Defidev, Elster and DS2 unveil a new generation of IP-based Smart Meter technology

• Based on Internet Protocol (IP) standards
• Reduces capital and operational costs of Automatic Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
• Eliminates the need for store and forward hardware
• Supporting real-time meter reading
• Supports DLMS for interoperability between metering standards

Barcelona Spain, October 08, 2009 - Defidev, a French solutions integrator specialising in Powerline Communication (PLC) technology, today unveils a new generation of IP-based electricity meters, developed in collaboration with Elster and integrating DS2 PLC technology, at the 2009 Metering Europe Conference. Based on Internet Protocol (IP) standards and integrating higher bandwidth technology to enable advanced services, the meters greatly reduce the capital and operational costs of Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI) deployment for utilities.

Jean Pierre Lobert, Founder and CEO of Defidev, explains: "By incorporating IP standards, we have eliminated the need to deploy concentrators. Our Phoenix™ Gateway provides connectivity with a utility's central network and interoperability with all metering technologies (Zigbee, M-Bus, etc). The high bandwidth provided by DS2 powerline technology eliminates the need for store and forward hardware at intermediate points on the network to further reduce costs. Meter reading is done in real time, enabling advanced services, such as indicating consumption levels to the utility and customers in real time over the Internet."

The meters, which are designed to communicate with the Phoenix™ Gateway based in the street transformer, transmit the meter readings over the LV (Low Voltage) and MV (Medium Voltage) electricity networks. A further advantage of the Defidev-designed meters is their ease of integration with other AMI networking elements, including support for the Device Language Message Specification (DLMS) part of the IEC 62056 series of standards covering data exchange for meter reading, tariff and load control that provides interoperability between the Gateway and all the metering standards. Mr Lobert adds: "At Metering Europe, we are demonstrating interoperability between PLC technology, Zigbee and several regional radio standards, all interchanging data with each other. This simplifies the decision-making and trial process for the utility. The technology will be interoperable with the emerging ITU-T G.hn standard that has been selected as a Smart Grid standard by the US National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST).

For more information, please visit:
Elster: www.elstermetering.com
Defidev: www.defidev.com
DS2: www.ds2.es

The Smart Grid of the Future needs Standards to be set now

The industry's first 'Really Smart' Smartgrid will help consumers and power companies meet

_{About DS2
DS2 is the leading technology innovator and a global provider of high-speed semiconductor solutions for Powerline Communications and other wire-line network communications products. DS2 invented high-speed Powerline Communications delivering the first 200Mbps Powerline Communications IC to enable quality multimedia home networking, networked entertainment and broadband access applications to and throughout the home, office or building, as well as to and throughout urban and rural communities. Enabling the hidden multimedia network behind the power outlet is the purpose of DS2. Our mission is to engage our customers at the vanguard of innovation by creating the most advanced and sustainable powerline, coaxial and phoneline communications solutions.}

Source: http://www.targetwire.com/iba/2009/10/08/ds2053/ds2053_uk.html

Deluge of data for utilities deploying smart meters

L'utilisation de smart meter avec des mesures au 1/4 heures au lieu de 2 fois par an génère d'énorme flux de données qui posent de nouveaux défis dans le stockage, l'organisation et la confidentialité des données. Les premières expériences montrent que le volume de données sont de l'ordre de 170Mo à 400Mo par compteur et par an.

The use of smart meter measurements with 1 / 4 hours instead of 2 times per year generates enormous stream of data that pose new challenges in storage, organization and data privacy. The first experiments show that the volume of data is of the order of 170 MB to 400MB per meter per year.

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The Coming Smart Grid Data Surge

As has often been written, the advancements of the Smart Grid are founded in information. Data is used to inform consumption, to make rates more dynamic, and to enable the next-generation power prosumer. In reading a recent piece on potentially mandated Smart Metering in the UK, the Telegraph raises the issue of data handling relative to today's data management. In short strokes, 44 million homes were typically measured twice a year, making for 88 million entries for data. In the new system, every home is measured twice a day, meaning that those 88 million entries have now become over 32 billion. This sounds like a lot, so let's quickly look at the new challenges that arise for organizations seeing this kind of increase:

• Data Center Expansion. The types and volume of data associated with Smart Grid use will mean a new need to bring Internet-style data centers into the complex mesh of utility control systems.
• Data Organization and Retention. With Time of Use pricing and user charge recovery for power generated, a sizable subset of this data will no longer be simply transient and used in the aggregate. Individual elements will need to be captured and tagged for later retrieval over whatever period is chosen by regulators as appropriate for looking back.
• Data Privacy. While there may be dubious benefit to stealing the private data from individual citizen's smart meters, it is naive to think that privacy concerns will not find their way into regulation. That means data will have to be partitioned when needed longer term, destroyed when transient, and never left in an unknown state.

I led with the UK piece, because it does a relatively nonthreatening analysis of data gathering trends from a smarter grid.

The U.S. Smart Grid, however, has a series of challenges that expand on this by many times. Back in May, Beth Pariseau did a piece on Smart Grid storage for SearchStorageChannel.com where she interviewed a variety of players, including Austin Energy’s CIO, Andres Carvallo. The data usage trends described are nothing short of mind-boggling.

In the Austin Energy data, for phase one of the roll-out which included 500,000 meters, the increase in yearly data storage went from 20 TB to 200 TB, with disaster recovery redundancy. This is for 15 minute sampling, and first stage (home-oriented) integration. Ignoring smaller sampling frequencies (resulting in much higher data storage) necessary for some Smart Grid functionality, this presents a model of about 400 MB per meter per year ( 200,000,000,000,000/500,000 ).

While this sounds mind-numbing, there is substantiation (and a reasonably close ratio) in the same piece, this from Pacific Gas and Electric, who added 1.2 PB of memory (and growing) to support 700,000 meters, or over 170 MB per meter per year. (And this was sampling only twice per day).

Finally, in their August 2009 report on “Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering,” FERC presented a partial scenario (80 million meters) and a full deployment scenario (140 million meters) by 2019. Assuming that we feel comfortable in the midrange of the data descriptions used above, this would imply the need for the creation of infrastructures necessary to organize and manage roughly 100 PB of information within the next ten years. (Good luck to us all!)

