Smart Grid Blog

When the housing market picks up again, all signs point toward a home-buying public that will be more techno-savvy than ever before. Today’s technology solutions pervade every aspect of consumers’ lives—from the cars they drive and the phones they use, to the houses they want to come home to. The past has shown technology grows exponentially, rather than vertically, so what can residential builders do to meet the demands of buyers now and in the future?

By offering the latest in IP-connected technologies and wireless HANs (home area networks), builders have a leg to stand on when they promise customers long-term value. Utility meters, thermostats, appliances, and electric vehicles are just a few examples of up-and-coming smart devices that will require a HAN to connect to the smart grid. As the number of ways to connect a home grows, builders that can offer “future proofing” options to buyers worried about becoming obsolete will be better off.

via Constructech magazine | Get Smart About HANs.

Would you let your electric company take control of your air-conditioner if it saved you money?

Arizona Public Service Co. will try to answer that question with a test project that will put customers’ thermostats into the utility’s hands.

The plan is one of several energy-saving strategies APS and other utilities are rolling out across the country to reduce peak energy demand, when utilities have to fire up extra power plants to supply electricity to customers.

via APS wants to control customer thermostats.

Tendril and Landis+Gyr have announced a licensing agreement that allows joint marketing of Tendril’s portfolio of residential energy management products to utilities using Landis+Gyr’s advanced metering systems.

Tendril’s hardware and software solutions for residential energy management are already in use by multiple Landis+Gyr advanced metering customers. This agreement will promote further development of smart grid solutions, such as in-home energy monitors, thermostats and software – specifically for Landis+Gyr utility customers. This agreement is designed to deepen the integration between the complementary solutions, and provide a broadened AMI system offering for efficient energy management and Demand Response.

via Tendril and Landis+Gyr Announce Partnership to Enhance Home Area Network Options for Utilities and Consumers | Business Wire.

The ConnectPort X2 for Smart Energy gateway that connects ZigBee Smart Energy devices from a home area network (HAN) to an energy service provider via broadband has been introduced by Digi International.

It is the industry’s first gateway that connects, controls, or gathers data from ZigBee Smart Energy devices equally well before or with smart meter deployments. When a smart meter is present the gateway can make meter information immediately available to any energy management application. As part of iDigi Energy,  energy service providers can use the ConnectPort X2 for Smart Energy and iDigi platform to easily integrate thermostats, smart meters, in-home displays, load controllers and other ZigBee Smart Energy devices into complete energy management systems.

via www.metering.com | ZigBee Smart Energy gateway introduced.

Driven by government regulations and investments—and even customers—utilities’ smart grid and meter discussions are evolving from long-term aspirations to necessities as many take steps to implement more advanced metering systems. Technologies today are more affordable and, if implemented correctly, enable capabilities far beyond automated meter reading to improve utility workers’ decision-making and give customers more choices.

via Meter Data Management, Advanced Pricing Programs – Utility Automation/Electric Light & Power.

Some day, all our homes and office buildings will turn off the lights when we’re not around, make sure the coffee pot’s off, adjust our thermostats for maximum comfort and energy savings, and generally be the responsible energy users we have failed to be. It’s the promise of the smart grid.

In order to do that, we’re going to need a whole lot of wireless sensors that talk to wireless transmitters and switches — and all those gadgets will need energy, too.

That’s where ultra-low-power devices and energy harvesting come in.

via Energy Harvesting Heats Up With Smart Grid Fever | SolveClimate.com.

New design standards for smart thermostats, or programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs), could help California address its complex energy problems that cost consumers billions of dollars. David Auslander, an engineering professor at the University of California, created the design rules in collaboration with other engineers, utility companies, and public officials.

Industry experts have looked to programmable thermostats for decades for the potential to conserve energy and save money. Energy conservation on a large scale would reduce the need for new power plants and reduce the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. Programmable thermostats first appeared in the 1970s during the oil crisis, followed by newer devices that allowed homeowners to make adjustments during the day, when no one is home, that saved power.

“We expected those early thermostats to save a lot of money and energy,” said Ronald Hofmann, an advisor to the California Energy Commission (CEC) – the group that funded Auslander’s research. “But only if people used them and, unfortunately, fewer than 20 percent of Californians took, or take, the time to program their thermostats” Hofmann continued.

The government’s Energy Star program, which gives efficiency ratings to appliances, withdrew its “high” rating from programmable thermostats last year because owners tend to find them consuming and don’t use them, according to William Burke, a graduate student on Auslander’s team. As a result, billions of dollars is wasted as a result of consumers’ hesitance and confusion.

Next generation PCTs, with integrated communications technology, are much more user-friendly devices. PCTs can automatically respond to energy pricing signals without a proprietary communications infrastructure. Auslander and his team worked closely with industry members, policy makers, and state regulators to come up with the new design.

Over the next five year period, the major California utilities will install smart meters in homes that allow for hourly monitoring of energy usage. PCTs could receive hourly updates from the smart meters, including pricing signals, through a built-in module, said Hofmann. Consumers will be able to program PCTs to respond to signals from the smart meters in ways that save money without sacrificing comfort. The PCT could communicate directly with the smart meter or could get its information over the Internet.

via Next generation thermostats could save consumers billions.

The term “smart grid” is bandied about regularly in energy news, but what is it, what does it entail?

The smart grid concept at its most basic is a variety of technologies employed on the existing power grid (including buildings connected to the grid like our homes), to make it more efficient, more reliable, and reduce the operating costs of utilities while potentially reducing electricity costs to customers including homeowners and businesses. In short, smart grid aims to make the power grid work better without hanging (or burying) new transmission lines and building ever more power plants: Smart grid makes do with what’s available, using a little bit of technical innovation.

Here’s a short menu of possibilities that can be included under the term “smart grid”:

— Through electronic connections to thermostats, or to the units themselves, power companies could be able to shut down customer-owned air conditioning systems briefly during peak demand to lessen the load on the grid and reduce the risk of blackouts or brownouts. These devices have been around for years;

— A thermostat smart grid connection, too (as above) can allow customers to adjust their thermostats to cut air conditioning use during periods of peak demand and thus save electricity and money. Not unlike setback thermostats, also available for years;

via How Smart is a Smart Grid? | Green Energy News.