Will Powerline Find Converts In The US?

May 27, 2010

Powerline networks have gotten a bad rap in the United States. This may be changing.

Early networks that U.S. utilities set up for one-way meter reading were slow, giving the impression the technology was pokey.

Echelon says its participation in the Duke Energy smart grid trial is raising the technology's profile.

Powerline also has been plagued by noise, or harmonics, from busy electric wires and suffered higher costs. Transformers inadvertently filter network communications and the expense of outfitting them with repeaters to boost the signals proved greater in the U.S. than in Europe, where powerline found converts, because transformers here serve fewer homes.

These objections could be softening. Smart-meter maker Echelon says its participation in the long-delayed Duke Energy smart-grid rollout is winning new attention for the technology. Duke’s grid is the first large-scale smart-meter trial in the U.S. using powerline.

The trial shows that it can do the job, and utilities appear to be giving it consideration for future deployments, says Steve Nguyen, director of corporate marketing at Echelon. “That’s the feedback we’re getting on the street from our sales team,” Nguyen said at the ConnectivityWeek conference in Silicon Valley.

Echelon has shipped Duke 150,000 smart meters, 80,000 of which have been deployed in Ohio pilot. The advantage with powerline is that Duke can view its smart grid as more than just a network of smart meters used for home-energy monitoring.

The company can use powerline, which connects meters to transformers, to monitor and manage energy use by streetlights, and to assess power quality in its transmission lines, Nguyen says.

Up to now, U.S. utilities have favored cellular networks and proprietary wireless technologies in their smart grids. This is in contrast to Europe, where Echelon has the majority of its 100 or so smart grid deployments and trials.

The question is whether this is about to change.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Defining The Smart Grid

May 24, 2010

Much like a first-time political candidate, the smart grid is a public unknown in need of defining. A new survey suggests there is ample potential for shaping favorable views.

The EcoAlign survey found that a quarter of respondents said they would use the smart grid either daily or weekly, suggesting that if it is built, they will come.

The survey, conducted by marketing agency EcoAlign, is not the first to find public awareness of the smart grid is low. Sixty-nine percent 1,000 people contacted online in May had not heard of the smart grid, women in particular. Only 22 percent of women were aware of the term compared with 41 percent of men.

Once presented with a description, public attitudes were generally favorable. Forty-three percent identified the benefit of the grid as lower utility bills. Another 37 percent showed an interest in analyzing their electricity consumption, and an additional 37 cited lower energy use as a reason to monitor the grid.

The survey also suggests public use could be greater than anticipated.  Many experts worry a nonchalant consumer will find little motivation to monitor energy and use smart meters and smart appliances to schedule the operation of a washing machine for off-peak hours, or cut the electrical flow to a refrigerator on hot summer afternoons.

The survey suggests the opposite might be true. Half of respondents found the ability to examine their energy use to be “extremely” or “very” appealing. This was higher among younger people and those with higher energy bills.

What’s more, about quarter said they might use the smart grid one a day or at least weekly, with the average respondent anticipating 12 times a month.

The existential dilemma facing the industry is the one facing many young industries: if you build it, will they come? At least one survey suggests they just might.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Will Smart Thermostats Rattle The Home Energy Audits Market?

May 17, 2010

Energy contractors could find themselves facing competition for home energy audits from an unexpected source: smart thermostats.

While this may seem unlikely at first blush, sophisticated algorithms being developed for new-generation thermostats are getting better at spotting inefficiencies and recognizing the need for home-energy improvements.

Home energy audits are a pretty clean business opportunity for thermostat maker EcoFactor, says investor Nat Goldhaber.

One company making such an intelligent thermostat is EcoFactor. Other vendors with bidirectional thermostats that connect to the Internet and access outside information include the Radio Thermostat Company of America, Tendril and Ecobee.

Nat Goldhaber, managing director at Claremont Creek Ventures and an investor in EcoFactor, says EcoFactor’s thermostat is smart enough to know how much heat or air conditioning a structure needs. It can then tell by monitoring a home’s interior whether the heat or cool air is escaping too rapidly through cracks and poorly insulated seams.

“This is sort of mind blowing,” Goldhaber said in a recent interview. But it is the result of sophisticated software designed to manage and conserve energy, and to access outside information, such as weather reports.

