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.

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 »