Smart Grid Blog

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 also made available a free white paper that discusses how U-SNAP facilitates a new home area network (HAN) architecture, which is available for download at Trilliant website.

via Trilliant Joins U-SNAP Alliance to Promote Standards for Residential Smart Grid Applications.

Toward the end of 2009, SIP Forum (News – Alert) started a task force dedicated to evaluating the application of the Session Initiation Protocol in the Smart Grid ecosystem. The origins of this group were previously covered in an article I wrote for this portal here. Six months later, the group has over 100 members across a wide spectrum of companies (Utilities, Service Providers, OEMs, ISVs etc.) and has produced several key approach notes and white papers that further outline the relevance of the role SIP can play in the Smart Grid ecosystem.

via SIP Forum’s Smart Grid Group: Why SIP Is the Best Protocol and Architecture for Demand and Response.

Through the 3rd Energy Package the European Union (EU) has mandated the rollout of “smart meters” by member states. All member states need to undertake feasibility studies although most of the larger ones are on track to have some form of smart metering system in place for most of the residential sector by 2020.

To support this rollout in early 2009 the European Commission (EC) gave a mandate to CEN/CENELEC/ETSI to develop a standard for smart meters, covering the meter and the underlying infrastructure. The 7th Framework Program project (Open Meter) is undertaking the actual standardization work.

via www.metering.com | Smart meters – a European viewpoint.

G.hn, the catch all no-new-wires home networking standard that can accommodate copper wire, coax, and powerlines, reached a big milestone as the ITU gave their final approval of the standard.

via G.hn standard gets ITU-T’s blessing – FierceTelecom.

The marketplace for Smart Grid technology products is expanding thanks in part to an open-source communications specification developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and its research partners.

The OpenADR communications specification provides a common “language” for developers of technology for the Smart Grid. OpenADR allows building control systems to respond automatically to Internet-based signals that provide electricity grid prices and reliability messages.

via OpenADR’s Steps Toward a National Smart Grid Standard.

Powerline smart grid proponents go head-to-head at the Connectivity Week shooting off competing announcements aimed at the emerging market for smart electric grids. Adversaries were quick to admit the market potential is huge, but the there is still no end in sight to years of fragmentation in their technical approaches.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced its GreenPHY specification for low-power smart grid applications and said STMicroelectronics has joined the group. The competing HomeGrid Forum said the ITU G.hn specification it backs could be ratified within weeks and it formed a new working group to create design guidelines to develop clean technology products using it.

via Powerline smart grid proponents compete at Connectivity Week-Network Design-EE Times-India.

The HomePlug® Powerline Alliance congratulates the IEEE P1901 Working Group on passage of the initial sponsor ballot, paving the way for a global standard for powerline (PLC) networking. The ballot passed with over 80 percent of affirmative votes, which demonstrates the overwhelming industry support behind 1901. Final ratification of the standard is expected in the third quarter of 2010. The advancement of powerline technology to an internationally recognized IEEE standard will provide manufacturers and end-users with the assurance of product interoperability, driving broader adoption of PLC for home networking.

via HomePlug Powerline Technology Joins the Global Family of IEEE Standards | Business Wire.

The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer electronics applications, today announced the ZigBee Smart Energy version 2.0 Technical Requirements Document (TRD) is available for public comment by the Smart Grid community at large, opening it beyond those who have been active in its creation. The Alliance makes this unprecedented move for an organization engaged in standards development because it recognizes the important role ZigBee Smart Energy plays in the Smart Grid and the need to expedite the broadest consensus possible on its capabilities.

via ZigBee Smart Energy Version 2.0 Technical Requirements Available for Public Comment — SAN RAMON, Calif., April 7 /PRNewswire/ –.

Who knew that beaming data back and forth between utilities and smart meters could be so controversial? Wireless communications is quickly becoming the hot button issue in the Smart Grid industry, with companies split into three camps, one advocating the use of public networks (SmartSynch), another pushing proprietary networks (Silver Spring Networks, Trilliant), and the third rallying for WiMAX (Grid Net and now Cisco Systems).

via SmartSynch spearheads coalition to pry open Smart Grid communications | VentureBeat.

IEEE says its draft standard addressing electric-sourced transportation infrastructure, IEEE P1809, is being redesignated as IEEE P2030.1 and will join the organization’s IEEE P2030 smart grid family of standards.

via Renew Grid: Content / FYI / IEEE Redesignates Standard To Reflect Connection With Smart Grid.

When it comes to smart grid deployments the need for “open” architecture using Internet Protocol has become resounding (IP is one of our Winners of 2009 on GigaOM Pro). Hey, even the phone companies — who have long built closed, proprietary networks — want to offer something in the ballpark of an open network. This morning Verizon Wireless announced that it is partnering with Ambient Corporation to offer customers an “Open Smart Grid Communications Architecture,” which they bill as “an open communications network” for utilities’ smart grid programs.

via Verizon Wireless: We’ve Got An Open IP Smart Grid Network, Too.

The dream of home connectivity, for functions such as home automation and smart grids, but without risking aerial hacking and dead spots and without costly and time-consuming drilling additional holes and fishing more wires is becoming closer to reality.

via Smart Grid.

