04/06/2009 by David Slade.

A football game is delivered to an iPhone with the SlingPlayer.

TECHNOLOGY evangelists and television aficionados want all their TV on the Web, and they are tired of waiting for Internet companies and content owners to make it happen.

J. Carrier/Bloomberg News

Charles Ergen is chairman of EchoStar, which owns Sling Media and its technologies.

The Slingbox Pro-HD, top, and the Sling-Loaded ViP 922, above, a digital video recorder that Dish Network will offer as a set-top box.

But such an entertainment nirvana already exists — at least for owners of a silver and black gadget called the Slingbox.

For the last five years, this device, which looks like it was plucked from the set of a “Star Trek” movie, has allowed users to pipe all their existing cable and satellite channels onto the Internet and over to any computer or cellphone.

Nevertheless, Sling Media, the five-year-old Silicon Valley company that makes the Slingbox, has been easy to overlook. Sling’s stand-alone hardware products, which start at $180 and plug into televisions, have been largely confined to the homes of a few hundred thousand technology geeks who love the cutting edge and don’t mind braving the dust devils behind their entertainment centers to get there.

Sling was acquired in 2007 by EchoStar, the satellite TV firm that then split into two public companies: the consumer TV business Dish Networks, and the Echostar Corporation, which owns Sling and is entirely devoted to developing and licensing digital equipment for the television industry. Under its new owner, Sling is about to become a lot more prominent. Now the question is whether EchoStar’s stewardship will propel Sling into most American homes, or just relegate it to the wayside on the road to convergence of TV and the Internet.

The first real test for the new Sling will come this summer, when Dish plans to offer a set-top box embedded with Sling’s features to its 14 million subscribers across the country. Called the SlingLoaded HD DVR ViP 922, it will be offered to subscribers for $199.

Part of EchoStar’s plan is to then license Sling technology to other satellite and cable TV operators and consumer electronics companies. The idea of “place shifting” or “Slinging” shows to any device, the company hopes, will become a standard trick performed by most high-end cable boxes.

But first EchoStar needs to find other TV companies that like the idea of Sling as much as it does. That could be a challenge.

Many television networks and cable operators are currently engaged in competing efforts to send their programming directly to their own Web sites and to online video hubs like Hulu.com. They are also building technology to identify online the customers who currently pay for television, so they can make available to them programs from paid-cable networks like HBO and the Discovery Channel online as well.

“There seems to be a couple of other ways of doing the same thing as Sling without a hardware-based approach,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research. “Sling has not yet been proven to be something that is a must-have for a wide audience.”

Sling executives say their technology gives consumers everything they want and offers cable and satellite companies a way to hang on to their paying customers. Consumers can see the same channels on the Web or on their phones, in the same order that they have grown accustomed to on their own home televisions. If they also own a DVR like a TiVo, they can also see all the programs they have saved. (The company complements that selection with old episodes of programs on Sling.com, a site similar to Hulu.)

And cable operators can extend the reach of their traditional programming lineups and prevent their users from flocking to Web video sites, which have fewer and less valuable ads.

Sling also offers cable and satellite companies an easy way to get television to a variety of mobile devices without having to develop specific video services for each. Sling recently released a $29.99 application for the Apple iPhone, for example, although AT&T insisted that it work only over WiFi, and not over the carrier’s 3G network. AT&T said it feared that Sling’s streaming video could hog its bandwidth and lead to dropped calls.

But network congestion may be the least of EchoStar’s problems. In selling the Sling concept to other television and satellite companies, EchoStar will likely run headlong into something even more formidable: longstanding industry grudges.

The chairman of both EchoStar and Dish Network is Charles W. Ergen, the satellite television pioneer who has had business skirmishes with companies like Viacom, Liberty Media, AT&T and Sirius XM. (Mr. Ergen declined to comment for this article.)

In the television business, memories can be long. To some cable and TV executives, the idea of licensing Sling, even if they covet the technology, might feel a little like climbing into bed with a fierce competitor.

“He’s got a hard slog in the U.S. If you are an overseas cable operator and you don’t compete with Dish, maybe there is an opportunity,” said John C. Malone, chairman of Liberty Media and a major shareholder of DirecTV, in a brief interview last week at a tech conference.

Echostar seems to understand such sentiment. Mr. Ergen, besides being chairman of both Dish and EchoStar, is a major shareholder in the two. But Echostar executives emphasize that they are now separate companies.

“It’s probably our biggest obstacle: the politics of common ownership,” said Mark W. Jackson, president of an EchoStar division. “We believe that if we build the best product, they will decide to do business with us. That’s what we are trying to prove to everyone.”

The future of Sling and its Internet vision probably depend on it.

Posted in Intelligent building, Integration, IIT | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

NES Benefits Flash

Overview of the complete NES System
Reduce costs, improve operations, and generate new sources of income.

