SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 7, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Symmetricom, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYMM), a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and services, today announced that Southwest Transmission Electric Power Cooperative Inc., the Arizona-based electric power cooperative that operates and maintains a power delivery system that includes 580 miles of transmission lines and 20 substations, implemented Symmetricom's XL-750 GPS Time Source. Accurate time stamping of events is fundamental to efficient fault diagnosis and efficient restoration of electric power service. The XL-750, a highly accurate GPS timing instrument for power industry substation and utility companies, synchronizes protection relays and other intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) that collect and time stamp fault data.
"Symmetricom's ability to immediately deliver the XL-750 paid off for us right away," commented Tom Spence, technical services manager for Southwest Transmission. "With data constantly flowing-in on disturbances ranging from open breakers to customers without power, having files with accurate time stamps has improved operational efficiency and customer service. Saving two hours on fault diagnosis time means two hours less time our customers have to go without power. The XL-750 also improved the efficiency of the billing process by providing reliable and accurate time to electronic data collection systems which eliminates manual double checking so we're ensured customers are always billed correctly."
The XL-750 was developed by Symmetricom specifically for the power industry. Using GPS satellites, the XL-750 generates extremely accurate output pulses and time codes in multiple formats and offers superb timing accuracy (100 nanoseconds to UTC). The XL-750 synchronizes a wide variety of microprocessor-based power system equipment including: SCADA systems, remote terminal units (RTUs), protection relays, sequence of event recorders, digital fault recorders, power/tariff meters and other intelligent electronic devices (IEDs).
"Southwest Transmission has benefited from the XL-750's wide range of time synchronization outputs which other vendors' devices simply do not match," commented Ron Holm, product marketing manager for Symmetricom. "This allowed each XL-750 to directly time synchronize the server in each of the 20 substations. Besides its immediate availability, the XL-750 allows power utility companies like Southwest Transmission to deploy a high quality, cost effective solution where no extra hardware is required."
Southwest Transmission also expects the XL-750 to provide future benefits in relation to regulatory requirements such as support of synchrophasors derived from GPS synchronized measurements of voltage and current relationships throughout the power grid. With the XL-750 at each substation, the company expects they will be prepared for any mandatory compliance requirements.
The XL-750 also meets the recommendations of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) for event timing, such as Recommendation No. 12 concerning GPS time-synchronized recording devices.
For more information please visit: www.gpstime.symmttm.com
About Southwest Transmission Cooperative Inc.
Southwest Transmission Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. operates and maintains a power delivery system that includes 580 miles of transmission line, ranging from 69 kilovolts to 345 kilovolts. It schedules power into the areas served by its member cooperatives, which are located throughout Arizona and southern California. Southwest Transmission was formed in 1999 in response to customer need and demand. Until that time, the functions of Southwest Transmission were performed by Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO), a not-for-profit generation and transmission company founded in 1961. For more information, visit http://www.southwesttransmission.coop
About Symmetricom, Inc.
As a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and services, Symmetricom provides "Perfect Timing" to customers around the world, including communication service providers, network equipment manufacturers, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), aerospace contractors, enterprises, governments and research facilities. Since 1985, the company's timing, frequency and synchronization solutions have helped define the world's standards, delivering precision, reliability and efficiency to wireless and wireline networks, instrumentation and testing applications and network time management. Deployed in more than 90 countries, instrumentation products include atomic clocks, cesium and rubidium standards, VME, VXI, crystal oscillators, Bus Timing, PCI cards and Global Positioning System (GPS) solutions for instrumentation applications, alphanumeric displays, as well as network time servers for Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronization and time synchronization solutions. In 2002, Symmetricom acquired TrueTime and Datum, enhancing its position in the world time and frequency markets. Symmetricom is based in San Jose, Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.symmetricom.com
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