Will that mean EcoFactor becomes a home energy audit competitor? “I think that is a pretty clear business opportunity for EcoFactor,” he said. “You likely will be able to determine if a house needs caulking, insulation” or other improvements.

The key to this ability is two-way communications, whether over the Internet or another network. And it is an ability being widely adopted in advance product development.

Communications allows a thermostat such as EcoFactor’s to read weather forecasts, tap into servers, process home use data and fine tune energy consumption. It also lets them create historical energy profiles and comparing profiles to other profiles to determine an expected baseline and measure deviations.

Goldhaber says the theme of using sophisticated analysis to better understand energy use will drive future investments. With EcoFactor playing in the residential market, that means finding similar commercial opportunities. It also means ratcheting up complexity: homes have one thermostat, but offices and industrial plants frequently have several, as well as elaborate computer management systems running chillers, networked lighting and production machinery.

What’s needed, he said, are sophisticated algorithms to analyze these multiple systems and make sense of the relevant “signals” amid the everyday “noise.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

The Smart Grid Communications Debate Intensifies

May 4, 2010

The prevailing wisdom is that the current public wireless 3G networks don’t have the capacity for data intensive smart grids.

SmartSynch says meter communciations have been 99.96 percent successful at an early Texas smart meter trial using AT&T's public wireless network

SmartSynch would like to prove the theory wrong. The maker of smart meters and network hardware says that an early stage trial in Texas is experiencing remarkable success transmitting date over the AT&T network.

The Jackson, MS, company said it has measured a “99.96 percent average daily read rate” in the 10,000 meter trial since last fall,

The trial, being conducted with Texas-New Mexico Power, is using the public network for the two-way transmission of energy-use data.

“During the last 10 months, we consistently achieved a near-perfect, uninterrupted read rate regardless of where the smart meter units were deployed,” said Neal Walker, vie president of operations at the Texas-New Mexico Power. “The success of this deployment completely validates using public wireless networks for residential smart metering,” added Stephen Johnston, SmartSynch’s CEO.

Many utilities have shied away from public networks for smart grid pilots, favoring privately managed alternatives or using powerline technology over existing electrical wires. Experts say this may change as 4G public networks are deployed, especially LTE networks.

The pilot has allowed utility technicians to remotely read meters, turn on and off service and obtain immediate notification of outages. The trials will be worth watching as 10,000 meters become hundreds of thousands or millions.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

ZigBee 2.0 Expected Before Year End

April 30, 2010

The Zigbee Alliance expects to release a new version of the wireless smart-grid standard in the second half of the year with a more polished, commercial edition of the standard by mid 2011.

ZigBee is expected to be included in 100 million radio chips this year

The low-power wireless technology has become increasingly popular in the smart grid, shipping inside 20 million radio chips last year and projected to be included in 100 million this year.

Development of new versions, however, has been slow due to the number of companies and government officials now involved in their approval.

The alliance is now on track to unveil a reasonably solid version of the new standard before the end of the year, said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril Networks and vice chairman of the alliance. A more finalized edition should be complete during the first half of 2011, he said at the GreenNet conference in San Francisco.

Zigbee’s popularity has been driven by its simplicity and low energy use. Batteries in a Zigbee device last for years, not hours. That’s because unlike the wireless technologies Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it transmits at lower data rates, sending only basic commands, such as on and off. It also is less expensive.

Zigbee is expected to be the protocol used in many smart meters to create home networks and communicate with thermostats, lighting, air conditioners and appliances. The aim is to will let people better manage their energy use even when outside the home.

The new version has an IP-based energy management technology that will expand its use, the alliance says.

The first version of ZigBee became available in May 2008 and is primarily used in commercial and industrial systems, such as alarm and monitoring equipment, and in custom home-automation systems

The alliance has more than 350 members, including Intel and Cypress Semiconductor.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Google Opens The Kimono On PowerMeter, Says Consumer Use High

April 29, 2010

The easy access to home energy data is a serious constraint to smart grid innovation.

But you would never know it from the success of Google’s PowerMeter, the online software that lets homeowners monitor their power consumption.

Forty-six percent of PowerMeter users check their energy use three times a day or more, says Google's Edward Lu

The growth in the use of the free product is high and consumers find it “sticky,” says Edward Lu, program manager of advanced products at the Internet search titan.

