Echelon (ELON) is surging nearly 20% today with big volume.  The reason isn’t completely obvious because the company hasn’t issued a press release, but the reason the stock is moving is probably the result of Spain based Telvent integrating its smart grid solution with Echelon’s (ELON) for a big Finnish project with a cost of over $150 million. 

According to Telvent’s release, they will be in charge of the design and development of a smart grid solution for Finnish utility Fortum.  Televent will use its own Smart Metering Titanium system integrated with Echelon’s (ELON) Networked Energy Services which will provide end users with continuous data about their energy usage.  The system is expected to be fully rolled out to 550,000 customers within the next three years.  No word on what this means to Echelon financially, but traders sure like the news today.  Following the Duke Energy (DUK) news of a few ago, I’d expect this to be first of a long line of contracts for Echelon.

Disclosure: LONG ELON for the long haul.