W Lucy & Co announces acquisition of the GridKey business from Selex ES

W Lucy & Co has announced it has acquired all Selex’s business interests in GridKey, an award winning low voltage (LV) monitoring system, developed by Selex ES  in collaboration with Sentec.

Following the acquisition, GridKey will form part of the Group’s complementary medium voltage, secondary power distribution business unit, Lucy Electric. Lucy Electric will continue to collaborate with Sentec to develop and market the award-winning LV substation monitoring system.

The deal forms part of Lucy Electric’s strategy to continually expand its capabilities in distribution network automation to meet the industry’s changing needs and extends the company’s automation product offering to low voltage network monitoring.

Additionally Lucy Electric’s significant presence in the Middle East and Asia will ensure GridKey clients in these regions have direct access to local expertise and support.

Commenting on the new relationship, John Griffiths, Lucy Electric’s CEO said: “The GridKey system has been recognised as one of the best low voltage monitoring systems in the market place and will provide an excellent complement to our extensive range of secondary distribution automation products and services.

“Our experienced engineers work at the cutting-edge of the design and implementation of network automation projects from concept to deployment and will now be able to extend our support to monitoring and management of networks at a low voltage level.”

CEO of Sentec, Mark England, added, “Lucy Electric is a great partner on GridKey, providing world-class expertise in automation projects. Their geographic reach will ensure excellent local support for GridKey customers in key regions.”

The GridKey system provides continuous remote monitoring of substations, as well as timely warnings, status and loading information, allowing Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to significantly increase knowledge about their LV grid. As a result DNOs can better protect assets, diagnose and solve problems more quickly and reduce capital and operational costs through early warning of potential problems, such as phase imbalances.

Selex ES Ltd, a Finmeccanica company, is an international leader in electronic and information solutions for defence, aerospace, space, security, high-integrity surveillance, network management, information security and mission-essential services.