What conclusions can we draw from all of this?

Massive Data is about to swamp existing infrastructure, requiring some hard thinking about how to architect, secure, segment, and deploy the data centers that will accommodate it.

• There is striking variability in the amount of data organizations are expecting, seeing, and preparing for. Work is needed on what information should be gathered, what needs to be stored long-term, what needs to be tagged with user information, and what needs to be treated as private.
• This is a new area for providers. The storage, record keeping, and maintenance of all of this data, particularly that which needs to be held for longer regulated periods, is unlikely to be a current function of the provider budget and functional organization. The steps to rationalize this area financially are critically important. Any plan to advance smart metering should include these costs in justification or grant request.
• Every new idea must detail the additional burden on providers, particularly those in the soft grid investment space, from a data acquisition and data management perspective.

Like so much of our economy, these advancements are changing the grid from a power economy to a data and power economy. To survive and thrive these new requirements must be considered. In the medium and long term, those organizations that consider, and then capitalize on, all of this data will find themselves in a much better position to add services, ensure satisfaction levels, and find new ways to make the Smart Grid even smarter.

Jack Danahy and Andy Bochman are authors of the Smart Grid Security Blog.

Source:

[05/10/09] http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/News_Blogs_News/The-Coming-Smart-Grid-Data-Surge-1247.html

TWEET-A-WATT! A Power Monitor That Twitters Your Energy Use

Tweet-a-watt est un projet qui permet de monitorer les consommations de votre maison directement sur Twitter. Ce projet qui se défini comme un projet “Open source hardware” permet a n’importe qui de modifier leur kit pour l’adapter a n’importe quel produit. La démo d'un compteur qui gazouille sur twitter est ici http://twitter.com/tweetawatt



The Tweet-a-Watt is one such example. Using a modified version of a $20 off-the-shelf wattage meter, the Tweet-a-Watt kit, now available online for $90, tracks daily power usage for an outlet. It then reports that information back to your followers via your Twitter account, including the daily average and your daily goal.

The kit includes the wireless transmitters and receivers needed to report the data, plus cables and various components needed to get it all wired up. It's the product of an open-source hardware project that had the main goal of wirelessly tracking power usage for a household. The Twitter aspect is a fun byproduct of this idea.

For DIY'ers, there are instructions for making your own kit and links to download the software for your project.

It's great for people who want to keep track of their carbon footprint, and even better for those who like to show off their conservation efforts to their fellow smug friends. You know they're out there.

The meter tracks a specific outlet, though you can buy multiple kits for other outlets and have them all report to the same Twitter feed (that seems excessive). I'd love to see a kit like this for household power, maybe something you plug in at the main terminal for your house. Or maybe I could just bypass Twitter and give my apartment its own blog? I'm sure it's got wonderful things to say about me.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10205534-1.html

Ember et ARM ciblent les réseaux ZigBee de haute performance

ARM et Ember ont annoncé que les semi-conducteurs ZigBee de la prochaine génération, qui seront bientôt introduits sur le marché, utiliseront le processeur Cortex(TM)-M3 d'ARM(R), ce qui place la barre encore plus élevée en matière de haute performance et de faible consommation sur le marché en pleine expansion des produits ZigBee.

Ember est le leader dans le domaine de la technologie ZigBee avec une part de marché supérieure à 65 pour cent et un vaste éventail de clients comptant parmi les leaders mondiaux des secteurs des compteurs intelligents, de la domotique et de l'immotique commerciale. Ember a obtenu une licence pour le processeur Cortex-M3 afin de fournir des solutions de plus en plus perfectionnées en matière d'applications telles que Smart Energy, les réseaux domestiques et les systèmes de soins de santé et de sécurité à la maison.

Le processeur de 32 bits Cortex-M3 d'ARM réuni plusieurs technologies afin de réduire la mémoire et la dimension du processeur tout en offrant la plus grande performance et le rendement énergétique le plus élevé de l'industrie en plus de fournir une plate-forme idéale pour accélérer la migration de milliers d'applications vers les microcontrôleurs de 32 bits. Le processeur Cortex-M3 améliorera grandement la performance, le perfectionnement et la sécurité et permettra à Ember de continuer à offrir à l'industrie de la technologie ZigBee des systèmes sur puce (SoC) puissants et à faible consommation d'énergie.

Le processeur Cortex-M3 d'ARM offre une puissance de traitement remarquable et un système de réponse aux interruptions exceptionnel tout en répondant aux exigences en matière de réduction des coûts grâce à sa faible empreinte de base, à son nombre réduit de broches, à sa faible consommation d'énergie et la meilleure densité de codes de l'industrie, favorisant ainsi l'utilisation de plus petites mémoires.

<< Notre partenariat avec le leader de l'industrie Ember démontre la lancée exceptionnelle dont bénéficie le processeur Cortex-M3 d'ARM sur les marchés de technologies à faible puissance >>, a déclaré Eric Schorn, vice-président du marketing de la division des processeurs d'ARM. << Le processeur Cortex-M3, combiné aux meilleurs outils du secteur, offre la plus haute performance exigée par les applications les plus perfectionnées tout en conservant son avance en matière de faible puissance. >>

Les systèmes sans fil à faible puissance ZigBee d'Ember comprennent des microcircuits étroitement intégrés, des logiciels de réseaux maillés prenant en charge le ZigBee PRO Feature Set ainsi que des outils de développement et de débogage qui permettent aux fabricants de systèmes d'introduire rapidement les produits ZigBee sur le marché. Ember a distribué les premiers SoC ZigBee et coprocesseur de réseaux ZigBee de l'industrie

<< Les applications ZigBee sont de plus en plus exigeantes. Elles sont devenues une composante essentielle dans la résolution des problèmes actuels les plus contrariants, tels que celui de la gestion plus efficace de l'énergie, et nous avons pour objectif d'être à la tête de cette revolution >>, affirme Bob LeFort, PDG d'Ember. << ARM est le leader reconnu dans le domaine de technologie des processeurs, tout comme Ember dans celui de la technologie des réseaux maillés sans fil, c'est donc une alliance logique qui nous permettra de diriger le marché en pleine croissance de la technologie ZigBee dans l'avenir. >>

ZigBee : une commande sans fil qui marche

La ZigBee Alliance est une association de sociétés qui collaborent en vue de la mise en place, à partir d'une norme mondiale ouverte, de produits de contrôle et de surveillance fiables, économiques, à faible consommation d'énergie, établis en un réseau sans fil. La ZigBee Alliance est une association professionnelle à but non lucratif en pleine croissance qui réunit des fabricants de semi-conducteurs de premier plan, des prestataires technologiques, des fabricants de systèmes et des utilisateurs finaux répartis dans le monde entier. L'adhésion est ouverte à tous. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le http://www.zigbee.org.