The NES System benefits every aspect of your utility’s operation — from metering and customer services to distribution operations and value-added business. We offer an unparalleled return on investment with a payback period for most utilities ranging from two and five years.
Direct Benefits

Metering

The NES System:

* enables completely automated scheduled reads of electric, gas, water, and heat meters
* allows real-time, on-demand reads
* eliminates most meter-reading costs for both scheduled and unscheduled reads, due to wage, insurance, equipment, office space, and vehicular cost savings

Customer Service

The NES system:

• reduces billing errors, complaints, and inquiries, as well as call center staff and related costs

• extends the use of flexible tariffs (available to commercial accounts) to residential customers, allowing new tariff structures to be remotely downloaded into meters, such as:

•   time-of-use pricing
•   critical peak pricing
•   real-time pricing
•   prepayment without card

• offers remote connect and disconnect features — useful in high-turnover environments such as apartments — that:

• eliminate costs associated with manually managing service connections

• increase customer satisfaction through improved response times

Distribution Operation

The NES System’s detailed per-meter supply quality statistics, broad load-profiling capabilities, and extensive provisions for theft detection enable:

• load-balancing of meters and transformers
• improved energy forecasting and conservation
• blackout and brownout prevention
• comprehensive revenue protection

The system also:

• rapidly detects outages

• verifies service restoration while field crews are still in the area

Operating

The NES system:

• eliminates re-bills caused by incorrect reads or data entry errors

•   eliminates the need for estimated bills

•   improves cash flow by reducing read-to-bill turnaround and uncollectibles

• reduces unnecessary services calls and field investigations through remote monitoring

• enables load shedding to manage peak energy use by controlling the direct load of appliances such as air conditioners, pool pumps, and water heaters

Regulatory

The NES system offers:

• power quality reporting for any subset of meters or service areas

• historical as well as on-demand outage and connection reporting for accurate calculation of service quality

• remotely configurable meter-reading capabilities by time, period, or service area to comply with changing regulations

Value-Added Benefits

Since the NES System is built on open, internationally recognized standards using existing infrastructures, your utility can add new devices over time — anywhere within the electricity network — using the same communication infrastructure already installed for electricity metering.

Products such as thermostats, boilers, appliances, air handlers, lights, and load control modules based on our LonWorks technology — the backbone of the NES system — are available from thousands of manufacturers worldwide. By adding communications and control over these devices, utilities can offer their customers or partners a number of benefits and services, such as:

• remote monitoring and control of in-premise devices such as thermostats and appliances

• predictive warranty services

• consumer use reports

Posted in Lonworks, Networked Energy Services (NES) System, Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

NES System Architecture

The NES System consists of a tightly integrated set of components that provide the infrastructure to deliver networked energy services to your utility. The system architecture includes:

• Intelligent, communicating digital electricity meters
• Powerful IP-connected data concentrators
• Scalable system software

A True Smart Metering Network

The NES system is designed to let your utility use a variety of communications media within your system to minimize cost and complexity, and maximize reliability and security. At the core of this flexibility are data concentrators, which provide the connectivity infrastructure between meters at customer sites and the NES System Software at the utility’s central office.

Data concentrators connect to the secondary side of a distribution transformer and securely communicate with and supervise meters attached to the secondary side of a given transformer. They can be installed adjacent to or collocated with one of the meters at a customer site or collocated with the transformer itself, which may be on utility poles, in underground substations, or in above-ground enclosures.

Data concentrators communicate with meters over the low-voltage power line network. Communication between data concentrators and the NES System Software (which usually resides in the utility’s data center) occurs over any IP-enabled WAN. Because our flexible data concentrators can use any convenient WAN technology — such as GPRS, CDMA, GSM, PSTN, and broadband — utilities can take advantage of today’s diverse range of wide area communication possibilities, as well as new options offered in the future.

The hybrid RF/PLC/IP architecture of the NES System cost-effectively serves both the IEC and ANSI markets for a variety of geographic terrains — from densely populated urban and suburban areas to thinly populated, distant rural locations — while retaining all of its functionality.

Advanced Metering

Meters are a utility’s most important asset: They must provide uncompromising quality, accuracy, and reliability. Our internationally certified NES meters offer the industry’s best value for a digital communicating meter, turning each metering point into a wealth of readily available information that can be used not only to generate bills — as in a traditional AMR system — but also to monitor network health, reduce or eliminate on-site visits, improve customer service, and optimize the distribution network.

Since NES provides a complete, always-on, two-way network, each meter is remotely accessible at any time for both data reading and, with proper authorization, remote configuration and control. And because our meters have no serviceable parts, you may never need to send personnel to the field again.

Our NES meters offer a number of features and benefits, including:

• Support for multiple tariffs, which automatically adapt for holiday, weekend, and seasonal changes
• Integrated, automatic gas and water meter reading, which expands the value of the network beyond electricity
• Power quality information — such as power outages, sags, swells, and frequency measurements — which enable predictive repairs and optimizations
• Extensive load-profiling capabilities to understand customer consumption
• Real-time scheduled or remote load control to prevent brownouts or blackouts
• Remote disconnect of main load, for managing vacant or high-turnover premises (such as vacation homes or apartments) without on-site visits
• Superior tamper and fraud detection, which increase compliance and revenue
• Full remote configuration capabilities, which eliminate the need to visit meters to change tariff schedule, display, or load control
• Standard digital meter installation — no special skills or tools required

Posted in Lonworks, Networked Energy Services (NES) System, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

