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 →
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The study, “WTRS Wireless Sensor Network Technology Trends, Q3 2011″, analyzes competitive activities by prominent industry alliances and market penetration of associated wireless sensor network protocols. “The opportunity for wireless sensor networks in smart meters is far from settled,” according to Kirsten West, principal analyst with WTRS. “While there are a fair number of wireless Continue reading →
Verizon (News – Alert) Wireless and Consert Inc., an intelligent energy load management company, have helped members of two Texas utilities—Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and Pedernales Electric Cooperative—to save as much as 17 percent on their power bills, according to early results of a pilot test. The two cooperatives, in partnership with the Lower Colorado River Authority, Continue reading →
Startup iControl, which specializes in home automation and energy management tools, has raised $50 million from Intel Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Comcast Ventures, Rogers Communication and others to bring the total raised to date to over $100 million. The question now is how and when consumers get excited about it. via IControl Raises $50 Million More Continue reading →
With DOE grant money in hand, the Pecan Street Project, based in Austin, TX, is aiming to spur the evolution of grid-connected home energy management with a project it calls the Energy Internet Demonstration. Housed at the University of Texas, the project team is allocating half a million dollars to run up to five home Continue reading →
Landis+Gyr announced it was chosen by the Northwest Lineman College to help develop a smart grid training center at the college’s Oroville, Calif. campus. The training center will be used to support courses in smart meter certification, advanced metering infrastructure and home area networking. via Landis Gyr to design smart grid training center – POWERGRID Continue reading →
In today’s brave new ‘Smart Grid’ world, utilities are faced with a litany of new technological, social and operational challenges. This is especially true of the rapidly growing and governmentally promoted consumer participation in the smart grid. Managing operational and regulatory requirements, plus consumer expectations for ubiquitous home area networks (HAN), energy Web portals, and demand Continue reading →
Virtually all smart meters being installed in the US come with a second built-in radio — the Home Area Network interface — that can send information to one or more devices in the home. This is separate from the other radio in the meter that sends data back to the utility. But in most places, Continue reading →
ON (News – Alert) World Inc, provider of world class business intelligence on smart technology markets recently published a report on the emerging Smart Energy Home market that also covers ZigBee, Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN). According to ON World a global market research firm, millions of neighborhoods and homes worldwide will be using Wireless Sensor Network Continue reading →
Not to be a vampire and suck the blood out of someone else’s discussion, but heck, it is Halloween this coming weekend. An overheard conversation is valuable if it articulates a subject better than a single writer can articulate it. A relative newcomer to the LinkedIn executive forum on smart grid posed a question a Continue reading →
This document explains the technical and organizational features of Bluetooth wireless technology and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group with specific reference to its application in Smart Metering and Home Area Networks. via Bluetooth Technology Overview For Smart Meters and Home Area Networks.
Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) says it is deploying the Gridstream platform from Landis+Gyr as a core component of its advanced metering and grid automation rollout. The companies say the project includes substation and distribution-network upgrades, as well as the installation of home area networks, in-home displays and programmable thermostats at customers’ residences. via Continue reading →
If you want people to alter their energy use, start with what they know. That’s the motto of green living product maker ecobee, which has recently added an energy management system to its award-winning smart thermostat. Every company in the home area network space is compelled to develop an energy management portal and iPhone app Continue reading →
Despite all of the rhetoric around, and government support for, a U.S. standards-based smart grid, proprietary communications technology will reign supreme for years to come, according to a report out from Pike Research. Pike found that for the portion of the network that will connect a home’s smart meter to the neighborhood network (in jargon Continue reading →
Trilliant Incorporated, a leader in delivering Smart Grid solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations, and renewable resource integration, today announced that is has joined the U-SNAP Alliance, an open industry association dedicated to creating a low-cost, protocol-agnostic, and interoperable communications standard for connecting home appliances, thermostats, and controls to Smart Grid networks. Trilliant has Continue reading →
You would think that any startup that pulls in funding from the likes of industry heavy weights Verizon, Qualcomm and GE, would have a long track record. But smart grid startup Consert just jumped onto my radar with its announcement this morning that it’s raised $17.7 million from GE Energy Financial Services, Verizon Ventures, Qualcomm Continue reading →
There are many different technologies that continue to evolve with the goal of creating smart grids. The development and deployment of Home Area Networks (HAN) is one such technology that has commanded a great deal of attention. When one starts to examine the offerings in the HAN world, it becomes very apparent that this part Continue reading →
The USNAP Alliance, an industry consortium of major stakeholders and utilities in the smart grid, today announced the draft release of its 2.0 Specification for public comment. The goal of the USNAP 2.0 Specification is to facilitate connectivity between smart grid devices and universal communication modules installed in a home area network. The 2.0 Specification Continue reading →
Now that U.S. utilities have taken federal stimulus funds and seamlessly built out two-way advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) connecting utility control centers and end users (OK, not completely, but let’s assume that the “stall-ulus” becomes a true stimulus in the near future), the question becomes, what’s next? At the moment, this new “comm layer” or Continue reading →
Accent, a world leader in semiconductor integration of communications and metering technologies, launches ASMgridTM, the industry first Clean Tech System-on-Chip (SoC) platform. ASMgrid incorporates unprecedented wireless and communications technology breadth for single chip solutions. Dedicated to energy savings and optimization, the platform enables a new class of performance for emerging Smart Meter and Home Area Continue reading →