À propos d'ARM

ARM conçoit les technologies qui sont au coeur des produits numériques avancés, depuis les solutions sans fil, de réseautage et de divertissement grand public jusqu'aux appareils destinés aux secteurs de l'imagerie, de l'automobile, de la sécurité et du stockage. La gamme complète des produits ARM comprend les microprocesseurs RISC de 32 bits, des processeurs graphiques, des moteurs vidéo, des outils logiciels, des bibliothèques de cellules, des mémoires intégrées, des produits de connectivité haut débit, des périphériques et des outils de développement. Associées à des services de conception, de formation, d'assistance et de maintenance ainsi qu'au soutien de la vaste communauté de soutien des partenaires ARM, ces solutions complètes constituent une voie rapide et fiable d'accès au marché pour les principaux fabricants de produits électroniques. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements au sujet d'ARM, veuillez consulter le http://www.arm.com.

À propos d'Ember Corporation

Ember Corporation procède au développement d'une technologie de réseautage sans fil ZigBee qui permet aux sociétés oeuvrant dans les technologies de l'énergie - enertech - de rendre les immeubles et maisons plus intelligents, plus écoénergétiques et plus efficaces, tout en créant un environnement plus confortable et plus sécuritaire. La technologie sans fil à faible consommation d'énergie d'Ember peut être intégrée dans plusieurs dispositifs afin de faire partie d'un réseau maillé autonome. Le siège d'Ember est situé à Boston et son centre de développement radio se trouve à Cambridge en Angleterre. La société possède des distributeurs dans le monde entier. La société participe à la promotion de la ZigBee Alliance et siège au conseil d'administration de celle-ci. Sa plate-forme est la << Golden Suite >> pour le test d'interopérabilité 802.15.4/ZigBee. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le http://www.ember.com.

28/04/09


http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/

Tropos: WiFi for the Smart Grid #techno #wifi #us

Les fournisseurs wifi des municipalités deployent des projets de smart Grid qui assure la liaison entre des quartiers de compteurs intelligents et le reseau des utilities

14/04/2009

The long-time municipal WiFi provider is making a push into networking utility smart grid projects, providing the link between neighborhood smart meter networks and utility "backhaul" networks.

A city that has installed its own WiFi network might as well let its municipal utility use it. That's the logic behind Tropos Networks‘ growth into the smart grid business.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based municipal WiFi networking startup has seen a number utilities use the networks it has installed over the years, including as a way to link the devices that aggregate data from thousands of two-way communicating "smart meters" with the utilities' back-office systems.

Given that those smart meters are now being installed in the millions, that's a growth business. That's where Tropos' GridCom architecture – the name Tropos has given for its utility-specific offering – comes in.

But while GridCom was officially unveiled Tuesday, working with utilities is something Tropos has been doing for quite awhile, said Rob Pilgrim, vice president of business and corporate development.

"We've seen it become a significant percentage of our business, and it's a huge proportion of our pipeline," he said. Tropos now has about a dozen utilities using its WiFi networks for so-called smart meter aggregation, he said.

While WiFi is seen as too expensive and power-hungry to serve as a cost-effective communications technology for individual meters, it does make sense as an aggregation network in denser, more urban areas, said Ben Schuman, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Denise Barton, Tropos' marketing director, said the company has partnerships with major smart meter makers Itron, Elster and Echelon, and is serving about 300,000 meters today, a number that's expected to climb to 1 million by year's end, said

The few utilities Tropos has named as customers are municipal utilities, including Anderson (Ind.) Municipal Light and Power, Lafayette (La.) Utilities System and Burbank (Calif.) Water and Power (see Reading Electric Meters Wirelessly).

But at least two of its utility customers are outside the United States, and several are larger investor-owned utilities, some with plans to install millions of meters, Pilgrim said.

He wouldn't name those utilities, but it's possible that Duke Energy may be one.

David Mohler, Duke's chief technology officer, has told Greentech Media that Duke is planning to include WiFi in its suite of technologies to link smart meters with the utility, though he wouldn't say which company was providing the WiFi service.

Of course, Duke and other utilities are also looking at a host of other communications technologies to bridge the gap between smart meter aggregators and utility "backhaul" networks.

Take cellular networks. KORE Telematics uses AT&T's wireless network to connect the 800,000 smart meters being installed by utility Arizona Public Service to the utility's "backhaul" system. Verizon is working with Duke on a similar project, and has been working with Itron for some time to fill that need (see Green Light post).

And AT&T is working with smart meter networking company SmartSynch to bring communications directly to smart meters (see Your Electrical Meter Becomes a Cell Phone).

Then there's WiMax, the powerful, long-range wireless technology that is being deployed by a Sprint-Clearwire partnership aimed at building a nationwide network.

While no utilities have opted to use that network, General Electric is deploying its own WiMax-based aggregator-to-utility backhaul network for CenterPoint Energy in Texas (see GE Offers WiMax Smart Meter Solution).

Grid Net, a San Francisco startup that makes WiMax Internet routers for smart meters made by GE, is hoping to see its system taken up by utilities including SP AusNet and Energy Australia in Australia and American Electric Power (AEP) and Consumers Energy in the United States, a spokeswoman said last month.