The NES System is the cornerstone of the smart grid

Echelon’s Networked Energy Services System is the first, fundamental step for utilities seeking to update their metering infrastructure. The NES System provides utilities with:

• A metering infrastructure that delivers core services such as:
  • Automated meter reading
  • Outage detection
  • Theft and tampering detection
  • Very accurate data collection
  • The industry’s highest level of reliability
  • Extensibility from 10,000s to millions of customers
• An open service infrastructure with an ecosystem of software, hardware, project management, and service companies with expertise in extending the NES System to meet any existing or future competitive or regulatory need.
• Future-proof hardware and remote firmware upgradability built into the meters.
• The ability to use any existing WAN backhaul including GPRS modem, WiMAX, BPL, and others.
• A smart grid backbone for:
  • Residential and light commercial demand response
  • Seamless connection to the home area network (HAN)
  • Wired or wireless (such as Zigbee or 6LoWPAN) connectivity to energy-aware products

Elegant System Architecture

The NES system consists of a tightly integrated set of components that provide the infrastructure to deliver networked energy services to your utility. The system architecture includes intelligent, communicating digital electricity meters; powerful IP-connected data concentrators; and scalable system software.

Posted in Lonworks, Networked Energy Services (NES) System, Automatic monitoring and targeting (aM&T), Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

The ZigBee Alliance has approved comprehensive new features for the ZigBee specification, significantly expanding the capabilities of ZigBee and giving more choices to manufacturers as they design ZigBee products.The original set of features published in 2006 is now known as the ZigBee Feature Set. The expanded set of features, known as ZigBee PRO, maximises all the capabilities of ZigBee and facilitates ease-of-use and advanced support for larger networks. These newly released feature sets are designed to interoperate with each other, ensuring long-term use and stability. Highlights of the expanded ZigBee PRO Feature Set include:

• Network scalability – improved support for larger networks offering more management, flexibility, performance choices
• Fragmentation – new ability to divide longer messages and enable interaction with other protocols and systems
• Frequency agility – networks dynamically change channels should interference occur
• Automated device address management – optimised for large networks with added network management and configuration tools
• Group addressing – offers additional traffic optimisation needed for large networks
• Wireless commissioning – enhanced with secure wireless commissioning capabilities
• Centralised data collection – tuned specifically to optimise information flow in large networks.

Access to the updated ZigBee specification is available immediately for all members. Free public availability of the new features is scheduled for early 2008.

With the addition of these additional features to the ZigBee specification, the Alliance is shifting its attention to development efforts facilitating the deployment of the technology for energy management and efficiency, specifically in areas like public application profiles for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Public application profiles enable end-to-end, multi-vendor interoperable solutions in markets such as AMI, home automation, commercial building automation and telecommunications.

ZigBee uses self organising and self healing mesh networking to enable robust communications over the globally available 2.4 GHz frequency, with 868/915 MHz technology available in select countries. ZigBee networks offer superb interference immunity and capabilities to host thousands of devices. With ultra low power requirements, ZigBee devices run on regular batteries for years, eliminating the need for wiring to a power source and offering unparalleled maintenance convenience and installation flexibility.

The ZigBee Alliance membership comprises technology providers and manufacturers worldwide. Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org

Posted in ZigBee | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

One crucial aspect that sets advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) apart from automated meter reading (AMR) is two-way communications between the utility and residences. That level of communication is intended, in part, to help all consumers participate in energy management and efficiency programs. But how does that two-way communication reach beyond the electricity meter and into a consumer’s home?

Several standard technologies exist that consumers are familiar with in their home. Two that consumers are most familiar with over the last decade are Wi-Fi and broadband over cable. These technologies are well suited to carry huge amounts of audio and visual data, but are far more powerful and expensive than what is needed for utility communications at any individual residence – regardless of home size.

Another technology reaching consumers in their home and finding great acceptance in the energy industry is ZigBee® wireless networking. ZigBee is a global wireless language that connects different, often everyday devices to work together. It is built on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless networking standard, in much the same way that Wi-Fi is built on the IEEE 802.11 standard. The core benefit of ZigBee is that it is designed for situations that need to communicate small amounts of data while using less energy to transmit that data.

ZigBee supports energy management and efficiency mainly by connecting a utility to an in-home network typically comprised of ZigBee-enabled devices, including appliances, thermostats, water heaters, pool pumps, and more. This network of ZigBee devices is easy to connect and allows users to customize and monitor their energy consumption in an environment where devices communicate to each other and can connect to the outside world to enable remote access and control either by the utility, a third-party service provider or the customer.

As a global, open standard, ZigBee enables interoperability between numerous devices. Open standards like ZigBee provide everyone in a market a common point of reference to build upon. This way, utilities and consumers gain a competitive marketplace for products and services. Vendors like meter and thermostat manufacturers benefit, because open standards create a competitive semiconductor marketplace in which they can purchase wireless networking ZigBee chips, also known as ZigBee Compliant Platforms.

The ZigBee Alliance is a global ecosystem of technology companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy, home, commercial and industrial applications. ZigBee Alliance members work together to develop public application profiles for various applications to foster device interoperability, regardless of manufacturer. ZigBee certification and compliance tests ensure ZigBee solutions offer reliable and robust wireless networking.
Only ZigBee has multiple suppliers providing the core technology used in wireless solutions for home, commercial and industrial applications. Companies join the ZigBee alliance for access to the best intellectual property for their products. The ZigBee Alliance is five years old and has 250 member companies.