Eighty-six percent of users view their energy use once every three days, Lu said at GreenNet conference in San Francisco. Forty-six percent look at it three times a day or more.

Lu said Google has partnerships with 10 utilities, but expects more from the online product. New features are being tested, including a way to interface with electric cars. Google doesn’t yet have a business model in mind, but that isn’t holding back development, says Lu.

Despite its success, Google is quick to say that the incomplete access to consumer data is slowing its innovation, just as it is constraining development at the more than 100 other established companies and start-ups developing software, home displays and other products for the emerging home energy market.

Lu acknowledges that there is a mismatch between the speed of companies, such as Google, and the slower pace of utilities and regulators. By next year, companies may expect to see the data, he says, but it is likely to be another before many states and utilities finally open the gates.

Other innovators view the landscape in a similar manner. Access to consumer data is a key constraint, says Adrian Tuck, CEO of the smart grid display company Tendril. “Without it, the market will not flourish.”

Tuck says that only 10 of the 50 U.S. states are moving in the direction of open access. On the list are California, New York, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The others are not.

At Microsoft, the company hopes to sidestep some of the restraints. Last month it struck a deal to put its Hohm home energy management software inside Ford’s electric Focus.

“We see this as a business” selling services to utilities and selling online ads for consumers to see, says Troy Batterberry, product unit manager. More auto partnerships are on the way, he added.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Smart Meters And Social Networks

April 28, 2010

Finland has long been a leader with smart meters and smart grids. It is no surprise then the small Scandinavian country has big plans for its smart –power infrastructure: the melding of smart grids, cloud computing and social networks.

The result could be a collection of virtual micro grids and more grassroots power management.

Finland's vision for its smart grid includes micro grids and social networks

Finland’s eagerness to deploy a modern energy infrastructure has much to do with the country’s harsh winters. Energy use per capita is among the highest in the world and domestic resources are limited largely to hydropower.

The desire to give consumers more control over their energy use led the country to require that all homes have smart meters by 2013 – among the most ambitious deployment targets in the world. About half of Finland’s 5.3 million people have smart meters today.

With the completion of the rollout, several new innovative services will become available, including the freedom for citizens to create virtual micro grids to share and manage power.

If a friend has solar panels and produces excess power, he or she can share that power with neighbors, says Seppo Yrjola, principal innovator at Nokia Siemens Networks, which is helping with the rollout.

“That’s really a virtual power plant,” Yrjola said at the Nordic Green II conference. “I think the venture capitalists are very excited” about the investment opportunities.

Finland’s vision goes where few other countries dare tread. Yrjola says the goal is to enable people to create micro grids much as they form groups of friends on social networking sites. In that sense, cloud computing, social networks and smart grids will intersect in 2013 or 2014 after the smart meters and accompanying network infrastructure are installed.

The notion is that villages, districts and communities will be able to form micro grids and negotiate for cheaper power. No one knows how the system will be used, says Yrjola.

The completion of the rollout should enable other services as well. Renewables, such as solar, will more easily plug into the grid and information on real-time pricing will be available. Consumers also will be given more control over their home appliances.

“We are building the infrastructure,” he says. It is up to consumers to decide how to use it.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Smart Grid Security An Open Question As Vendors Shore Up Equipment

April 21, 2010

There are signs the smart gird is under attack. Not on a large scale, or successfully, so far. But indications are that hackers have turned their intention from the Internet to the power grid.

The roadmap for doing so is publicly available. Last year, IOActive attracted broad attention when its researchers found vulnerabilities in a smart meter and suggested only $500 of equipment was be needed to get inside. The security firm then paved a path by adding software code to one device and spreading to another, as if it were a digital worm or a virus on the Internet.

SmartSynch adds IPsec authentication to its GridRouter. Analysts says utilities need to adopt security strategies

Just last month, InGuardian joined the search party. It was hired by three utilities to probe smart grids and smart meters, and it found flaws in meters from each of the top five manufacturers. The flaws were serious. The researchers found they could sneak inside the meters, the first step to stealing data or turning off power.

According to analysts, smart grid security is a problem that utilities haven’t yet faced up to addressing. There is “denial about the scope and extent” of efforts required to secure smart grids, wrote one Gartner analyst just last week.