Broadband over powerline - a technology for carrying data over transmission lines - is also being deployed as a way to carry meter data back to utilities (see Broadband Over Powerline Brings Smart Grid to Rural Areas).

And Hughes Network Systems is now offering its combination satellite and land-based communications network to utilities, though it isn't concentrating on linking smart meters (see Hughes Offers Utility Communications).

Of course, it's possible that other companies in the municipal WiFi field may see the same utility opportunities that Tropos is pursuing - and Cisco Systems has been building municipal WiFi networks since 2005.

Cisco has already announced plans to incorporate energy management features into WiFi access points and other devices within buildings, and could see outdoor WiFi networks as another opportunity (see Cisco Jumps Into Energy Management for Computers, Buildings).

In fact, in 2006 Cisco was picked by Cellnet Technology (now part of smart meter maker Landis+Gyr) to provide WiFi mesh technology for a Madison, Wisc. project called Mad City Broadband that included wireless meter reading.

While Schuman said he wasn't aware of a big push into utility networking by other municipal WiFi developers, including Cisco, the networking giant "can always wait and see where markets develop, and then buy in later."

Tropos' Pilgrim conceded that Cisco could move aggressively into the field, but said he believed Tropos has developed technology that's better suited for outdoor applications.

Tropos has received investments from Benchmark Capital, Boston Millennia Partners, Integral Capital Partners, the Intel Communications Fund, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, Hanna Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital, Voyager Capital and WK Technology Fund.

While Tropos would not say how much total investment it has received, news sources have stated that Tropos had received $9.3 million as of June 2003, and $28.5 million as of September 2005.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/tropos-wifi-for-the-smart-grid-6037.html

Z-Wave Alliance in the Smart Metering market with Kamstrup

L'alliance Z-Wave à annoncer l'arrivée d'un nouveau membre Kamstrup, un fournisseur de solution de comptage danois. Selon une autre source (portel.de) Kamstrup prevoit pour le deuxième trimestre 2009, l'implementation de cette technologie dans les modules associés aux compteurs.

The Z-Wave Alliance has announced its newest member: Kamstrup, the Danish manufacturer of metering solutions, which now joins the leading industry consortium in the field of home control solutions. With the addition of Kamstrup, the Z-Wave Alliance further reinforces its major role in the integration of energy-saving and smart metering solutions into intelligent home networks.

Kamstrup is a globally active hi-tech company specialising in the field of system solutions for energy metering. It serves energy suppliers with sustainable technologies that automatically collect and administer data regarding energy consumption in electricity, cooling, heating, water and gas units, in a clear and cost-saving manner.

Z-Wave technology is the leading 2-way wireless communications protocol for smart metering products, with over 300 home control products already on the market. Z-Wave’s Advanced Energy Control (AEC) Framework allows energy providers and smart metering manufacturers to establish an intelligent, forward-looking and environmentally-friendly energy management system for households. Kamstrup is planning to integrate Z-Wave technology into its meter modules in the second quarter of 2009. This will allow energy consumption data to be sent to smart energy displays, home control centres and energy suppliers.

"As a leading international company in the field of metering solutions Kamstrup knows the importance of integrating Z-Wave technology”, says Lis Muusmann, Marketing Manager at Kamstrup.

“Companies like as Kamstrup enrich the Z-Wave ecosystem with Smart Metering solutions, which will bring consumers an important step further towards reducing their energy consumption”, comments Raoul Wijgergangs, Chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance.

Z-Wave as a key to energy conservation
The Z-Wave AEC represents the latest advances in the field of domestic energy management. It is the industry’s largest ecosystem, as it combines and guarantees interoperability between over 300 products from the areas of smart metering and home control. Investments in Z-Wave technology are future-proof, for both consumers and energy utilities. Z-Wave technology lets homeowners obtain a clear overview of the energy consumption of their electric and heating devices. This new level of usage transparency allows consumers to make effective decisions on reducing consumption. Z-Wave integrates functions such as smart metering, consumer notifications, automated load shedding and whole-home control. This enables real-time energy management that reduces consumption and costs, and provides active control of all energy-consuming appliances. The Z-Wave ecosystem makes it possible to view the current status at any time and from any place in order to ascertain, for example, at what time the most resources are used, and allow adjustments as required. Furthermore, homeowners can also make the most of the availability of various billing methods, such as billing in accordance with duration of use or in accordance with certain tariff times. This allows consumption to be reduced at peak times, and also gives energy providers the opportunity to adjust their production levels to actual demand.

Secure transmission to the provider
Assurance of security is central to metering applications: data transmissions to providers contain personal information about consumers along with the readings and settings from the meters. Z-Wave provides a secure, dynamic and scaleable end-to-end data transfer between metering devices and energy provider. The Z-Wave AEC standardises the communication and/or the remote automated meter reading (AMR) process that occurs between the meter in the building and the energy supplier. The method of transmission is specially configured for AMR, which means that the accuracy and security of the data can be guaranteed. AES 128-bit encryption is used to enable provision of secure access to metering devices from any computer via the internet.

Source: Press Z-wave

AMEE: a plateform to measure the “Carbon Footprint” of everything on Earth

AMEE est une plateforme qui permet de mesurer et de suivre l'emprunte carbone de n'importe quel objets au travers de service web (API) open source. Les données transmises - libres ou privées (copyright)- peuvent être utilisées pour construire des applications commerciales. Cette plateforme bien que soutenue par le monde anglo-saxon est en phase avec la directive performance energetique Européene pour le calcul du certificat de performance energetique --esa

AMEE’s aim is to map, measure and track all the energy data on Earth. This includes aggregating every emission factor and methodology related to CO2 and Energy Assessments (individuals, businesses, buildings, products, supply chains, countries, etc.), and all the consumption data (fuel, water, waste, quantitative and qualitative factors).

It is a web-service (API) that combines measurement, calculation, profiling and transactional systems. Its algorithmic engine applies conversion factors from energy into CO2 emissions, and represents data from 150 countries and regions.

AMEE aids the development of businesses and other initiatives - by providing common benchmarks for measurement, tracking, conversion, collaboration and reporting.

