g. SAP IS-U or Schleupen) are available.

Metering Europe 2010: Digi and Cuculus demonstrate standard-OMS for Smart Metering, an end-to-end solution from the meter to the end customer portal.

At Metering Europe 2010, Digi and Cuculus will show an OMS-based solution that allows users to see their energy consumption online, every minute or every fifteen minutes. This modern Smart Metering solution consists of a meter, a flexible communication gateway, a data transmission path, a scalable platform, and a web-based end user interface.

Digi International and Cuculus have been working together to integrate their solutions to provide the best match for the specific needs of the smart metering business case. At the Metering Europe trade show we will demonstrate our solution live.

Digi International provides a communication path for the meter data through iDigi, its secure and scalable Machine to Machine (M2M) platform, and through a flexible Wireless M-Bus gateway. The iDigi platform can offer both device management and application integration services.

Cuculus is responsible for the data processing using its ZONOS platform. The ZONOS platform evaluates and processes the meter data in real time. On one hand, ZONOS feeds into customer portals, therefore providing the user secure and easy access to their energy consumption data (electricity, gas and water). On the other hand, ZONOS provides a two way connection to legacy systems in order to exchange tariff, billing and energy management information. The Cuculus solution ensures the highly efficient and cost-effective operation of the day-to-day processes in Smart Metering systems.

The joint solution meets the requirements of any power utility, municipal utility or Smart Metering service provider that seeks a complete, open, and flexible system which allows utilizing cloud based computing solutions.

Please come and visit our live demonstration at the Metering Europe 2010 at the booth of Digi International, Halle: 8, Stand: D22

Ilmenau, Germany – July 21th, 2010 – Cuculus GmbH today announces the appointment of Horst Toddenroth as Director of Sales & Manager Business Development. Mr. Toddenroth joins from D-Link (Deutschland) where he was responsible for the telecoms and ISP business unit covering Central Europe. Mr. Toddenroth also led the team responsible for developing and launching the HorstBox, a low cost Internet Application Device (IAD) used for integrating data, voice and video. Prior to D-Link Mr. Toddenroth held regional sales roles at Funkwerk Enterprise Communications, Procket Networks (sold to Cisco Systems), Unisphere (sold to Juniper Networks), ONI Inc., and Ascend Communications (sold to Lucent Technologies). Mr. Toddenroth started his career at Siemens in Germany

Cuculus presents from 19th to 23th April in Hannvoer the flexible ZONOS platform as ideal solution for smart metering and smart home. You will find Cuculus in hall 13 at stand D20 (innovation "made in Germany").

Cuculus, a Developer of Smart Metering and Home Control Solutions, Attracts Venture Capital Financing from a group of investors led by Yellow & Blue Investment Management

Ilmenau, Germany – Feb. 12, 2010 – Cuculus GmbH today announces the completion of a €2.6 million financing round to fund the continued deployment of its smart technologies in the utility and telecom markets. The round was led by Yellow&Blue Investment Management, a Dutch-based clean energy investor. Additional investors are KfW along with existing investors High-Tech Gruenderfonds, SIEGMUND Beteiligungsgesellschaft and management.