The Alliance and its members continue to deliver energy management and efficiency solutions. In November, the alliance released its ZigBee Home Automation public application profile. Completion of ZigBee Home Automation paved the way for a rapid completion of a planned profile for advanced metering and energy management. Last month, an array of vendors gathered in San Diego to test the interoperability of their devices running this new profile, to be known as the ZigBee Smart Energy profile.

Posted in Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), ZigBee, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

The ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile has been completed, offering utility companies a global open standard for implementing secure, easy-to-use wireless home area networks for managing energy.

ZigBee Smart Energy enables wireless communication and control between utility companies and common household devices such as smart thermostats and appliances. It improves energy efficiency by allowing consumers to choose interoperable products from different manufacturers, giving them the means to manage their energy consumption more precisely using automation and near real time information. It also helps utilities implement and support advanced metering, demand response, load control, pricing, and customer messaging programmes.

With the global energy crisis, many countries are facing energy supply and demand imbalances that will require alternative energy management and efficiency solutions like ZigBee Smart Energy. For example, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reported that electricity demand in the United States is expected to increase by 135,000 MW in the next decade yet only 77,000 MW of new resources have been identified, creating a shortfall of 58,000 MW – an amount equivalent to 110 large power plants. Energy management and efficiency solutions can bridge the gap. For example, the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently released the results of a year-long study showing that households with digital tools controlling temperature and price preferences saved on average 10 percent on utility bills. The study also showed that if households have digital tools to control temperature and price preferences, peak loads on utility grids can be cut by up to 15 percent.

A number of Alliance members are currently building products that will be certified by the Alliance to support ZigBee Smart Energy. These companies include: Cellnet+Hunt, Ember, Freescale Semiconductor, Itron, Tendril and Texas Instruments, who are ZigBee Alliance Promoter member companies and members of the Board of Directors which is responsible for setting the Alliance’s direction in the energy sector. Some of the other members building ZigBee Smart Energy products include: Alektrona, Computime, Comverge, Control4, Corporate Systems Engineering, Daintree Networks, Digi International, Elster, Energate, Frontline Test Equipment, Golden Power, Greenbox Technology, LS Research, PRI Limited, Radio Thermostat Company of America, Riga Development, Trilliant Networks and Wireless Glue Networks.

Posted in ZigBee, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Over the next ten years in the United States, the nation needs to build one large power plant every month in order to meet its projected energy needs.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reports that electricity demand in the United States is expected to increase by 135,000 MW in the next decade. And yet, only 77,000 MW of new resources have been identified, creating a shortfall of 58,000 MW – an amount equivalent to 110 large power plants. Clearly we all want to keep our iPods and big screen TVs running, not to mention our offices, factories, and hospitals.

Completing a major power plant every month for years on end is a daunting task. Communities can spend years debating where to locate a power plant and the necessary transmission lines to attach it to the grid. About half of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by burning coal; with large domestic reserves and the current infrastructure, coal is likely to remain the dominant fuel source for electricity. Natural gas contributes a sizable portion of power as well. Burning more coal and gas to supply the additional power that is needed will contribute to carbon dioxide emissions at a time when there is a desire to decrease those emissions, not increase them.

How will we make up this energy gap in the coming years given the constraints the energy market faces?

While it is not the only solution, energy management and efficiency can play a role in reducing energy consumption, thereby helping to close the supply and demand gap. While solar, wind and other alternative sources of energy generation get much attention, energy efficiency should also be considered as a source of energy. The Edison Electric Institute calls energy efficiency the “fifth fuel.” It represents an alternative to coal, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear fuel. Supporting this fact, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently released the results of a yearlong study showing that households with digital tools controlling temperature and price preferences saved on average 10 percent on utility bills. The study also showed that if households have digital tools to control temperature and price preferences, peak loads on utility grids can be cut by up to 15 percent, translating into $70 billion dollars saved over a 20-year period on new power plants and infrastructure expenditures.

To achieve this level of savings, energy efficiency and management must become much more ubiquitous. The technology to support ubiquitous energy efficiency and management needs to be affordable, easy to install and use, secure and able to scale into systems with millions of devices.

ZigBee® is one such technology. It is the leading wireless technology that can bring widely diverse devices into a single home area network for energy management. ZigBee is an open global standard based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless networking specification for low power consumption and medium range data bandwidth and transmission distances.

ZigBee makes communication possible between the devices inside the home and the utility from outside the home. That connection allows full two-way communication between utility operations and individual consumers. Through this communication, consumers can now learn more about their energy usage and how to reduce it. Feedback programs, such as Internet-based or in-home usage displays, have been found to reduce total consumption by an average of 11 percent. Two-way communication also allows the utility to automate energy efficiency for the customer according to whether customers have opted into energy management programs offered by the utilities and what parameters the consumers established for their own energy and comfort levels.