AMEE is designed to add to and support your business. Its role is to help create, stimulate and be part of the emerging ecosystems around energy data; whether you are creating a calculator or a marketplace, tracking a building or a supply chain. AMEE is complimentary to and can facilitate Smart Grids, information systems, legislative frameworks and compliance schemes.

We aim to assist with the development of energy as a global carbon currency, assisting governments and companies that need to account for and trade internationally in CO2 emissions.

The AMEE platform is used internationally by many organisations including The UK Government (Defra/DECC), The Irish Government, The Welsh Assembly, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Google, Morgan Stanley, Nesta, the Energy Saving Trust, BRE, Radiohead, Sun Microsystems, plus numerous other IT, business services and software companies.

AMEE has been designed to deliver a new standard in functionality, transparency and interoperability.

Example: Real-time, automated carbon footprints

Sending smart-meter data directly into AMEE, and retrieving CO2 in real-time via an Atom feed

AMEE now supports the UK standard assessment procedure (SAP and RD-SAP) for buildings and any future standards. This enables the calculation of an “Energy Performance Certificate” in line with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Source: http://www.amee.com/

Echelon Corp. has released a new version of LonWorks #techno #market

Echelon annonce une nouvelle version de son réseau LonWorks 2.0. Cette version devrait notamment reduire le cout d'installation de 50%. L'article rappel qu'Echelon est très utilisé en Europe avec 1.5 millions de compteurs intelligents + 27 millions chez l'italien ENEL avec son réseau CPL . Bien implanté en Europe Echelon l'est assez peu au US malgrès quelques inititatives de déployement en Californie avec Pacific Gas & Electic (PCG) et Duke Energy (DUK). La technologie CPL Echellon et son concurant HomePlug (supporté par l'alliance Zigbee) ne sont toujours pas des standards ouverts --esa.

By Jeff St. John march 03, 2009

Echelon Corp. (ELON) has released a new version of LonWorks, its widely used technology for building automation to better integrate it into the company's smart grid efforts.

Now the question is, will utilities pick up on it?

Echelon's "LonWorks 2.0" platform announced Tuesday is meant to ease the integration of energy monitoring and control systems and devices into existing LonWorks networks, said Steve Nguyen, director of corporate marketing.

Hundreds of thousands of buildings are now using LonWorks as part of building management systems installed by Honeywell (HON), Siemens (SI) and other big players in the field.

LonWorks 2.0 promises to add a host of new products that can be integrated with existing and new systems, adding improvements that will cut the costs of installing those products by as much as 50 percent compared to the old systems, Nguyen said.

How the new and improved LonWorks platform might help the company's smart grid efforts remains to be seen.

Echelon's smart meter business – called Networked Energy Services – is based on smart meters that communicate data over power lines to concentrators that use IP-based communications networks to get information back to utilities.

Echelon's system has been widely adopted in Europe, with 1.5 million of its smart meters installed and 90 pilot projects underway, Nguyen said. Echelon also provided power line networking to a 27 million home smart meter project with Italian utility Enel (see Will Smart Grid See a Push for Power-Line Networking?).

But Echelon's system has been less popular in the United States, where most utilities have opted for radio mesh or other wireless communications to connect smart meters, citing the higher costs associated with power line networking (see SCE Preps $1.63B Smart-Meter Program and Smart Grid: A Matter of Standards).

While Echelon is working with several U.S. utilities to control streetlights, including major California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG), so far Duke Energy (DUK) is the only U.S. utility to use Echelon for a major smart meter deployment.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based utility is working with Echelon in a project in Cincinnati, that has seen 60,000 smart meters installed so far, said David Mohler, Duke's chief technology officer.

Duke also is seeking regulatory permission to bring smart meters to more than 800,000 homes in its service area in Indiana. Nguyen said Echelon hopes to work on that project as well.

Duke plans to spend $1 billion to bring smart meters to its entire 4 million-household area in the next five years, so Echelon will likely be seeking to prove itself in the utility's initial deployments to get involved in those larger projects, according to a January research note from Deutsche Bank Securities analysts.

Could LonWorks 2.0 help Echelon win those contracts? It's hard to say, but given that LonWorks is already deployed in a large number of commercial buildings, "In the back of our mind is the idea of being able to connect some of that stuff" to Duke's smart meter network, Mohler said. The utility hasn't made any hard plans to do that yet, he added.

But Echelon would like to see Duke and other utilities look to commercial buildings as the target for energy savings, Nguyen said.

"That's really and truly the most near-term alternative energy in the market," as compared to homes, he said. The Department of Energy estimates that 70 percent of all electricity in the United States is consumed in commercial buildings, and 70 percent of that is consumed by lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, he said.

While Nguyen wouldn't say what new products are coming out in conjunction with LonWorks 2.0, he did say the first would be aimed at the commercial market.

Bringing out a new version of LonWorks could be another way to "kickstart" Echelon's smart meter business in the United States, said John Quealy, managing director in equity research for Cannacord Adams.

"Echelon is at the nexus of two trends – utility communications and building communications," Quealy said. "But so far they haven't capitalized on it as such."

The company saw a slowdown in business in 2008, with a net loss of $25.8 million on revenues of $134 million, compared to a loss of $15.7 million on revenues of $137.6 million in 2007.

But the continuation of Duke's smart meter deployments, as well as the federal stimulus package signed into law this month, could boost Echelon's business in the long term, Quealy said (see Obama Signs Stimulus Package).

The bill contains $11 billion to modernize the nation's electricity grid, along with $4.5 billion in grants for smart grid technology deployments. It also has $5.5 billion for improving the energy efficiency of federal buildings, a market where Echelon's LonWorks has some penetration given that the U.S. Army uses it, Nguyen said.

Of course, others are looking to capitalize on making commercial buildings more efficient as well, including the companies that install LonWorks in their building control systems. Honeywell and Siemens are among those increasingly using their own proprietary networks in place of LonWorks, according to Deutsche Bank Securities' January research note.

