Borqs Technologies and SkyCentrics Will Start Commercial Shipment of the Next Generation Modbus Adaptor in Q4 2023 for Smart Grid Appliance Manufacturers in the U.S.

Borqs Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRQS, “Borqs”, or the “Company”), a global provider of 5G wireless and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, today announced that together with Silicon Valley based SkyCentrics, Borqs will launch the next generation Modbus adaptor products in Q4 2023 and start commercial shipments to customers. The product is intended to be used by Smart Grid appliance manufacturers and OEMs in the U.S. to enable Demand Response signal delivery to and/or data acquisition from Modbus-enabled equipment such as water heating or thermostatic control systems. The products will support cellular and PoE connectivity and provide a certified CTA-2045 EcoPort and OpenADR 2.0b and 3.0 to the OEM, instantly enabling them for grid-interactivity.

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

“I am very pleased that together with Skycentrics we launched the CTA-2045 ECOPORT products in Q3. And in Q4, we will launch the next generation Modbus adaptor products. The two companies have defined a roadmap for other products which we plan to launch in the coming quarters,” 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 communication 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 more often on clean, low cost energy and less often during periods of expensive and ‘dirty’ energy. It is estimated that the energy savings as well as carbon emission reduction by CTA-2045 controlled residential water heaters can produce significant carbon reduction results, with each one million CTA-2045 equipped water heaters equating to the removal of 100,000 gasoline powered cars.  

Early adoption of CTA-2045 EcoPort enabled water heaters has been underway in low-income communities in Hawaii, equipped together with solar and energy storage systems. 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 has been working with major 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 (Nasdaq: BRQS, “Borqs”, or the “Company”) 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 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. Website: www.borqs.com.

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Investor Contact:

Sandra DouVice President of Corporate FinanceBorqs Technologies, [e-mail]       www.borqs.com