Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc. (Hitachi CTA) and Tendril^® today announced that the companies are partnering to deliver a wide range of smart energy applications to consumers via an array of set-top boxes, wireless gateways and other devices that are already in the home. This dramatically improves the economics of home energy management by providing an economical and operational alternative to special-purpose gateways and other specialized hardware for each application used by the subscriber.

Through the Hitachi/Tendril relationship, the Tendril Energize™ suite of web and mobile home energy management applications will now be available via the Hitachi SuperJ^® Applications Ecosystem, an open, Java-based platform compliant with OSGi^TM specifications. Telecom, cable, mobile and other service providers who already have gateways and set-tops in the home will be able to quickly and easily add Tendril Energize energy monitoring, management and device control to their repertoire of smart home applications and services. Energy providers will be able to meet their energy efficiency and demand response/load control goals via branded, mutually beneficial relationships with these service providers and multiple gateway suppliers.

The combination of Tendril’s energy consumer engagement applications and Hitachi’s SuperJ applications ecosystem ensures that consumers have expanded and ready access to the latest, most valuable applications for home energy management, and provides energy, telecom and cable service providers with an open, cloud-based platform that supports ease of deployment and lifecycle maintenance. Hitachi and Tendril have already validated the operation of the Tendril application running on SuperJ-enabled gateways from several major suppliers of service provider gateways.

“Hitachi is excited to partner with Tendril, the leader in delivering consumer engagement energy management applications and services,” said David Foote, Hitachi CTA chief technology officer. “We believe that as increasing attention is given to energy use, including energy conservation and the development of renewable energy sources, the ability of consumers to be aware of and control their energy usage will become critical.”

“For energy providers, which comprise most of Tendril’s customer base, the ability to engage customers in energy management programs via SuperJ-enabled gateways that are already in the home is an important new competitive advantage,” said Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck. “It provides an easy and innovative way to improve energy management and customer satisfaction without the cost of special-purpose gateways and other hardware devices.”

Tendril and Hitachi will present a series of educational discussion forums about energy management via ubiquitous home gateways at the upcoming DistribuTECH conference in San Diego on January 29, 30 and 31. The discussions will take place in Tendril’s booth #2931.

About Tendril

Tendril is changing the way the world uses energy with its groundbreaking consumer engagement applications and services. Energy providers, product manufacturers, and consumer channel partners use Tendril’s solutions to foster deeper consumer relationships, differentiate their products, achieve business objectives and drive increased value over the lifetime of the consumer. The company’s flagship application suite, Tendril Energize delivers the insight, choice and control utilities and consumers need to meet their energy management goals. All of its solutions are built on Tendril Connect™, a software platform that integrates an ecosystem of product and service providers, enabling them to engage consumers and seamlessly engage, extend and evolve their offerings. Tendril works with more than 35 energy providers as well as product and service providers and has implemented more than 50 smart energy projects around the world. In 2012, the company opened its platform to developers to support the creation of an open application marketplace. It now has more than 500 developers registered in the program. Tendril is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. It is venture backed by VantagePoint Capital Partners, Siemens Venture Capital (SVC), Good Energies, RRE Ventures and GE. For more information, visit www.tendrilinc.com.

About the Hitachi SuperJ Applications Ecosystem

The Hitachi SuperJ^® Applications Ecosystem, developed in collaboration with Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., is a software platform that allows embedded systems developers, applications developers, equipment manufacturers, service providers and a wide array of related constituencies to develop, deploy, optimize and manage services and applications in a dynamic cloud-to-user environment based on Java and the OSGi service platform. SuperJ provides enhancements that promote maximum operational efficiency and lifecycle management, along with a software development kit (SDK) and other tools that prepare the target software for deployment on servers, embedded systems, home gateways, and M2M devices used in multiple industries.

About Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc.

Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., develops, manufactures and markets solutions for communications service providers and enterprises in the Americas. The company offers high-speed optical networking equipment for long haul, metro and data center applications, software platforms for subscriber “connected home” and “machine-to-machine” (M2M) applications deployment and management, and products and technologies for wireless network operators, including 4G evolved packet core and small cell solutions. For more information about Hitachi Communication Technologies America, please visit www.hitachi-cta.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2011 (ended March 31, 2012) consolidated revenues totaled 9,665 billion yen ($117.8 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Tendril is a registered trademark of Tendril, Inc. SuperJ is a registered trademark of Hitachi Solutions, Ltd. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. OSGi is a trademark or a registered trademark of the OSGi Alliance in the U.S., other countries or both. All other trademarks or trade names are property of the respective holders.