Two-third’s of the energy consumption in a typical U.S. household comes from lighting, heating, and cooling. Making these uses of energy more efficient can go a long way towards closing the energy supply and demand gap. A megawatt of energy gained through efficiency is much cleaner than a megawatt generated since the energy derived from efficiency is energy that does not have to be generated in the first place. Installing energy efficiency devices and programs that give consumers the tools to make intelligence energy use decisions will be exponentially faster than building major power plants. So just maybe we can have our energy and continue to enjoy our rising standard of living along with the latest electronic gadgets and not need to feel guilty.

Posted in ZigBee, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

British Gas has launched an energy management service aimed at its business customers that is believed to be unique in the market that will reduce their energy costs by at least 10 percent.

The service, Energy360, is being delivered through British Gas Business (BGB), which is marketing it as a new perspective on energy management and the first on the market to offer its customers a truly integrated energy service, from supply to solution and management.

Energy360 is aimed at businesses and has been designed to achieve three main objectives – cost savings, meeting legal and regulatory obligations, and delivering against corporate social responsibility requirements.

The service offers a range of solutions including smart metering, automatic monitoring and targeting (aM&T) of energy consumption data, the availability of building management systems, including energy efficient boilers, lighting and HVAC equipment  – through British Gas Business’s’ recent acquisition of Building Management System Integrators (BMSi) – and energy certificates.

“As the global energy crunch continues to bite, we are exploring new ways of helping customers reduce their energy consumption,” commented Badar Khan, Managing Director of British Gas Business. “Our new energy services include building control technologies, automated monitoring and targeting and smart metering which will help businesses track energy consumption and optimize the operation of energy intensive systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting.”

Clients of Energy360, through BMSi, include British airport company BAA and the high street pharmacy chain Boots.

Posted in Building Management System Integrators (BMSi), Automatic monitoring and targeting (aM&T), Integrated Metering System, Intelligent building, Integration | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

An innovative project involving the installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and renewable energy streetlights, as well as metering and data services, has been implemented in forty educational establishments across rural Northern Ireland.

Energy and advanced smart metering firm, PRI, is providing the metering and data services for this NIE Energy (NIEE) project, named “Switched on Schools”.

For several years NIEE has worked on an ad hoc basis with the five Northern Ireland Education and Library Boards in installing renewable energy systems at schools throughout the region. Supported with European funding, a program approach evolved for achieving a thriving, sustainable rural community in Northern Ireland via increased awareness of PV technology.

The award-winning Switched on Schools project made this possible, and has enabled schools to appreciate how valuable energy is as a resource and how energy bills and CO2 emissions can be reduced. Spreading the carbon footprint reduction message to families and friends, pupils gained an understanding about renewable energy and monitoring online their solar power system.

PRI supplied the energy data services for remote collection, analysis and billing from the Spring XP and GSM top hat meter in each school involved.

Company sales and marketing manager Geoff Chapman explains: “Our meter and energy data service solution records the amount of energy used in each school and provides historical data for trend analysis. Significantly, this information is relayed to a central point for monitoring and interpretation.”

Data is collected and monitored from the customer’s equipment. Received data is presented in a pre-determined format appropriate to customer needs.

Installation across the forty schools enabled them to claim money from the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) system for the renewable energy produced. The NIEE generation tariff offers rewards for electricity exported back to the grid and ROCs.

Posted in Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC), Photovoltaic (PV), Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO), Solar PV, Education | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Chris Hermann, Senior Vice President, Energy Delivery, LG&

Six months into Louisville Gas & Electric Company’s (LG&E) pilot program that uses smart meters, smart or demand response appliances, and a tiered-pricing program, results reveal participants are choosing money saving options.

The program tests the use of “smart” appliances to help offset energy costs when higher prices are implemented during peak usage times, generally from 3-8 p.m.

Pilot participants were a select group of GE employees living in the LG&E Louisville market. They were provided with a suite of GE smart appliances – or demand response appliances – to replace their standard appliances. In most cases, this included a refrigerator, range, microwave, dish washer and laundry pair. In addition, LG&E installed a programmable HVAC thermostat in the participants’ homes, as well as a smart utility meter.

The smart appliances receive a signal from the utility company’s smart meter which alerts the appliances, and the participants, when peak electrical usage and rates are in effect. In the pilot program, the signal word “eco” comes up on the display screen. The appliances are programmed to avoid energy usage during that time or to operate on a lower wattage; however, participants can choose to override the program.

“This pilot program gives us the opportunity to incorporate our customers’ feedback on how to manage the very critical issue of peak energy demand and supply,” said Chris Hermann, senior vice president, Energy Delivery at LG&E. “We believe we are learning a lot from this pilot about how to accomplish our objectives. This will result in managing our energy better and reducing the need to construct more power generation facilities – which is better for us, our customers and the environment.”

Some of the examples of savings are that the refrigerator delays the defrost cycle from occurring during peak hours and goes into energy saving mode, microwave ovens power down slightly by reducing wattage used when operated during peak hours, and the ”smart” dishwasher and laundry can delay starting the cycle to off peak times.

Notably interaction with the dishwasher and laundry appliances has been noted as the most challenging by the participants.

Posted in Intelligent building, Integration, Renewable tariffs, metering, Sustainability | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Bob Heile, Chairman, ZigBee Allianc

The ZigBee® Alliance and the European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG) are working together to define interoperable communications standards for smart metering technology across the European Union (EU).

The ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile is the first open standard to be endorsed by ESMIG.

The ZigBee Alliance and ESMIG will collaborate and identify where ZigBee Smart Energy can be rolled out across the 27 member states of the EU. The two organizations will evaluate ways to maximize the benefits of a standardized smart metering program for consumers, utility service providers and the environment.

“ESMIG believes that a handful of proven and open standards, like ZigBee Smart Energy, will play a key role in EU smart metering projects because they deliver the most value for all parties, and allow utility service providers with flexibility in choosing standards that fit their specific requirements,” said Howard Porter, managing director at ESMIG. “The ZigBee Alliance is both a valuable and experienced partner who can provide ESMIG with expertise and solutions for smart metering in Europe.”

There are an estimated 2,000 electric, water and gas utility service providers in the EU. Each has unique needs that will require standardized approaches to deliver the numerous efficiency, cost savings and environmental benefits expected from smart metering.

“ZigBee Smart Energy was designed to work in any country,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “It can play a strong role in helping Europe achieve its smart metering goals today.”

ZigBee Smart Energy enables wireless communication between utility companies and common household devices such as smart thermostats and appliances.

ESMIG is an alliance of companies supplying utility metering products or services within Europe and covers the entire value chain from meter manufacturing, software, installation, consulting, to communications and system integration.

Posted in European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG), ZigBee, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

A complete 2.4 GHz radio frequency (RF) system-on-chip solution supporting the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and an extensive set of applications, including ZigBee PRO networks, ZigBee RF4CE remote controls, smart energy, home and building automation, has been introduced by Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI).

The CC2530 provides up to 256 KB of Flash memory to enable development of multiple network protocols, which are supported with free, downloadable software and tools to ensure that customers have everything needed for complete system development.

“The CC2530 solution is specifically tailored for emerging low power RF applications that will enhance consumer’s day-to-day lives, such as RF remote controls and audio/visual consumer electronics, efficient smart energy networks, advanced home automation and personal wireless medical devices,” said Art George, senior vice president of TI’s High-Performance Analog business unit. “The combination of best-in-class IEEE 802.15.4 system-on-chip with an unmatched suite of software and tools provides unlimited possibilities for next generation low power wireless networking systems.”

Key features and benefits of the solution include a variety of free protocol software stacks that are supported by the CC2530 to enable cost optimized selection of network protocol based on system requirements. These include the Z-StackTM software for ZigBee-compliant applications (ZigBee PRO), the RemoTITM network protocol for ZigBee RF4CE remote control applications, and the SimpliciTITM network protocol for proprietary networking applications.

The device integrates a leading RF transceiver with an industry standard enhanced 8051 MCU, in-system programmable flash memory, 8 KB RAM and many other powerful features.

Compatible devices include TI’s CC2590 and CC2591 2.4 GHz analog front ends (range extenders) and MSP430 ultra-low power microcontroller.

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04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Independent U.K. purchaser and supplier of energy, SmartestEnergy Limited, has launched a specialist renewable power retail service that can supply renewable and good quality combined heat and power electricity to business or local authority customers at prices competitive with traditional forms of power.

SmartestEnergy claims that for the first time, U.K. business customers can specify the exact fuel mix of the electricity they use – up to 100 percent renewable supply if desired. In addition, customers will be able to identify and specify exactly which technology and which producer they would like to buy from. For example, a business or local authority could choose to buy from renewable energy projects in their area to show their direct support for locally produced energy.

Jo Butlin, vice president for retail at SmartestEnergy said: “It’s quite clear that business wants to improve its green credentials but until now has never had the option to buy ‘green electricity’ in the same way that domestic users can. We are offering a flexible solution, from source to supply, where customers can specify exactly how much renewable power they want and which sources they want it from.”

SmartestEnergy buys its power direct from independent producers using a wide range of renewable technologies including wind, biomass, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas. Each unit of power comes with numbered Climate Change Levy Exemption Certificates (LECs) attached to specific power plants, along with a Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO). These certificates prove the source of the electricity supplied and can be used by the business purchaser to highlight their green credentials to stakeholders.

SmartestEnergy has agreements with producers, covering more than 400 sites in the UK. Generators range from sub‐1 MW to 420 MW, enabling SmartestEnergy to deliver power from 1.2 GW of installed capacity, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the U.K.’s renewable output.

Posted in Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO), Climate Change Levy Exemption Certificate (LEC), Renewable tariffs, Renewable energy | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

AMI solution and utility dashboard released

SAP’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution, AMI Integration for Utilities software, and a packaged dashboard developed in cooperation with enterprise document presentment solution provider StreamServe that displays cost-to-serve modeling and related carbon emissions impact, are now generally available, the company has announced.

AMI Integration for Utilities links sales, service and billing processes within SAP’s Customer Relationship and Billing for Utilities package to the capabilities of AMI technology.

With the availability of AMI Integration for Utilities, SAP also announced significant progress in the business integration of smart meters in the core processes of utility companies. The solution enables the efficient acquisition of metering data through meter data unification and synchronization systems and the management of bi-directional communication processes between smart devices and SAP® Business Suite software.

