Utility Companies, ZigBee, HomePlug Team to Develop Wired HAN Standard
September 11, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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Utility companies American Electric Power, Consumers Energy, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Co., Reliant Energy, Sempra and Southern California Edison are working with the ZigBee Alliance and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance to develop a common application layer integrated solution for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and home area networks (HAN).
Using the ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile as a baseline, the three groups will expand the application layer and enable it to run on HomePlug technology, providing utilities with both wireless and wired HAN industry standards to select from when implementing new AMI programs, according to the ZigBee Alliance.
Energy management programs that encourage load shifting and energy conservation can allow customers to save money and reduce their environmental impact, claims the ZigBee Alliance.
Creating a unified solution using wireless and wired standards will expand the development and certification of devices such as thermostats, pool pumps, water heaters and other high energy use devices ideally suited for connection to a HAN.
In May 2008, the ZigBee Alliance certified a number of interoperable ZigBee Smart Energy products from a dozen companies.
"This initiative will provide seamless application integration using ZigBee or HomePlug devices, providing the flexibility utilities need when implementing AMI and smart metering programs," said Paul De Martini, vice president at Southern California Edison. "Mainstream market adoption of a common technology accelerates our ability to empower our customers to manage their energy usage."
"The integration of a common application layer across these technologies will allow a common certification process which is critical for plug-and-play interoperability," said Chris Knudsen, director of PG&E's technology innovation center. "Without such integration it will not be possible to scale energy efficiency applications and services."
Providing connectivity between utilities and consumers is an ongoing initiative for the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, which is an industry-led initiative established to create specifications and certification logo programs for home high-speed powerline networking products and command and control among platforms within the home and broadband access services to the home.
Source: ZigBee Alliance.