Meter and equipment makers have responded by adding more security to their devices. But many analysts argue the biggest improvement will come when utilities focus less on spot solutions and adopt broad security programs or strategies.

Nonetheless, worthwhile improvements continue in the vendor community. In one announcement Wednesday, SmartSynch struck a deal with security firm AuthenTec to add IPsec security to its GridRouter.

The grid router already encrypts communications. Now it will require equipment to authenticate its identity with secure “certificates” before data can be sent.

With some 8 million smart meters deployed in the United States, “we have to assume there are bad actors out there,” says Ravi Raju, SmartSynch’s vice president of corporate strategy.

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GE Stands Behind WiMax In The Smart Grid, Sees Costs Dropping

April 12, 2010

Utilities were excited at first by the high-bandwidth, long haul capabilities of the wireless communications technology WiMax in the smart grid.

That excitement has waned. High costs and coverage gaps led many to favor alternatives for tasks other than simple “backhaul” data transmission to and from local collection points.

CE's Luke Clemente sees 4G technologies such as WiMax as part of the Smart Grid technology mix. "I'm very confident of that."

WiMax supporter General Electric seems to acknowledge this present, more limited role for the technology, long championed by chipmaker Intel and its distribution partner Clearwire. And yet, the smart-meter manufacturer continues to consider WiMax a viable alternative across the smart grid.

The winning smart-grid technology has not been picked, says Luke Clemente, general manager for metering and sensing systems. Data from WiMax smart grid trials are still coming in. GE last month announced its first WiMax smart-meter trial in the United States, after striking a deal with Consumers Energy in Michigan, and last fall kicked off a test of WiMax-enabled smart meters with SP AusNet in Australia and GE-funded partner Grid Net. WiMax smart meters are just being installed.

Utilities apparently continue to keep an open mind toward the technology, even as many favor private, proprietary networks. “We’re still finding customers that are discussing (WiMax) with us,” Clemente says . “They are waiting to see more data on performance.”

The biggest concern about the technology is its high cost compared with alternatives, such as radio frequency, or RF, mesh. RF mesh is found in meters from Landis-Gyr and Elster and used by communications companies Silver Spring Networks and Trilliant. Clemente argues that costs should fall as volume manufacturing begins and overhead is spread among a greater number of products.

He says GE also tells customers they get more bandwidth for their money. The public 3G technologies that telecommunications providers deployed were not cost effective for the smart grid, but the 4G technologies, such as WiMax and LTE, could emerge as more affordable and competitive.

“I see (WiMax) as a 4G technology (and) I think 4G will be part of the mix,” says Clemente. “I’m very confident of that.”

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Router Company Highlights Failure Of Smart Grid Standards, Forms Independent Working Group

April 6, 2010

Smart-grid router company SmartSynch highlighted the failure of smart-grid standards Tuesday by forming an independent industry group to push for needed standards in communications gear.

Stephen Johnston said that despite three years of efforts, standards still are missing for smart meters and network equipment.

GridRouter maker Smartsynch hopes to push for IP-based communications standards on the smart grid. It has attracted a small group of supporters including AT&T and Motorola.

Now with utilities pouring billions of dollars of federal funds into early stage smart-grid efforts, projects risk of falling short from equipment that doesn’t interoperates or which can’t be easily installed.

Smart-grid standards initiatives date back more than three years. Yet smart meters from a company such as GE don’t work alongside one from Elster or Landis-Gyr, or connect smoothly to a GridRouter from SmartSynch.

“Without standards, we could be setting up the smart grid to be not as good as it could be,” Johnston said. “It’s a huge problem.” Prices also could be higher since competition among vendors is reduced.

On Tuesday, SmartSynch hopes to make a dent in the problem by forming an “ecosystem” group around its GridRouter. The group will push for interoperable, IP-based standards and has attracted several big name supporters: AT&T, Motorola, Rogers Communications, Itron, Cooper Power Systems and Battelle Energy. “We anticipate more,” Johnston said.

A day earlier, executives from Google, Intel, Honeywell, GE, AT&T and venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers made news with a letter to President Obama. They called on the Obama Administration to make the distribution of energy-use data to homes and businesses a priority.

But without standards, this could be more difficult than it seems. “If every utility deploys a proprietary system, those utilities can’t benefit from each other,” says Johnston.

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