And then there's Cisco Systems, which last month announced it was getting into the commercial building energy management business with its EnergyWise product running over its own networks. Schneider Electric – another huge building automation systems installer –has agreed to work with Cisco on that effort (see Cisco Jumps Into Energy Management for Computers, Buildings).

As for home energy monitoring and control systems, Echelon is already working with Samsung electronics for devices that monitor energy use in apartments in China and Korea, Nguyen said. Apartments are natural venues for power line communications, since the distances between meters (often located in the basement) and apartments above make wireless communications difficult.

Whether Echelon's power line signaling technology for carrying data from a smart meter over a building's electrical wiring will win out over competing standards is an open question. Another power line carrier technology is being developed by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a group of companies that is working with the ZigBee Alliance to integrate their efforts to bring communications technology into homes.

Given that ZigBee is emerging as a front-runner in the race to become the meter-to-home wireless communications protocol of choice for home energy management systems, that partnership could give HomePlug an advantage over Echelon's technology.

But Nguyen pointed out that Echelon's technology is the de-facto standard for building controls and power line carrier technology in Europe. The company's technology has also been accepted by a host of standards bodies including the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), he said.

As for using ZigBee instead of power line signaling, Echelon's smart meters can be retrofitted to carry ZigBee radios, Nguyen said, though no customers have done so yet.

source: seekingalpha.com

Wireless M-BUS by Texas Instrument #normalisation #techno

Today I just want to give you a brief introduction to WMBUS since the upcoming CC430 will be a good fit for this emerging standard. In short, the WMBUS standard (EN 13757-4:2005) specifies communications between water, gas, heat, and electric meters and is becoming widely accepted in Europe for smart metering or Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) applications.

As you can see from my very simplified drawing, the intention is to use WMBUS inside the home to read different kinds of meters. The E-meter could either be used as a concentrator or a separate concentrator can be used (imagine the E-meter somewhere inside the house but not at a location where you would want to mount a gateway for external communication with the utility company).

Why would anyone want the meters to communicate? Well, it is all about saving energy and cost while increasing reliability:

• all meters can be read without human intervention
• allows status check of any meter for repair/maintenance

Energy displays which shows instant consumption and cost is also easy to add with this technology, and feedback from people I have talked to is that these displays actually have an impact on household powerconsumption (imagine being able to see just how much it costs to turn on that hairdryer or fry an egg on Sunday morning).

An example of an energy company deploying such a display is here:

http://www.scottishsouthern.co.uk/SSEInternet/index.aspx?id=12938&TierSlicer1_TSMenuTargetID=1364&TierSlicer1_TSMenuTargetType=1&TierSlicer1_TSMenuID=6

Who will benefit from this new technology? Here is my take:

1)Politicians: Higher customer satisfaction and CO2 savings

2)Regulators: "Fair" market conditions and consumption transparency

3)Customers: Save money&energy, new services

4)Energy Industry: Process improvement and load balancing (although connecting AC's and water heaters to the network would make things much more interesting as it enables realtime ajustment of peak load on the grid. This functionality can easily be incorporated at a later stage however, and perhaps some countries or companies will add this as a feature.)

Who are the first movers in this space? For now at least Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are moving towards WMBUS as part of their national smart metering solution.

Below are a few links from EnergieNed, the Association of Energy Producers, Traders and Retailers in the Netherlands which describe in detail how smart metering and Wireless M-Bus is being applied in the Netherlands - happy reading!

P3 interface for Electricity meters

http://www.energiened.nl/_upload/bestellingen/publicaties/286_P3Dutch%20Smart%20Meter%20%20v2.1%20final%20P3.pdf

P2 interface for Gas, Gas valve, Thermal (heat /cold), and Water meters.

http://www.energiened.nl/_upload/bestellingen/publicaties/285_P2Dutch%20Smart%20Meter%20v2.1%20final%20P2.pdf

P1 interface for gas, gas valve, thermal (heat /cold), and water meters.

http://www.energiened.nl/_upload/bestellingen/publicaties/284_P1Smart%20Meter%20v2.1%20final%20P1.pdf

By now you might wonder what TI has to offer in this space?

We are active both on chip development and engaging with software development partners. For more information on how to send WMBUS compliant packets with MSP430 and CC1101, take a look at this application note which includes software. http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/techdocsabstract.tsp?abstractName=swra234a

This will of course be updated with CC430 code once the chip is available!

Here are two links to TI development network partners using our technology for "Wireless M-Bus out-of-the-box" solutions - no need for additional RF hardware design, certification or WMBUS software stack development.

http://www.radiocrafts.com/index.php?sideID=328&ledd1=330

http://www.amber-wireless.de/en/produkte/funkmodule/default.php?fnum=122243584339

We would love to hear your comments, feel free to use the comment field on this blog!

Posted on Jan 07 2009 By Erling

Source: https://community.ti.com/blogs/cc430/archive/2009/01/07/wireless-m-bus-and-the-cc430.aspx

Wireless MBUS Implementation with CC1101 and MSP430 par texas instrument

An application note describes how the CC1101 and MSP430 combined can be configured to a modem that complies with the Wireless MBUS standard.

link: Texas Instrument

Radiocrafts and Wavecom introduce Wireless M-Bus and ZigBee® - enabled GSM/GPRS/EDGE gateway for smart metering #techno #market

Radiocrafts AS and Wavecom SA announced (2008-09-18) the launch of a new GSM/GPRS/EDGE gateway for smart metering which embeds Wireless M-Bus and ZigBee, all in a very compact form factor.

The Wireless M-Bus standard (EN 13757-4:2005) specifies the communication between water, gas, heat and electricity meters and concentrators, whereas ZigBee is a standard for monitoring and control applications using low power radio networking.

The unique new solution is based on Wavecom’s Fastrack Supreme, a programmable application processor with GSM/GPRS/EDGE modem capabilities. The Fastrack Supreme comes with an open-standard interface which allows developers to add supplementary I/O connectivity and features in the form of expansion cards. Radiocrafts has developed a unique expansion card for smart metering which adds Wireless M-Bus or ZigBee to the GSM/GPRS/EDGE communications function.

