WASHINGTON, July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG) today announced that five new members have joined its effort to educate and provide information to policymakers, utilities, consumers, and other stakeholders. The new members are Cisco, Cooper Power Systems, Tropos Networks, Grid Net, and U-SNAP Alliance.

DRSG is the trade association for companies that provide products and services in the areas of demand response and smart grid technologies and practices.

"It is exciting to see smart grid and demand response being increasingly well received by policymakers, investors, stakeholders and--most importantly--consumers," said Dan Delurey, President of the DRSG. "The deployment of the smart grid is no longer something that will happen at some point in the future. It is happening now, and that is good for consumers and good for the country as everyone looks for options to reduce energy use and energy costs. The members of the DRSG Coalition have made a big contribution towards this forward movement, and as I welcome Cisco, Cooper Power Systems, Tropos Networks, Grid Net, and U-SNAP Alliance to the group, I'm pleased to say that DRSG's ability to help make the smart grid a reality has just become stronger."

Cisco, a worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Cisco believes technology can help transform how the world manages its energy and environmental challenges. Cisco's vision is for networking communications solutions to enable a smarter, more reliable and highly-secure energy infrastructure for the 21st century that brings economic as well as environmental benefits. For more information, visit www.cisco.com/go/smartgrid.

Cooper Power Systems has long been a provider of comprehensive reliability and productivity solutions for utility, commercial and industrial customers. The Energy Automation Solutions (EAS) group within Cooper Power Systems is a leading provider of innovative smart grid technologies and solutions that enable customers to optimize their electrical grid performance. Cooper is the largest provider of Demand Response solutions to Electric Utilities in North America through their Cannon DR technology and Yukon Enterprise DR Software. Other Cooper EAS Smart Grid solutions include Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Integrated Volt/VAR (IVVC), Self-healing Feeder Automation, Substation and Distribution Automation, Smart Communicating Sensors, and Power Systems Engineering Software including Power Engineering Services. For more information, visit www.cooperpowereas.com.

Tropos Networks is a worldwide market leader in IP broadband network systems used to build smart grids and smart cities. Its solutions create a robust communications foundation for aggregating multiple demanding applications. Tropos' networks deliver the reliability, scalability, performance, security, and control required by its 750+ customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.tropos.com.

Grid Net is a leading global real-time Smart Grid and Smart Home software platforms provider for utilities, partners, and customers. The all-IP Grid Net platforms are designed to integrate substation automation, distribution automation, smart meters, demand response, and load management with electric vehicles, buildings and homes to increase grid reliability, energy efficiency, renewable energy use, and customer satisfaction while reducing capital and operating costs. Grid Net's all-IP platforms are utility-grade reliable and scalable, and are built to meet regulatory and government Smart Grid interoperability and cyber-security standards. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Sydney, Australia, Grid Net is backed by world class investors Braemar Energy Ventures, Catamount Ventures, Cisco Systems, GE Energy Financial Services and Intel Capital. To learn more, visit www.grid-net.com.

The U-SNAP Alliance is an open industry association developing an industry specification for connecting energy aware consumer products with smart meters. The Alliance will create and publish a specification, establish testing and certification procedures for product conformance and educate consumers, utilities and vendors on the benefits of the standard. Alliance membership is comprised of utilities, manufacturers, consultants and other parties interested in developing or deploying the standard. For more information, visit www.usnap.org.

About DRSG

The Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG) is the trade association for companies that provide products and services in the areas of demand response and smart grid. DRSG works to educate and provide information to policymakers, utilities, the media, the financial community and stakeholders on how demand response and smart grid technologies can help modernize our electricity system and provide customers with new information and options for managing their electricity use.

Members of the DRSG Coalition include: Aclara, Advanced Telemetry, Ambient, Amplex, Boeing, Bridge Energy Group, CABA, CalAmp, CALMAC, CISCO, Comverge, Conservation Services Group, Control4, Cooper Power Systems, Corporate Systems Engineering, CPower, Echelon, Eka Systems, Electrolux, eMeter, Energy Capital Partners, EnergyConnect, Energy Curtailment Specialists, EnergySolve, EnerNOC, Enfora, EnOcean Alliance, Enspiria Solutions, GE, Google, Grid Net, HomeGrid Forum, Honeywell, Ice Energy, Itron, Johnson Controls, KMC Controls, Landis+Gyr, LG Electronics, Lockheed Martin, Lutron Electronics, Oracle, PCN Technology, Sensus, Silver Spring Networks, SmartSynch, Space-Time Insight, Steffes, Tendril, Trilliant Networks, Tropos Networks, Universal Powerline Association, U-SNAP Alliance, Whirlpool, ZigBee Alliance, Ziphany. More information is available at www.drsgcoalition.org.

SOURCE Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition