MAGENWIL, Switzerland and GERMANTOWN, Maryland, October 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- CURRENT providing technology for European Commission Sponsored Electric Grid of the Future

CURRENT Technologies International GmbH, the European operating subsidiary of CURRENT Group, LLC, a provider of Smart Grid solutions worldwide, announced that it has been chosen by the Dow Jones CleanTech Summit Jury as one of Europe's ten most innovative CleanTech companies.

CURRENT is working with a number of leading European electric utilities on several important European Smart Grid initiatives. For example, CURRENT is providing Smart Grid technology to the European Commission (EC) funded ADDRESS (Active Distribution networks with full integration of Demand and distributed energy RESourceS) project. This project, which involves European utilities including Enel and Iberdrola, is described by the EC as the next evolution in energy delivery through the development of smart energy grids of the future.

A Smart Grid converts the traditional electric grid into a fully integrated intelligent network by adding monitoring, control, communication and self-healing technologies. Smart Grid systems have the potential to be the single largest contributor to a solution for global warming available today, as the International Energy Agency reports that electric power generation produces 41 percent of total worldwide energy related CO2 emissions. The Electric Power Research Institute has estimated that a Smart Grid could reduce CO2 emissions from electric power by up to 25 percent.

A September 2008 EC-sponsored Smart Grid Deployment study summarizes the critical nature of a Smart Grid, Without effective deployment of the SmartGrids concepts, European security of electricity supply in general, and the operational security of the European electricity grids in particular, may not be maintained. This is crucial not just for the large scale development of renewables, but also because of the steady demand growth and more onerous environmental requirements which conventional grids and methodologies will increasingly find difficult to meet.

We are proud to have been chosen for this award, said Tom Casey, CURRENT's Chief Executive Officer, Smart Grids are a critical component to addressing global warming as well as to improving the overall reliability of the electric grid.

CURRENT was chosen by a jury of six CleanTech-specialists, including representatives of Mountain Cleantech and Dow Jones as organizers, representatives of Ammer Partners, Beiten Burkhardt, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan. The selection was made as part of the Dow Jones CleanTech Summit, sponsored by Dow Jones and Mountain Cleantech AG, and held in Frankfurt, Germany earlier this month.

The other selected companies included Novaled AG, Pelamis Wave Power, Petrotec AG, ReVolt Technology Ltd., SiC Processing AG, Solarion AG, Solitem GmbH, Sulfurcell Solartechnik GmbH and Umicor Recycling Solutions. The companies were chosen based upon their entrepreneurial potential, management capability, position within the market and technological maturity.

About CURRENT ( www.currentgroup.com )

CURRENT provides electric utilities a Smart Grid solution that increases the efficiency and reliability of the electric grid while reducing the environmental impact of electric usage. CURRENT's integrated solution combines advanced sensing technology, two-way high-speed communications, 24/7 monitoring and enterprise analysis software and related services to provide location-specific, real-time actionable data.

CURRENT, a privately-held company based in Germantown, MD and Magenwil, Switzerland, includes investors such as EnerTech Capital, Google Inc., Goldman Sachs Co., and Liberty Associated Partners (an investment partnership between Liberty Media Corporation and the Berkman family), among others. In addition to this award, CURRENT has been recognized by many other awards including the 2006 Platts' Global Energy Commercial Technology of the Year for its technology in relation to emissions reduction, practicality, reliability and overall commercial success, and Red Herring's 2006 Top 100 North America.

Web site: http://www.currentgroup.com

Melissa Kresse of FD, +1-212-850-5695, Melissa.Kresse@FD.com