Consumer Electronics Powerline Communications Alliance (CEPCA) and China's Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing Group (IGRS) on Wednesday announced their partnership to promote powerline communication (PLC) in China. They will jointly establish the first CEPCA certification center in China for this purpose.

IGRS and CEPCA will build the world's first ever CEPCA certification test center in China to jointly certify and promote PLC-equipped products. Chinese vendors will enjoy a convenient means for certifying their PLC solutions domestically, which will help guarantee IGRS product reliability. Both organizations also plan to investigate joint projects with even greater significance in the future.

IGRS's President Sun Yuning explains that its members are very interested in the advantages that PLC offers IGRS networking solutions. IGRS is protecting its members' PLC investments by ensuring that different PLC technologies used by IGRS products cannot interfere with one another. Eventually, IGRS may standardize PLC protocols; but, until that work is complete, it must ensure that IGRS PLC networks maintain the reliability that attracts devout users.

Michael Stelts, CEPCA President, describes the importance of this agreement by saying that CEPCA members consider IGRS a key international partner and CEPCA is pleased to establish the first CEPCA certification center in China with IGRS. This partnership signifies both the importance of the Chinese market for CEPCA members and the prominent position that IGRS commands in the Chinese home networking market.

CEPCA, founded in 2005, has its members worldwide, mainly in Europe, America and Asia. The annual sales volumes of its member companies have exceeded $300 billion. CEPCA is committed to the PLC technical compatibility in the consumer electronics industry. The partnership with IGRS will boost CEPCA recognition in China's PLC sector.