PITTSBURGH, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BPL Global®, Ltd. (BPLG), a smart grid technology company, today announced that it has opened an office in India as part of the company's on-going efforts to serve the global smart grid market. The new office in Gurgaon, Haryana provides BPLG with a base of operations to serve the growing market for smart grid solutions throughout India. BPLG has been serving the India market for some time and the growth of the business supports additional investment in operations there.

Electric grids worldwide are being transformed with intelligent systems and India's grid is part of that global movement. The International Energy Administration expects electricity demand in India to more than triple by 2035. A significant challenge in India's electric grid is maintaining the supply/demand balance. Simultaneous with the need for rapidly increased generation capacity and a transmission and distribution grid buildout is the need to manage peak demand. Smart grid technology will play a critical role in the future development of the electric grid in India. Data from market research firm Zpryme projects a 1.9 billion USD smart grid market for India in 2015 and includes smart meters, sensors, communications infrastructure and smart T&D equipment.

"Electric utilities value buying from companies with a local presence, and the market in India is a significant opportunity," said Peter Londa, CEO of BPLG. "Our experience in India demonstrated the viability of further investment in the region. With growing demand for our solutions in India, we are already seeing positive results."

Smart grid technology will allow India to accelerate progress in addressing some of the country's most pressing electrical needs. Key areas of investment will include managing demand to better align with generation capacity, integration of renewables and electricity storage as well as managing power quality. Demand management will include residential, commercial and industrial load as well as agricultural pumps. Intelligent management of distributed renewable energy resources combined with demand side management can improve system efficiency and reliability. The smart grid can also play a vital role in improving power quality through monitoring and control solutions implemented in the distribution grid.

"Investing in local resources to serve the rapidly growing smart grid market in India strengthens our ability to deliver our solutions for advanced distribution automation," said Bharat Vats, General Manager of India Operations for BPLG. "We can work more closely with electric utility executives faced with increasing expectations for reliability, efficiency and power quality."

BPLG's differentiation is in the ability of its suite of Connected Energy™ smart grid solutions to collaborate across the grid, realizing the value of an integrated smart grid. The company provides a leading suite of innovative smart grid solutions for advanced distribution automation from substations through customer premises. Operating on the company's Power SG® smart grid platform, BPLG's distribution solutions include grid management, demand management and integrated management of distributed energy resources (DER) including managed load, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, renewables and distributed generation. The company's substation solutions include its market leading transformer monitors as well as substation automation.

About BPL Global
BPL Global® (BPLG) provides electric utilities with a suite of smart grid solutions for advanced distribution automation from substations through customer premises. Electrical networks are transforming with a growing array of distributed energy resources (DER) at the edge. The DER Buildout™ underway includes managed load, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, renewables and distributed generation. Our solutions collaborate across the grid to enable the DER Buildout, helping utilities increase efficiency and reliability to improve their financial, operational and environmental performance. BPLG combines our experience in applying smart grid solutions with our market-leading technology to successfully serve leading utilities around the world. www.bplglobal.net

SOURCE BPL Global, Ltd.