At this week's CES show in Las Vegas, powerline communications (PLC) networking advocates got a nice win as the IEEE announced that it has released the P1901 Draft Standard for powerline communications.

via CES 2010: IEEE releases powerline communications draft standard – FierceTelecom.

HomeGrid Forum, a global, non-profit trade group promoting the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union’s, or “ITU-T,” G.hn networking standard, announced that the ITU-T G.hn workgroup has agreed upon a number of key specifications for smart for G.hn Smart Grid products.

via Smart Grid.

Auto makers hope to ratify in January the first draft of a standard that will link electric vehicles to the smart grid. Over the next year, the group aims to define a suite of five standards including ones describing ways to link electric cars to home networks.

“All the car makers are in our group and similar efforts at the ISO and IEC,” said Rich Scholer, chairman of the J2293 task force at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) that is developing the standards.

via Car makers prep standard for smart grid | Power Management DesignLine.

Verizon Business has added security consulting to its portfolio of security services to help utilities working with Smart Grid technologies meet infrastructure protection standards.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has developed critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards for the country’s bulk power system. Verizon’s new suite of professional consulting services is designed to provide utilities with compliance and readiness assessments to help them meet the 2010 NERC CIP requirement to be Auditably Compliant, which is the highest level of compliance. Utilities at that level will be subject to spot checks and audits.

via Smart Grid: Verizon Business Targets Smart Grid Security Consulting.

BRIDGE Energy Group, a utility systems development and integration consulting practice, will present a new Smart Grid Reference Architecture (SGRA) at the Enhancing Interoperability session at Grid-Interop on Thursday, November 19. “Rather than use a proprietary framework that might limit future innovations,” says Tony Giroti, Chairman and Managing Director, “we are inviting our industry colleagues to collaborate with us to refine an open standard and to develop a solutions architecture that ensures interoperability.”

via BRIDGE Energy Group to Unveil Smart Grid Reference Architecture and Roadmap.

In conjunction with an address by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to GridWeek today, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has announced the completion of SG-AMI 1-2009 Requirements for Smart Meter Upgradeability, the first official original Smart Grid standard.

SG-AMI 1-2009 was developed by a team of meter manufacturers and electric utilities to provide guidance to utilities, state commissions, and others that want to deploy advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) prior to completion of the standards work identified in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap.

According to NEMA President and CEO Evan R. Gaddis, this standard is particularly noteworthy for two reasons.

via NEMA announces completion of first official Smart Grid standard – WaterWorld.

Kamstrup’s new line of smart meters gives consumers a potent tool for monitoring and managing energy consumption within the home. Marketed under the slogan “The Green Difference,” Kamstrup’s meters are built upon Z-Wave technology, a standard recognised around the world.

The Z-Wave standard guarantees easy integration with intelligent home networks. Once installed, consumers are able to monitor their energy usage any time they wish. Kamstrup designed their smart meters to be very user friendly and secure. Consumers can easily check their current and historical energy usage through an in-home display unit or over the Internet. Signals describing the energy load of the power grid can be sent to customers as well.

The modular design of Kamstrup’s smart meters makes it easy for utilities everywhere to offer their customers the chance to install intelligent controls within their homes.

via Kamstrup smart meters feature Z-Wave technology.

You probably know Wi-Fi well. It connects your laptop to local area networks and from there to the Internet. It probably lives on your smart phone and in your game console if you admit to having one. Wi-Fi supports short-range connections up to a few hundred feet depending on the amount of interference from walls and ceilings. Wi-Fi is based on IEEE 802.11 standards. It offers broadband speeds, from 10 to 100 megabits per second. It is a mature technology that is already embedded in many devices. The Wi-Fi Alliance is the industry association charged with development, certification, and promotion.

Wi-Fi has a lot going for it, but is still searching for a clear role in the smart grid. It is too expensive and power-hungry for many types of meters, sensors, and switches but it lacks the range to serve as a general-purpose backhaul network (with the exception high-density urban areas). Wi-Fi falls short of ZigBee inside the home and it falls short of WiMAX across the neighborhood. Different companies are working on solving both of these problems.

SkyPilot, makes a turbo-charged version of Wi-Fi that promises a range of up to 10 miles. That might remind you of WiMAX. Indeed, SkyPilot takes standard Wi-Fi chips and makes them look like WiMAX in terms of range and capacity. This development potentially puts Wi-Fi into the meter aggregation, backhaul part of the network. If Wi-Fi proves reliable in this role, it could be less expensive than cellular or WiMAX.

Trilliant supplies radio communications cards that go into meters and software for utilities to run these networks. Trilliant recently purchased SkyPilot. Trilliant said the acquisition complements its short-range technology (based on Zigbee) to link meter collection points.

Tropos places 1-2 Wi-Fi routers per square mile (less dense than a municipal Wi-Fi network). The Wi-Fi devices sit between the meter and the utility operations center. Tropos’ equipment works with smart-meters from Itron, Elster and Echelon.

Cisco has been building municipal Wi-Fi networks since 2005 and plans to incorporate energy management features into Wi-Fi access points and other devices. They will certainly look at outdoor Wi-Fi networks as an adjacent market opportunity.

via Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog: Smart grid and Wi-Fi.