See the press release for more information.

Source: Radiocrafts

World's first Wireless M-Bus module #normalisation #techno

By Peder Martin Evjen

Wireless M-Bus is a new standard for communication between electricity, gas, water and heat meters using short range radio in the 868 MHz band. It has attracted great interest among utility companies and regulating bodies throughout Europe, in standardising data collection from battery operated utility meters. The two-way capability opens up new services and provides improved security and reliability.

Radiocrafts has recently launched the world’s first radio communication module compliant with the new standard. The module integrates all RF communication and Wireless M-Bus protocol in a small ultra low power device. This article provides information on the Wireless M-Bus standard, and the compact module solution used to implement the standard in metering equipment.

Overview
The Wireless M-Bus standard (EN 13757-4:2005) specifies the communication between water, gas, heat and electricity meters or concentrators. The standard is becoming widely accepted in Europe as a basis for new advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) installations.

The Wireless M-Bus standard can be used in several modes (S, T and R), making it suitable for both one-way and two-way communication in stationary or mobile systems. The one-way T1 mode has already been used to some extent in heat cost allocators and water meters. But the twoway modes, in particular T2, are very interesting because these open up not only meter reading, but also valve control, time synchronisation, encryption key distribution, etc. The radio specifications for the different modes are summarised in Table 1.



Table 1 - Radio specifications for the Wireless M-Bus standard

The T mode is made for systems with frequent transmissions. Typically each meter transmits its data once per hour. The high data rate (100 kb/s) ensures very short communication time and hence low power consumption in the RF transmitter.

In two-way systems the T2 mode is also very suitable for battery operated meters, as the RF receiver in the meter is only active for 2-3 ms after a transmission. Only if the concentrator acknowledges the message within this timeslot will the receiver remain on in order to receive further commands.

Wireless M-Bus module
The RC1180-MBUS RF Transceiver Module from Radiocrafts is a compact high performance Wireless M-Bus module for use in automatic metering reading (AMR) applications, in meters and in concentrators. This is the first compact all embedded module compliant with the new Wireless M-Bus standard available in the market.

The module has an UART interface for serial communication and configuration, and a one-pin antenna connection. The module supports all modes, S1/2, T1/2 and R2, including two-way communication. It operates at 12 channels in the 868 MHz frequency band. When used with quarter-wave antennas a line-of-sight range of 600 m can be achieved. The module is designed for use in battery operated systems with more than 20 years of battery lifetime.

The basic module serves as a communication module, acting like a modem. The module is then configured with address information and encryption keys. Application data sent to the module is packed into a Wireless M-Bus frame format and transmitted on air. Encryption is also supported and done by the module. A very low power sleep mode ensures long battery lifetime.

The module functionality can easily be extended to include the complete meter application using the built in real time clock, non-volatile memory and excessive program memory. Such an application module is built to meet customer’s specific requirements.

The module supports AES-128 encryption. This is the preferred encryption since the DES suggested in the original Wireless M-Bus specification is outdated. The AES algorithm is running in a co-processor in the module, helping to speed up the encryption while keeping the power consumption at a minimum.

The RC1180-MBUS module is a compact surface-mounted module measuring only 12.7 x 25.4 x 3.3 mm including EMC shielding, replacing tens of components compared to a discrete design. The module is delivered on tape and reel for volume production. The modular design ensures production scalability and quick ramp-up, rational testing of RF parameters even in volume, and regulation compliance. The RC1180-MBUS module is pre-certified for operation under the European radio regulations for license-free use, is CE-marked and RoHS compliant.


Wireless M-Bus module

Reliability, security and lifetime
Reliability, security and lifetime are crucial aspects in AMR. These aspects are taken care of in the module design.

The frequency stability and ageing of the frequency base are vital for RF performance and for ensuring reliability over time. The RC1180-MBUS frequency stability is specified for operation over more than 27 years.

Metering data is used for billing of large values, and the integrity of the data is vital. The RC1180-MBUS module supports AES-128, which is one of the safest encryption standards used today. A new key can be transferred to the meter using the two-way capability. The new key is encrypted with a default key to avoid compromising the key during distribution. The decoding of the new key is done internally in the module. Hence, the new key is never transferred openly. This encryption key is used together with a time stamp, which is a part of the encrypted data, to prevent fraud by recording and replay of old messages.

Ageing and battery lifetime are important to ensure low life cycle cost and long service intervals of the metering system. In a typical meter implementation, the module is put in sleep mode most of the time. The most important parameter is therefore sleep mode current consumption, and then keeping transmit and receive times as short as possible. In T2 mode, the receive on-time is as short as 2-3 ms. This timing is handled by the module itself, and ensures the lowest possible current consumption.

Current consumption
As an example of the achievable battery lifetime we calculate the power consumption for a system complying with the NTA 8130 standard for The Netherlands.

The battery operated gas meter is transmitting every hour an encrypted data packet including time stamp, equipment ID, meter reading and valve status. The module transmitter current is 37 mA, the receiver current 22 mA, and the sleep current is maximum 1 μA (typical 0.1 μA). Each transmission is approximately 1,100 chips. Using the T2 mode at 100 kb/s, the transmit time for a complete frame is 11 ms and the receive/active time is approximately 4 ms, giving a contribution of 0.14 μA to the total average current. Hence, the average current consumption is completely dominated by the sleep current at 1 μA. The battery lifetime is therefore limited by its shelf life and leakage currents.

Concluding remarks
With the launch of the first Wireless M-Bus module in the market, meter manufacturers, system integrators and AMI providers can now get a complete Wireless M-Bus solution in a small compact module form factor that is easy to integrate into meters and gateways. OEM manufacturers without RF design knowledge can easily add a fully compliant M-Bus solution to their space limited products, and significantly reduce time-to-market, development and compliance testing cost. The module and demo kits are available now.

About the author: Peder Martin Evjen is a co-founder and Managing Director of Radiocrafts. He has more than 20 years of experience in radio technology and short range radio communication. He holds an M.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technical University of Trondheim.

