People Power Company, an energy management company, today announced its Energy Services Platform (ESP), an open energy management cloud service to monitor and control energy usage for device manufacturers.
The company developed the wireless module, which is built around software called Open Source IPv6 Automation Network. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) eliminates the need for network address translation (NAT), since it can directly address trillions of devices.
People Power uses a communications protocol which is low-power like Zigbee but has longer range than Wi-Fi, explains C/Net. It uses 900 MHz radios powered by the TI CC430 system-on-a-chip.
The radios in the module will work with other wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi and Zigbee.
They claim companies can:
- Monitor energy use down to the second at the individual plug level.
- Compare energy use to similar buildings, homes, offices and geographic regions to enable
users to see how they are doing against their peers. - Access and manage energy use from any internet enabled device, including the ability to set budgets and rules, receive alerts, generate energy reports, and leverage utility rate
information
People Power company intends to make money by licensing its wireless module and providing data services, such as energy monitoring, from its hosted software.
“We are licensing to manufacturers so we can really go mainstream,” said Gene Wang, CEO and Founder of People Power. “This is best done by piggybacking manufacturers that are already there.”
The company is partnering with other companies around its automation system, including Ricoh, although no third parties have announced plans to use the technology in products.
Electric cars may soon make a big difference. Not since air conditioning spread across the country in the 1950s and 1960s has the power industry faced such a growth opportunity, says the AP. Last year, Americans spent $325 billion on gasoline, and utilities would love even a small piece of that market.
The first Leafs and Volts can draw 3,300 watts, and both carmakers may boost that to 6,600 watts soon. A modest home in the San Francisco Bay area that doesn’t need air conditioning might draw 3,000 watts at most.
Transformers that distribute power from the electrical grid to homes are often designed to handle fewer than a dozen homes. Extra stress on a transformer from one or two electric vehicles could cause it to overheat and fail, knocking out power to the block.
The “nightmare” scenario, according to Austin Energy’s Rabago: People come home from work on a hot afternoon, turn on the air conditioner and the plasma television, blend some frozen cocktail, start cooking dinner on an electric stove —and plug their car into a home charging station.
Utilities hope to convince drivers to program their cars to charge late at night, when rates are low and most appliances are switched off.
In its new report, “U.S. Smart Grid Market Forecast: 2010–2015,” GTM Research says that the US smart grid market will grow more than 70 percent, from $5.6 billion in 2010 to $9.6 billion by 2015. They predict advanced metering, distribution automation, and home area networks will be the growth drivers.
Pike Research group, by contrast, predicts $200 billion in global smart-grid investment expected in 2008 to 2015, with almost $53 billion just in the U.S.
Cisco, the largest maker of computer-networking equipment and a producer of energy-monitoring devices, has partnered with meter-maker Itron for smart metering technology using open and interoperable, enterprise-class network for utilities. Zurich-based ABB, the biggest builder of electricity networks, is developing automation devices for power lines.
In Charlotte, NC, Cisco and Duke Energy are targeting commercial buildings. The goal is to get the owners of about 60 commercial buildings in the area to sign on to reduce energy use by up to 20% by 2016.
The new White Space rules, unanimously passed by the FCC, promise to invigorate the Smart Grid, say industry observers, since the signals can penetrate concrete walls and use inexpensive, unlicensed frequencies.
Smart meters get all the attention, but smart distribution grid and substation projects are actually taking the lead in smart grid spending across the nation, says the Cleantech Group in a report released by the Department of Energy.
Dailywireless articles include; General Electric Expands Smart Energy Management, 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
