Advanced Telemetry, a developer a smart energy management system for light commercial and residential applications, today announced that General Electric has adopted its “EcoView Residential” solution for home builders across North America.
General Electric is working with developers to design homes that reduce household energy usage, indoor water consumption and overall carbon emissions at least 20% compared to industry-accepted average new homes.
The EcoView Residential energy management system helps homeowners achieve a high level of energy efficiency and lower costs.
In addition to EcoView Residential, all homes being built by the GE customers are equipped with an array of GE products. These include GE’s ENERGY STAR appliances and Energy Smart compact fluorescent lighting. Consumers can then measure and control utility use and their home’s energy-efficient features.
SMART 2020 says ‘Smart’ power solutions could enable energy efficiency across buildings, transport, power and industry
GE is working with UK electricity distributor Central Networks and the city of Milton Keynes to transition to smart grid technology and low carbon urban living. The proposal has been submitted to U.K. energy regulator Ofgem in an effort to secure a slice of its £500 million Low Carbon Networks Fund.
General Electric already resells Grid Net’s software and licenses the company’s reference design for meters that use WiMAX for the backhaul. Grid Net’s partners include GE, Intel, Cisco, Landis+Gyr, IBM, Oracle, Motorola, Freescale, Clearwire, Sprint, Huawei, eMeter, Logica, Beceeem, and Samsung. Sprint will embed WiMAX connectivity into Smart Meters and Smart Grid Routers for policy-based intelligence, monitoring, reporting, and control of real-time power usage. Sprint is also working with Silver Springs Networks.
Smart Grids deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to control appliances at consumers’ homes to save energy.
There’s no defacto winner yet on any national Smart Grid infrastructure.
To connect smart meters, utilities are using their own licensed frequencies, cellular networks and WiMAX, explains Earth2Tech
Grid Net, formed a collaboration with GE Energy and Intel, focusing solely on WiMAX for their last mile connectivity. Motorola, General Electric and Grid Net are part of a group of companies installing smart meters in almost 700,000 households and businesses in Australia by 2013. Grid Net and GE Energy also appear to be positioned to rollout initiatives in U.S. WiMAX cities.
- Cisco is working with big utilities like Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, Germany’s Yellostrom, and recently invested in Grid Net, a startup specializing in WiMAX. Its vendor partners include General Electric, Accenture, Oracle, Arcadian Networks, Itron, Landis+Gyr, Siemens, Schneider Electric and Verizon. It also has its EnergyWise platform for controlling building and data center energy use.
- Portland General selected a smart metering system developed by Sensus Metering Systems, which uses a wireless fixed network operating on 901 – 902 MHz at 8 KBps (pdf).
- CenterPoint Energy is installing 2.2 million smart meters around Houston with more than 550 sensors and automated switches that will help protect against system disturbances like natural disasters (Coverage Map).
- Alvarion, the world’s largest WiMAX vendor, recently announced it will work with National Grid, the second-largest utility company in the U.S., to participate in a smart power grid (SPG) Proof of Concept with its BreezeMAX 3650 solution (at 3.65GHz), as part of a technology test-bed for potential pilot projects in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Silver Springs Network provides a connection to electricity, water and gas meters over a neighborhood area network (NAN). It supports a variety of WANs, including Zigbee and cellular networks. Florida Light is deploying hundreds of thousands of smart meters in people’s homes throughout Florida using Silver Spring Networks IP-based networking infrastructure.
- Cisco Systems and IBM have pursued smart grid projects across the globe. Cisco officials in May announced a smart grid push as keys to developing highly intelligent and manageable electrical distribution systems from the home to the power source. They say smart grids could grow into a $20 billion business within five years.
- Google has brought home electricity-monitoring to the mobile phone using its Web-based PowerMeter application and a small meter reading device.
- Microsoft has announced launch partnerships with Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy. The Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) was developed by Microsoft as a definitive reference in the utility and power industry and addresses technology integration across the full smart energy ecosystem. Enspiria Solutions, a systems integrator, will use it.
The Energy Department has started a new Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse Web site to provide a forum for information sharing on smart grid technologies.
The Web portal provides information on technologies, standards, rules, use cases, training and other best practices for smart grid technologies that use sensors, infrastructure and communications devices to better monitor and control energy use.
In related news, ECOtality, a leader electric car charging stations, today announced the company has been named #33 in Vice President Joe Biden’s recent report, 100 Recovery Act Projects that are Changing America (pdf). ECOtality was recognized for the company’s role as the project manager for The EV Project, the world’s largest deployment of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
Governments and private interests worldwide are expected to increase investments in smart-grid technology, spending a total of more than $45 billion by 2015, says a new ABI Research Report. Smart-grid services will hit $4.3 billion by 2015, says Pike Research.
Dailywireless articles include; GridNet + Sprint for US Smart Grid , Smart Grid Heats Up, First White Space Trial for “Smart Grid”, Obama Announces $3.4B in Electric “Smart Grid” Grants, Smart Grid Gets Unwired, Smart Meters on The Stimulus Channel, WiMAX SmartGrid Coming to 700K Australians, Home Networking: A Universal Spec?, Google Power Meter, M2M: Big Deal, Wireless Power Standard Emerging, and Sprint Announces Smart Grid Ambitions, ABI: Stimulus Means Big Bucks for Wireless, The Smart Grid: Licensed or Unlicensed Spectrum, Cellular-enabled SCADA, Smart Grid: Dumb or What?, Smart Grid: It’s Alive!, Google: Smart Power R US