The packaged dashboard provides utilities with the ability to monitor their costs to service their customers, modeling how to reduce these costs and the related environmental impact with reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

“The plan to revolutionize the nation’s electric grid will demand a serious commitment to upgrading the way utilities and consumers interact with one another,” said David Laker, senior vice president and general manager, Utilities Practice of SAP America, Inc. “These developments reflect our commitment to that goal as well as helping the nation’s utilities find ways to run leaner and more efficiently.”

“Based on established benchmarks, these solutions enable utilities and their customers to improve cost efficiencies and become far less reliant on the earth’s resources,” added Dennis Ladd, president and CEO of StreamServe.

Posted in Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

ADDAX Integrated Metering System (ADDAX IMS) is a modern automated system designed for remote metering and management of different resources consumption. The System can integrate meters designed for different resources, thereby, ADDAX IMS can perform metering of several kinds of resources simultaneously.

ADDAX IMS is implemented in a series of countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Total number of installed metering points is about 800 000.

Posted in Integrated Metering System, metering | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Perspectives and retrospectives are clichéd at this time of year, but there are real reasons to assess the state and direction of ZigBee in the coming year.  The reasons why 2009 will be a pivotal year for ZigBee and residential energy management.Looking Back A Year
To get a grasp on the potential of what might happen in 2009, we need to understand how much can change in 12 months. A year ago, at the end of 2007, the ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile did not officially exist.  Hence, no Smart Energy certified products existed.  In the United States, only two large utilities had announced contracts for large, next-generation advanced metering systems featuring ZigBee: Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. Outside the U.S., ZigBee had a toehold in a few other places such as Toronto, Canada and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Looking Around at Year’s End
A year later, the ZigBee Alliance now offers the ratified ZigBee Smart Energy profile.  Over twenty certified products interoperate with ZigBee Smart Energy. Those products represent the range of devices needed to manage home energy consumption: electricity meters, thermostats, in-home displays, gateways, load control switches, smart plugs.  To provide further standardization, the ZigBee Alliance and the HomePlug PowerLine Alliance are collaborating to create a Smart Energy profile that runs on both wireless and wired networks.

In the U.S., more large utilities have announced advanced metering plans that include ZigBee, including major utilities such as San Diego Gas & Electric, CenterPoint Energy, DTE Energy, and Reliant Energy. America has elected a new president and Congress, which promises positive changes in energy and climate policy. In particular, there is growing support for regulation to monetize greenhouse gas emissions, such as a cap-and-trade policy.  Regional efforts have already begun in this area. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in New England is the most developed, but other efforts like that of the Western Governor’s Association continue to develop.

Around the world, oil prices continue to ride a rollercoaster of barrel price swings. Global recession dominates the financial news. The concept of a Smart Grid dominates discussions of energy policy, climate change, and national infrastructure plans—and few debate whether home-area networks like those enabled by ZigBee are part of a smarter grid.

Looking Ahead To Next Year
In surveying progress over the preceding 12 months and the current situation, it seems clear that a fundamental change in energy infrastructure is underway, with enough momentum to weather the current economic turmoil. Without divulging specific utility or company plans that are currently in the works, it is safe to say that:

• additional companies are building home-area network devices for ZigBee Smart Energy certification, and hope to have those devices on the market next year
• additional utilities, both large and small, are developing or adopting plans for mass deploying of Smart Grid and advanced metering projects that include home-area networking supported by ZigBee
• more policies will be advanced in 2009 to address energy supply and security, climate change, and grid modernization, and those policies will provide support to the ZigBee Smart Energy market

By the end of 2009, a few million US homes will be equipped by their utilities to support home-area networks built around ZigBee networking. A good percentage of those will have smart thermostats or in-home displays wrapped up under their 2009 Christmas tree. That would be a good end to a productive 2009, and great start on 2010.

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04/06/2009 by David Slade.

A basic overview of HAN architecture for AMI

The push for more consumer involvement in smart grid initiatives is slowly becoming more evident as companies and utilities attempt to grasp the overall impact of government mandated deployments of the smart meter. Understanding what the consumer needs and wants is quickly rising in importance with the goals and objectives of the energy industry.

There are various views and opinions as to how the US federal and state mandate translates to practical solutions. Primary as a viable solution is the deployment of smart meter technology. But not all smart meters are the same, hence the need for a more encompassing option. The complicated field of metering with its canopy of applicable hardware and software results in making intelligent decisions a difficult and rocky road for AMI proponents. Some have focused instead on defining what a smart meter is or isn’t. The resulting business models may or may not be implementable as technology changes the landscape or costly if human behavior fails to adjust to and embrace the deployed solution.

One thing is certain, that a smart meter without interaction from the occupants would diminish the gain in energy use reduction and jeopardize the utilities’ attempts at conservation and global warming compliance.

If the solution isn’t found through meter deployments, then it stands to reason that involving the consumer via technology and education makes sound business and good social sense.

