Smart Grid Blog

Energate (www.energateinc.com) a leading provider of demand response and home energy management solutions for utilities and their consumers, today announced successful in-home results of an FM-RDS (Radio Data System) based utility residential load control solution. Energate confirmed a development partnership with e-Radio, Inc, a provider of wireless communications networks and manufacturer of FM/RDS-based receiver modules that Continue reading →

Can the consumer-friendly brand of GE put a face on the smart grid? The industrial giant on Tuesday introduced two products–a home energy management system and electric vehicle charger–which are some of the most tangible aspects of what GE CEO Jeff Immelt on Tuesday called digital energy. The products were announced in tandem with a Continue reading →

Just three weeks after partnering with Cisco Systems to fast-track development of a state-of-the-art electric smart grid, Duke Energy has signed a new agreement with Cisco to pilot and further develop a smart grid-enabled home energy management solution. The goal is to provide Duke Energy customers with secure and reliable energy information and a simple-to-use Continue reading →

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) have signed an agreement to pilot and further develop a smart grid-enabled home energy management solution to provide Duke Energy customers with home energy use information. The announcement corresponds with the unveiling this week of Cisco’s Home Energy Management Solution, which features a proprietary Home Energy Controller Continue reading →

Networking company Cisco got into the home energy management sector this week as it unveiled a new in-home energy management device along with connected services that, when used in conjunction with utilities, “help consumers securely and reliably gain insight into, and easier control over, their energy use.” It also wasted no time in immediately finding Continue reading →

Cisco Systems on Tuesday introduced a home energy management system, which it will test with customers of utility Duke Energy and which it plans to offer to other utilities. The two companies said that Cisco will supply a home energy “controller,” a countertop touch-screen display that allows people to monitor electricity usage and to program Continue reading →

PassivSystems has today launched PassivEnergy, a unique home energy management system that can reduce household energy use by up to 18 per cent, a saving of £214.92 on the average household energy bill of £1,194. PassivEnergy optimises a home’s energy use, learning when it needs to use energy and when it needs to save it. Continue reading →

Intel will show off an experimental device this week in China that could someday substantially cut the costs of wiring homes and offices for energy efficiency, one more step in the company's foray into energy. The device is a server/sensor that monitors the power consumption of the various appliances in a home or small commercial Continue reading →

The smart grid community saw a major meeting of the minds today: the ZigBee Alliance and Wi-Fi Alliance have teamed up to develop applications for home energy management and networking. Both ZigBee and Wi-Fi are wireless protocols that allow electronic devices, smart meters and utilities to wirelessly send data back and forth. This is the Continue reading →

DistribuTECH, the once-sleepy power grid trade show, has been transformed into a high-profile smart grid showcase over the past couple of years — and this year’s show in Tampa, Fla. is no exception. Only two days into the event and we’ve got a host of announcements detailing new partnerships between IT giants and home energy Continue reading →

A lot of the interest in the smart grid industry tends to swirl around consumers and home energy management. It can be fun to picture consumers one day buying gadgets at big box retailers that will let them micromanage their home heating, cooling and lighting, and it's an especially attractive venture option for investors and Continue reading →

While a lot of the attention has been focused on gadgets, software and services that will convince the consumer to engage with home energy management, an untapped area for opportunity for startups and incumbent players alike will be utility applications. That was one of the themes that came out of our Smart Grid Bunker Session Continue reading →

While digital home energy management tools aren’t dominating the headlines from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, a few consumer electronics makers, utilities and software designers have launched some interesting products at the show. My biggest takeaway after looking over the releases and talking to some of the firms: Consumer gadget makers are folding Continue reading →

GE will partner with the Chinese city of Yangzhou to build a smart grid demonstration center, the company announced Friday. GE says the initial demonstration phase — which will include wireless-enabled smart meters, home energy management systems and smart appliances set up in a 100,000-square-foot lab — is designed to showcase how GE technologies can Continue reading →

Xcel Energy and GridPoint, Inc., announced that 1.4 million residential Colorado utility customers now have access to the My Account site on www.xcelenergy.com using GridPoint’s recently released home energy management solution. The new portal allows customers to design and personalize both their electric and natural gas energy usage strategies based on their historical energy use. Continue reading →

OpenPeak Inc., a leading provider of VoIP multimedia touch-screen device and telephony systems, announced today that its OpenFrame® 7E VoIP multimedia home energy management and communications platform has achieved ZigBee Smart Energy Certification by the ZigBee® Alliance. via OpenFrame 7E MultiMedia Home Energy Management Device Achieves ZigBee Alliance Smart Energy Certification.

While 2009 was the year that startups, smart grid firms and venture capitalists decided to move into the home energy management market, 2010 could be the year that the consumer electronics players make their moves. Energy reseller Direct Energy and a group of gadget heavyweights, including appliance maker Whirlpool, retail group Best Buy, and gadget Continue reading →

Amid historic volatility in energy prices and heightened concern about energy security and climate change, energy management and energy efficiency are hot topics. Tens of millions of smart electric meters are slated for deployment in the next few years. And billions of dollars of funds from the U.S. government are flowing to support smart grid Continue reading →

Every smart grid company, IT firm and software startup seems to have the desire to build a home energy management tool these days. But one we’ve been waiting to see for awhile has just launched: Smart grid player GridPoint says that its home energy management tool, which partly uses software from the company Lixar it Continue reading →

Microsoft Hohm , the software giant’s new home energy management system, is now available for the 3.4 million households served by utility Xcel Energy . This is the second time the tool, which makes energy use and pricing data available via a web interface , has been tested with a mass audience. via Microsoft Hohm Continue reading →