The town of Wigton has completed the first stage of an initiative to become a smart energy community. Located in Cumbria, Wigton was previously part of a pilot deploying rural broadband and has partnered with Silver Spring Networks to demonstrate how communities can become energy independent. via English Town Seeks Energy Independence.
Kawasaki Microelectronics has become the first to support the IEEE 1901 coexistence protocols that the HD-PLC Alliance recently published. The alliance announced that its broadband power line communication technology, called HD-PLC IEEE 1901, was approved for inclusion in the United States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Catalog of Continue reading →
Parks Associates, host of Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, today announced new research showing consumer interest in connected home controls and security devices is strong, with 56% of U.S. broadband households willing to buy door/window sensors, 53% for door locks, 49% for outdoor cameras, and 44% for lighting controls. via New Parks Associates Consumer Continue reading →
Infrastructure provides an underlying foundation for connectivity, whether you’re talking about electricity, water, highways, or communications. So it follows that lessons learned and resources used in one area of infrastructure development should be applicable in others. RST Global Communications, a small, independent telecommunications company, is putting that idea into practice. The RST story starts in Continue reading →
International research firm Parks Associates today announced the dates and topics for the fourth-annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. The executive conference, hosted February 25-27, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas, with support from early sponsors EcoFactor, Hitachi, and Qualcomm, examines the convergence of energy, security, and home controls as multiple channels are now competing Continue reading →
Accelerating the development of the “smart grid” will have dramatic positive implications for energy usage, efficiency and costs. One of the many benefits that the smart grid offers utilities is the ability to communicate with homes and commercial buildings in order to manage the balance between electricity generation and load during peak usage times. For Continue reading →
The FCC, state utility commissions, rural customers and others have bemoaned the slow pace of rural broadband build-out and adoption. Some studies suggest that barely 50% of rural households in the U.S. currently utilize a broadband connection. Broadband adoption is an issue, but clearly the unavailability of fast and reliable broadband networks is a major Continue reading →
We speak to Alexander Pippert, Head of Innovation, Center Smart Home at German energy provider E.ON, about the work his team is engaged in with broadband operators to provide Smart Home services to its customers, and the benefits he expects these initiatives to deliver. via IPTV news – E.ON: “This year we will test our Continue reading →
Digi International has introduced the ConnectPort X2e, an enhanced version of the company’s ZigBee smart energy gateway. The gateway connects ZigBee smart energy devices from a home area network (HAN) to an energy service provider via broadband. ConnectPort X2e offers additional memory and processing power for over-the-air updates of connected smart energy devices and provides Continue reading →
The stark differences in how electric utilities and broadband providers are regulated at the state level could slow the development of smart grid technologies, several panelists at BroadbandCensus.org’s Broadband Breakfast Club said Nov. 15. via States Need Nudging to Create Incentives For Utility Smart-Grid Investment, Experts … | BNA.
When the Federal Communications Commission identified six concrete goals in the national broadband plan, the one specific application highlighted by the agency was energy consumption: “To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.” via BroadbandBreakfast.com: Will Consumer-Friendly Continue reading →
IEEE announced this week the ratification of the IEEE 1901 Broadband over Powerline standard, which allows for data rates of 500 Mbps in local area networks such as the home, where it could be one of the systems of choice for delivering information about energy usage back to energy providers and to residents in real Continue reading →
Will the smart grid be the savior of the wireless standard WiMAX? When it comes to the next-generation of wireless broadband known as 4G, WiMAX has generally been taking a back seat to the more telco-friendly LTE (or long term evolution). But in an interview with Mark Madden, Vice President of Energy Markets for Americas Continue reading →
The New Mexico counties of Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, northern Santa Fe and five American Indian communities will receive $10.6 million in stimulus grants to improve high-speed Internet infrastructure, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. …The project also will promote energy efficiency by enabling smart grid applications for regional rural Continue reading →
America's first wireless Smart Grid network has been deployed in Plumas-Sierra county, California, using TV White Space spectrum as a means to deliver connectivity. Using Google’s PowerMeter technology, service provider Spectrum Bridge has joined forces with Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative and Telecommunications (PSREC) to test the new network’s capabilities in delivering real-time broadband connectivity and Continue reading →
Stratford wants to build a smarter community — don’t worry you won’t have to go back to school. Festival Hydro unveiled a new company called Rhyzome Networks Friday, the final day of the Ontario Small Urban Municipalities conference here. Rhyzome is a fibre-optics branch of Festival Hydro. It doesn’t create content on the Internet but Continue reading →
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called the grant “a two-part victory for the Northeast Kingdom – improved electricity reliability and an enhanced broadband backbone that will expand the smart grid and broadband access.” Commenting on the grant, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., “During the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, there is no better Continue reading →
There are two sets of standards for powerline communications – one for household wiring, the other for powerline communications – and the advocates for each are finally going to try to cooperate, with the Smart Grid program as a catalyst and the IEEE as a mediator. The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) said it is facilitating Continue reading →
Glendale Water & Power (GWP) and Tropos Networks announced today that Tropos’ GridCom architecture has been selected as a core element of GWP’s Smart Grid Initiative. GridCom™ is based upon Tropos’ wireless broadband mesh network system and will be used as the utility’s private distribution area network to deliver high-speed communications between the utility, utility Continue reading →
After more recent and serious delving into the merits of The National Broadband Plan, with the usual effects of a clearer understanding; a more interesting and omnipresent realization begins to emerge. How can we not see, and surely embrace, the positive effects such a plan could have on an energy consuming U.S. thereby creating an Continue reading →
