Borqs Technologies and SkyCentrics Will Start Commercial Shipment of Next Generation CTA-2045 ECOPORT Smart Control Products in Q3 2023 for “Electrification of Everything”

• As a start in the development of a smart city, mobile connected CTA-2045 devices are chosen by utility companies across the U.S. as the platform for smart management of water heaters, pool pumps and other products with EcoPorts.

• Early adoption of CTA-2045 EcoPort enabled water heaters has been underway in low-income multi-family solar and storage communities in Hawaii.

• Commercial and residential markets in buildings and power grid optimization is estimated to reach $154 billion by the year 2026.
  
  

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Borqs Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRQS, “Borqs”, or the “Company”), a global provider of 5G wireless solutions, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, and innovative clean energy, with global operations in the U.S., India, and China, today announced that together with SkyCentrics, we have launched the next generation CTA-2045 ECOPORT communication products. The next-generation products are more price competitive and feature-rich than the current generation products and have significantly better cellular coverage with the use of internal and external antennas.

Borqs and SkyCentrics announced their strategic partnership in 2021. The partnership includes joint research & development, sales, and promotion, as well as, Borqs’ investment into SkyCentrics. It will leverage Borqs’ expertise in mobile IoT and 5G technologies. Borqs has years of manufacturing experience in making products worldwide, and has manufactured products for the U.S. mobile operators and Fortune 500 companies. SkyCentrics is an expert in the CTA-2045 and demand response technologies and will be responsible for the CTA-2045 software, ECOPORT certification, and cloud functionality with its Demand Response Energy & Asset Management (DREAM) platform.

The first release of the next generation ECOPORT will start commercial shipment in Q3 in 2023, and both companies forecast strong demand for the products. “I am very pleased that with after one year of development, we’ve successfully developed a suite of very competitive products for the very promising CTA-2045 ECOPORT markets. Together with SkyCentrics, we’ve defined a roadmap for other products which we plan to launch in the latter part of this year as well,” said Pat Chan, CEO of Borqs Technologies.

“With Borqs, we have found a high-quality hardware design and manufacturing partner, which allows us to focus on the software that orchestrates electrical machines in buildings to sync their energy usage to grid prices and carbon emissions. This will enable the grid to support a much larger penetration of intermittent renewable energy, and lower costs for all rate payers,” said Tristan de Frondeville, CEO of SkyCentrics.

A smart city uses various types of electronic methods and sensors to collect data to gain insights in the management and operation of grid loads in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness. As a start in the development of a smart city, mobile connected CTA-2045 devices are chosen by utility companies across the U.S. as the platform for smart management of water heaters, pool pumps and other products with EcoPorts. Historically, all water heaters were ‘dumb,’ controlled by a thermostat and randomly going on and off. The new generation of smart water heaters, connected with CTA-2045 communicating modules can optimize their on/off schedule based on each household’s usage pattern, grid prices and carbon emissions. A key component of electrifying everything is ensuring that all the devices that are electric run on clean energy. It is estimated that the energy savings as well as carbon emission reduction by CTA-2045 controlled residential water heaters can produce staggering results, with each one million CTA-2045 equipped water heaters equating to the removal of 100,000 gasoline powered cars from the highways.

Early adoption of CTA-2045 EcoPort enabled water heaters has been underway in low-income multi-family solar and storage communities in Hawaii. Commercial and residential markets in buildings and power grid optimization is estimated to reach $154 billion by the year 2026, according to Verified Market Research in their study “Global Building Automation System Market Size By Technology, By System, By Application, By Geographic Scope And Forecast” (Aug 2020).

SkyCentrics is working with major commercial building industrial equipment manufacturers to provide them retrofit kits that will enable their embedded base of existing equipment to be retrofit to have a CTA-2045 EcoPort which will provide an inexpensive way to create the Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs) that were recently promoted by the Biden administration quoting the “National Roadmap for Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings” report by The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and The Brattle Group.

About SkyCentrics, Inc.

SkyCentrics is the leader in machine learning, artificial intelligence and CTA-2045 EcoPort connectivity to appliances and large electrical equipment providing building and grid optimization. The company provides grid optimization and Demand Response (DR) services to utilities and building owners throughout the United States, as well as enabling other Demand Response providers and aggregators to connect to CTA-2045 enabled equipment through its OpenADR 2.0b cloud, REST API, and GEBTool building management system. SkyCentrics also assists major OEMs in enabling their products to include a CTA-2045 port, increasing the appliances and equipment that can be orchestrated to save energy, provide run time analytics, and optimize the grid. Building and homeowners get web, mobile and voice controlled apps to monitor and schedule their electric loads, while utilities and aggregators are enabled to orchestrate millions of loads to support the grid’s integration of renewables and mitigation of carbon emissions.

About Borqs Technologies, Inc.

Borqs Technologies is a global leader in software and products for the IoT, providing customizable, differentiated and scalable Android-based smart connected devices and cloud service solutions. Borqs has achieved leadership and customer recognition as an innovative end-to-end IoT solutions provider leveraging its strategic chipset partner relationships as well as its broad software and IP portfolio. Borqs’ unique strengths include its Android and Android Wear Licenses which enabled the Company to develop a software IP library covering chipset software, Android enhancements, domain specific usage and system performance optimization, suitable for large and low volume customized products, and is also currently in development of 5G products for phones and hotspots. The Company acquired controlling shares of the solar energy storage system entity, Holu Hou Energy LLC, in October 2021.

Forward-Looking Statements and Additional Information

This press release may include “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is expected. Words such as “forecasts”, “expects”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “seeks”, “may”, “might”, “plan”, “possible”, “should”, “estimates” and variations and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and reflect our management’s current beliefs. Many factors could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events and results discussed in the forward-looking statements may not truly describe the financial conditions, including the possibility that the positive financial results from business activities as described herein may not be reached or at all, and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s supply chain, revenues and overall results of operations, so the reader is advised to refer to the Risk Factors sections of the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Contact:

Sandra Dou

Vice President of Corporate Finance

Borqs Technologies, Inc.