Source: metering.com

Atmel has acquired all MeshNetics ZigBee intellectual property rights #techno#market

Atmel has acquired all MeshNetics ZigBee intellectual property rights from LuxLabs for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition includes BitCloud ZigBee PRO software and ZigBit wireless modules. Currently, Atmel’s ZigBee technology roadmap includes ZigBee PRO and ZigBee Public Profiles support for the new AVR XMEGA and AVR32 microcontroller families.
Source: dataweek

6LoWPAN Vs ZigBee

Written by Akiba

Wednesday, 04 March 2009

After the euphoria of the Zigbee/RF4CE announcement wears off, I still have this lingering sense that the picture isn't really complete. Although the coordinated press releases of the Zigbee Alliance members kind of pounded the message into everyone's brain and cements a second huge potential market for Zigbee, it pretty much just means that along with being an electrical metering protocol, it will also be known as a remote control protocol. This is actually really good news, but chances are that it will end up similar to Bluetooth which was never really able to shake its reputation as a wireless earpiece protocol. One clear thing is that Zigbee now has two large markets under its belt and that's important because it's pretty much the only standard wireless sensor networking protocol that can claim this. This makes it king of the hill, only it's members shouldn't be too complacent because that hill is still really small. Being an industry leader has its advantages such as having a greater chance of survival but unfortunately doesn't necessarily mean that consumers will adopt it. Sure, it can be forced down people's throats by having a Zigbee enabled meter or a Zigbee/RF4CE remote control to come with your Sony Bravia, but if the Zigbee Alliance isn't careful, that's pretty much where it'll end. The real danger for Zigbee is in assuming that because they have the largest potential markets, that consumers will flock to the technology. The true test for any technology is in adoption. This is where 6LoWPAN has the advantage. If you don't know, 6LoWPAN is an IETF draft standard that specifies how IPv6 frames will be carried over the 802.15.4 wireless protocol. The benefit that this protocol, or actually I would be more correct in saying header compression scheme, has over Zigbee is that you can use TCP/IP as the communications mechanism. Notice I didn't mention anything about 6LoWPAN being better than Zigbee, or more efficient, faster, lower power, tastes great, or less filling. Those would be fighting words and I don't want to set off a religious war. The truth is that technological superiority doesn't really matter in terms of adoption except for technical purists, aka geeks. What really matters is that 6LoWPAN uses TCP/IP and TCP/IP doesn't have an adoption curve. There is a huge amount of existing infrastructure, developers, software, standards, and knowledge that people just kind of accept it like air. It's what most of the world uses on a daily basis, whether they know it or not. The weakness of 6LoWPAN is that they don't have a real market for the protocol at the moment and it's mostly because of some technical issues. The main problem lies in the fact that they don't have any standards in place to govern device interoperability of each wireless sensor node. Zigbee spent a lot of time on device interoperability for the nodes and defined standard device profiles that behave in well documented ways. This means that one node can discover what services another node provides, and access those services in a standardized way. They also set up the test labs with testing equipment, checklists, training, certification procedures, and pass/fail criteria to ensure that the devices that make it through the testing and get the Zigbee certified logo adhere to these profiles. Although many people will probably bash me and say that it still doesn't guarantee interoperability, it's still better than anything that 6LoWPAN currently has. Well, I'd better make my point quickly or else I'm going to end up being hated by both groups. My point is that Zigbee has the device interoperability specification and testing infrastructure in place and it also has access to two potentially large markets that are gateways into the consumer home. 6LoWPAN has access to a huge amount of infrastructure, a disgustingly large pool of protocol developer geeks, and TCP/IP which is the lingua franca of communications all over the world. When I said that something felt like it was missing, I really meant that Zigbee needs 6LoWPAN and conversely, 6LoWPAN needs Zigbee. If they could somehow put aside their ideological differences and pointless debates on protocol efficiency, and somehow combine their strengths, this could be a rare case where the sum is exponentially greater than its parts. Not only would something like this re-define how people think of the internet and interact with it, it would also bring some really huge guns into the game…like on the order of Cisco, Microsoft, Google, and Intel. This would be on top of companies like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and Philips that came along with RF4CE. It would also bring a shower of media interest, funding, and most importantly, excitment back into the tech industry which, in this humble open-source developer's opinion, is something that it is desperately in need of. So yes, the Zigbee and RF4CE tie up is great, but the real holy grail is if Zigbee and 6LoWPAN could settle their differences and work together to really create…dare I say it…the "Internet of Things". Source: http://freaklabs.org

Freescale partnering with arivus to develop automated meter reading through power-line

Freescale Semiconductor and arivus GmbH (partner of iAd GmbH) are joining hands to develop advanced orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) power line communications (PLC) modem solutions.
These next-generation PLC solutions target a wide range of building control applications, such as automated meter reading (AMR) and energy management and lighting for the European Union and global deployment. This technology will be de demonstrated at Freescale's Booth #335, Hall 9, at Embedded World.

Freescale and arivus GmbH plan to work together to support open standards for power line modem communications to support metering and building connectivity.

"DLC communications is much more than only the single chipset. In addition to silicon, you have to focus on essential solutions within the communication system software," said Karsten Pott, managing director of arivus. "Only a sound handshake between hardware and software results in high performing availability, for example, with re-routing and transmitted data rates. Together with Freescale, we see plenty of opportunities for improved offerings to the smart grid market."

source: eeherald

A propos

Live metering est un blog de veille partagé dans le domaine du comptage intelligent (smart meter). Les sujets abordés sont:

• Le marché du smart metering et de la gestion des données de consommation, avec notamment l’actualité des acteurs du domaine.
• Les technologies de comptage mais aussi les technologies liées aux transmissions de l’information.
• La normalisation avec notamment l’actualité de différents groupes de travail sur le comptage, l’AMR, l’AMM, le smart metering
• Les produits: matériels, solutions et offres de services existants.
• Les concepts avec notamment des définitions ou explications de concepts métiers ou liés aux comptages intelligents.

Certains articles seront brutes d’autres comporteront des explications, des analyses ou avis. Ces articles sont publiés à titre individuel et n’engage que leurs auteurs.

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