This brings us to the need for a home automation network (HAN) – either a simple system or a complex one. Many envision the HAN with the smart meter as the center or focal point for data gathering and exchanging. The smart meter is the gateway through which the rest of the world garners information about the occupant’s electricity consumption. Others would rather have an independent gateway within the premise that is more controlled by the occupants with privileges allocated to the utilities or an AMI service company. The meter then would be just another peripheral device in the network that links the local network with the outside utilities. The internal home gateway would restrict and determine what information is available to external sources. The former is more in line with what the utilities are implementing while the latter favors the telecom, cable, and IT industry approach, which focuses on broadband home networks and less on low power mesh.

Planning a HAN in an uncertain market that is constantly changing and evolving can be daunting to any individual or company considering AMI deployments. Most seek simple solutions that require very little capital or are constrained to limited HAN implementation. Deploying programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs) is one way of semi-automating the home environment for demand response. Using in-home displays that link the external meter to a remote handheld or tabletop unit is another. Whatever the technology used, these early approaches to consumer involvement demonstrate a growing awareness for HAN planning and consideration.

Critical to planning any future HAN system is the communications architecture being considered. The current emphasis on mesh radio technology and the availability of completely different mesh protocols (ZigBee, Z-Wave, OpenRF, and so on) within each of these radio systems creates both opportunity and potential disaster when considering HAN development and deployment. Other networked communications architectures include power line modems, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and RS485 – all which add layers of complexity to deploying HAN technology. Coupled to this melee of competing options is the dearth of home networked products that provide meaningful and practical demand response solutions.

Making the right choice of communications backbone may well be defined in the legacy system requirements, the data requirements, the environment in which the HAN is located and how the HAN is to be used by the occupants. Cost and ease of deployment/implementation along with the level of after sales support required are considerations that impact a successful planned launch.  Whatever choice is made, the decision to go with one or the other could also limit the availability of peripheral devices that can operate within that chosen communications architecture and by default the functions and features available to the consumer. So choosing wisely is paramount.

The correct solution to determining a HAN configuration is the “backwards” approach. Simply put, deciding what end result the network must accomplish and then determining which technology is best suited to do this. In most instances, a cost analysis report or a business case based on reliable information would suffice in evaluating the technology being considered. In other situations where the technology is not proven or the decision makers are not knowledgeable, a trial or test site may be necessary to familiarize everyone with the option.

As mentioned earlier, the market forces driving HAN development and deployment are directly related to the industry and its perspective of market need. Other drivers such as political and global issues also impact consumer anxiety and perception within the market. Hence developing a strategy for HAN architecture must take into consideration those drivers.

A typical HAN may consist of the following basic functional components:

1. Node controller/gateway/central controller. A node controller is common within mesh networks for maintaining the communications link and exchanges necessary within the protocol. It may or may not be the gateway. The gateway, on the other hand, is the portal through which multiple conflicting protocols link and talk seamlessly. A central controller can be all three plus a data manger/data logger. It manages the network from a user perspective (such as a home computer or a home media server which can act as the controller).
2. Peripheral devices. The fingers and hands of the HAN are seen in the sensor devices that gather information or provide levels of control. Such devices, such as a PCT, provide a measure of remote command and control to the premise HVAC system. Internal to these devices is the communications backbone which links the devices to the central element of the network.
3. Software. There are myriad functions that must be accomplished for a HAN to successfully fulfill its intended design. For example, the mesh protocol software manages the mesh network communications within a low power radio configuration. At the gateway, the different protocols must be translated correctly and the data sent to the correct recipient. Throughout the network, some form of security must be employed – whether through software encryption or access denial methodologies. There is a large amount of embedded code within the peripherals that program the tasks associated with those devices. These command and control codes must be incorporated into a central controller which provides remote interaction with the sensing devices.

External to the HAN is the smart meter which may be the gateway to the utility. The smart meter may also just be a peripheral if the HAN has its own dedicated gateway. A smart meter that is very basic or uses wired access may need a HAN that incorporates a gateway. Shifting the gateway away from the meter may be a better cost solution or a strategic decision based on any number of factors. When deciding on the HAN to meter interfacing, these type decisions need to be considered.

A basic HAN (wired and/or wireless)

Posted in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Node controller, gateway, OpenRF, Z-Wave, Integration, Home automation network (HAN), ZigBee, IIT | Print | No Comments »

04/06/2009 by David Slade.

Consumer confidence in the UK reached its highest level for six months in May, according to Nationwide’s Consumer Confidence Index.

The index jumped two points to reach 53 in May, the highest reading since November last year and follows an eight-point increase the month before. However, only 6% of respondents said they thought the economy was in good shape, compared to 77% that did not.

“While some reports suggest tentative signs of a slowing in the pace of economic decline, it is important to remember that a number of sectors are continuing to contract and any recovery is likely to be sluggish,” said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist.

“What is clear from our findings is that while consumers remain pessimistic about the present situation, they appear to be much more confident about the future than they were at the beginning of the year.”

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04/06/2009 by David Slade.

UK house prices increased by an average of 2.6% in May compared to April, according to the latest survey from the Halifax.

This rise follows three successive months of falling property prices and means that the annual rate of decline has now eased to 16.3% from 17.7% in April.

“There are some tentative indications of a possible stabilisation in activity, albeit at a low level,” said Nitesh Patel, Halifax’s housing economist.

Posted in Housing | Print | No Comments »