Acuity Brands and Silver Spring Networks Collaborate to Develop Intelligent Lighting Platform for Utilities and Smart Cities

Today at the IES Street & Area Lighting Conference, North America’s largest conference dedicated to improving the outdoor lighting business of electric utilities and energy service providers, Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI), through its subsidiary Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc., and Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE:SSNI) announced an agreement to jointly develop an intelligent lighting platform for utilities, cities, and large campus operators which will allow them to upgrade their aging lighting infrastructure and establish a path to additional smart city applications and services.

In the first step of the relationship, the two industry leaders will jointly develop a networked street light control solution. This solution will integrate Silver Spring’s standards-based Gen5 IPv6 networking platform and Streetlight.Vision smart city management software, which enables operators to monitor and control networked streetlights, with Acuity Controls’ DTL® DLL Elite™ intelligent photocontrols.

With more than 45 million street and highway lights in the US, and nearly 300 million street lights worldwide, there is an ongoing trend to upgrade aging infrastructure to networked, long-lasting and efficient LED street and area lighting. Older street lights can consume up to 40 percent of a city’s energy budget, and require manual identification and maintenance to repair individual luminaires. By networking upgraded LED luminaires, cities can lower costs by as much as 60 percent by reducing energy expenses and increasing operational efficiency. Intelligent street lights can also vary brightness based on traffic flows, time of night, and inclement weather, helping increase road safety for drivers and pedestrians.

“This joint development effort brings the strengths of two market leaders together. We are delighted to collaborate with Silver Spring to add to our portfolio of technology to deliver proven, smart lighting control and networking to large-scale lighting operators. We anticipate that these solutions will enable our customers to leverage their smart lighting canopy to easily and cost-effectively deploy additional smart city applications over time," said Audwin Cash, Vice President of Acuity Controls.

“We’re honored to work with a leader such as Acuity Brands and be a core part of their solutions portfolio. Like Acuity, we believe that the pace of innovation in networked lighting controls is increasing rapidly, and that combining Acuity’s deep industry knowledge and broad customer base with Silver Spring’s leading networking and smart city management platform will accelerate adoption and value,” said Brandon Davito, Vice President of Smart Cities and Lighting, Silver Spring Networks. “We look forward to being able to help utilities, cities and other operators around the world utilize their smart lighting networks as the linchpin for even more sophisticated smart city applications and services.”

Acuity is one of the world’s largest outdoor lighting solution providers with customers across the US, Europe, and Asia. Acuity’s DTL DLL Elite photocell has set the standard for long-life light sensors and will provide the foundation for the integrated Acuity and Silver Spring solution. Silver Spring Networks has delivered more than 21.5 million critical infrastructure devices worldwide, including selection for nearly 500,000 street lights in what is believed to be the world’s largest smart street lights program in Miami and South Florida. Silver Spring also connects critical infrastructure in iconic global cities such as Chicago, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Melbourne, Mexico City, Paris, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Washington, D.C., among others.

To learn more please visit the Acuity Booth (# 17) and the Silver Spring Networks Booth (#23) at the 2015 Street and Area Lighting Conference in Savannah, Ga. October 5-7.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. is a North American market leader and one of the world's leading providers of lighting solutions for both indoor and outdoor applications. With fiscal year 2014 net sales of $2.4 billion, Acuity Brands employs approximately 7,000 associates and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with operations throughout North America, and in Europe and Asia. The Company's lighting solutions are sold under various brands, including Lithonia Lighting®, Holophane®, Peerless®, Gotham®, Mark Architectural Lighting(TM), Winona® Lighting, Healthcare Lighting®, Hydrel®, American Electric Lighting®, Carandini®, Antique Street Lamps(TM), Sunoptics®, RELOC® Wiring Solutions, eldoLED®, Distech Controls® and Acuity Controls™. For more information, visit www.acuitybrands.com.

About Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks is a leading networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks. Silver Spring’s pioneering IPv6 networking platform, with more than 21.5 million Silver Spring enabled devices delivered, is connecting utilities to homes and business throughout the world with the goal of achieving greater energy efficiency for the planet. Silver Spring’s innovative solutions enable utilities to gain operational efficiencies, improve grid reliability, and empower consumers to monitor and manage energy consumption. Silver Spring Networks customers include major utilities around the globe such as Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, Commonwealth Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Progress Energy and Singapore Power, among others. To learn more, please visit www.silverspringnet.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements about Acuity Brands’ and Silver Spring Networks’ expectations, plans, intentions, and strategies, including, but not limited to statements regarding the scope and benefits of the relationship between the companies. Statements including words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or “future” and statements in the future tense are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, which, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of either company to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include the successful implementation of the relationship between Acuity Brands and Silver Springs Networks, as well as those described in documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission by either company. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Acuity Brands and Silver Spring Networks as of the date hereof. Acuity Brands and Silver Spring Networks assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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