Echelon Corporation announced that the Shaogang Iron and Steel Group of China have successfully used Echelon's technology to optimize its energy utilization and process control systems. Shaogang's first energy optimization application has resulted in a 10% reduction in operating costs.

Prior to implementing its Echelon based solution, the large size of the physical plant made it challenging to accurately measure energy usage in real time. Information from the energy and control system is integrated with the plant's manufacturing execution system to allow Shaogang to identify best case use scenarios for energy consumption and production. Mr Jianmei Huang, head of the information technology department at Shaogang Iron and Steel Group said "Echelon's technology has given us the ability to create the infrastructure that helps us quickly deploy a scalable system and achieve our energy and operating goals."

Mr Anders Axelsson Echelon's senior VP of sales and marketing said "Echelon's infrastructure approach to controls is ideal for Shaogang Iron and Steel Group's energy conservation application because each additional device on the network can improve the overall effectiveness of current and future optimization strategies. We look forward to working with the Shaogang Iron and Steel Group on future enhancements to their facilities and with other steel producers across China."

Founded in 1966 and based in Guangdong, Shaogang Iron and Steel Group is among the top 100 steel manufacturers in the world and is in the top 500 Chinese enterprises with annual steel production reaching five million tons.

Echelon Corporation is a pioneer and world leader in control networking. Echelon's LonWorks platform for control networking was released in 1990 and has become a worldwide standard in the building, industrial, transportation, and home automation markets. Echelon is based in San Jose, California, with international offices in China, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.