Tollgrade Communications, Inc. has received Frost & Sullivan’s 2013 North American Power Quality Analytics Software Company of the Year Award. Tollgrade’s LightHouse distribution monitoring platform, consisting of Medium Voltage (MV) Smart Grid Sensors and Sensor Management Software (SMS) with Predictive Grid Analytics, was selected to receive this award from Frost & Sullivan. The LightHouse solution, which is deployed outside substations and along feeders on the distribution network, helps utilities increase reliability by identifying and locating faults to reduce outage time and providing real-time monitoring to balance loads and protect the life of substation transformers.
“Based on the findings of our Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present our 2013 North American Power Quality Analytics Software Company of the Year Award to Tollgrade Communications, Inc.,” said Vishal Sapru, research manager, Frost & Sullivan. “An increased customer base, continued profitability, strong revenue growth, advanced technology, and an acute focus on expanding its penetration have contributed to building Tollgrade’s impressive market position. Tollgrade continues to advance ahead of the market average.”
Frost & Sullivan’s research philosophy originates with the CEO’s 360-Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables Frost & Sullivan to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership using a Decision Support Matrix with quantitative and qualitative metrics.
“We are honored to be selected by Frost & Sullivan for this award,” said Edward H. Kennedy, CEO and president, Tollgrade Communications. “Accurate power quality data from smart grid sensors will play an increasingly important role in the distribution network in particular, as we modernize our 100-year-old grid, protect it from the ravages of super storms and support the distribution of renewable sources of energy.”
The following criteria were used to benchmark Tollgrade’s performance against key competitors:
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Growth Strategy Excellence
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Growth Implementation Excellence
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Degree of Innovation with Products and Technologies
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Leadership in Customer Value
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Leadership in Market Penetration
The LightHouse platform combines sensors with an analytics software package that classifies grid conditions from permanent faults to power quality events like momentaries. This grid health data can be analyzed so utilities understand more of the “cause and effect” behind disturbances that lead to outages or equipment failures. Within the software, customizable rules can be defined to alert utilities to inefficient operating conditions, subtle system failures, or indications of anomalous behavior that are early signs of future outages. During an outage, visualization tools pinpoint locations to reduce drive and restoration times. The solution is used by some of the world’s largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs), distribution system operators (DSOs) and municipalities to reduce outage minutes, improve reliability metrics, balance loads and protect important assets like substation transformers.
