ST. LOUIS, Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aclara^®, a leader in intelligent infrastructure technologies for utilities and part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE), today announces a contract with the City of Fort Collins Utilities to deploy an integrated consumer engagement and demand response solution. The comprehensive system will share a single software platform, allowing Fort Collins and its customers to proactively manage energy use while capitalizing on conservation, demand response programs and in-home technologies.

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"We see strong synergy between consumer engagement and demand response," said Steve Catanach, light and power operations manager for Ft. Collins Utilities. "We selected Aclara because of its ability to provide both elements in a single platform as well as for its industry leadership." Aclara shares in our vision and will partner with us to deliver a solution that allows our customers to take a more active role in managing consumption, demand and associated costs."   

This initiative is an important component of Fort Collins' advanced meter project, which comprises approximately 65,000 electric and 34,000 water meters. Aclara's solutions will provide valuable information and education tools for Fort Collins Utilities' customers.

"We envisioned a tightly integrated and consistent approach to consumer engagement and demand response, and put together a low-risk, affordable solution with fast rollout capability," said Brad Kitterman, president of Aclara. "We see this project as the first of many that takes full advantage of this advanced solution."

As part of the project, Fort Collins Utilities will deploy Aclara's Demand Response Management System (DRMS), powered by Calico. The DRMS is a robust demand-response platform that provides a single point of analysis and control for comprehensive management of multiple demand-response programs. The DRMS' centralized dashboard is a unified operations center for program management, load forecasting, event dispatch, messaging management, baseline calculation and post-event management.

Fort Collins also will provide customers with tools to better understand and make choices regarding their electric and water use through applications for conservation, bill comparison and analysis, AMI data presentment, energy and water management, consumer alerts and goal setting through the Aclara consumer engagement portal. Customers will have access to the secure portal through devices that may include computers, mobile devices and in-home displays.  

About Aclara
Aclara® represents the industry's leading Intelligent Infrastructure technologies for providing device networking, data-value management, and customer communications to water, gas, and electric utilities globally. Over 500 utilities in nine countries rely on proven Aclara solutions to connect with their customers. Aclara Technologies LLC is part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ESE), St. Louis. Create Your Intelligent Infrastructure™ www.Aclara.com.

About Calico
Calico Energy provides a unified operations center that connects data, devices, software engines and applications. Through centralized reporting and powerful analytics, this "hub" enables intelligent decision making – as well as control of targeted energy resources and grid assets. Calico improves decision making by unifying all relevant data from inside and outside a utility and providing insight through advanced analytics and forecasting capabilities. Calico also allows utilities to create, execute, test, and fine-tune diverse load-management programs to meet operational needs, business goals, and regulatory requirements – today and in the future.

About City of Fort Collins Utilities
The city of Fort Collins (fcgov.com) is an award-winning, full-service municipality with 2,000 employees serving 144,000 residents, located 60 miles north of Denver. Based at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and home to Colorado State University, the City continually ranks in the top 10 best places to live nationally. As a municipally owned, multi-service utility employing 387 individuals, Fort Collins Utilities provides electric, water, wastewater and storm water services to customers within its service area. In 2007, Utilities (utilities@fcgov.com) launched its "Utilities for the 21^st Century Initiative" to help frame a purpose, issues and strategies for an overall long-term sustainability design and direction. The Initiative offers a foundation to ensure Utilities' services and management systems remain high quality and reliable, meet the needs of the community—and help to reduce Utilities' capital costs and environmental footprint. The Initiative closely aligns with a broader community vision of protecting and conserving the quality of life in Northern Colorado.

SOURCE Aclara