HomeGrid Forum and ZigBee Alliance Team to Establish Wired & Wireless Smart Home Applications
The HomeGrid Forum (HGF) announced a new liaison agreement with the ZigBee® Alliance to extend their collaboration on the ZigBee Smart Energy™ standard development. This work will pave the way for consumers and utilities to use ZigBee Smart Energy version 2.0 wireless or wired networks to further advance Smart Grid programs and deliver new energy, financial and environmental savings.
Both organizations will collaborate on ensuring ZigBee Smart Energy version 2 and HomeGrid Forum’s ITU-T G.hn and G.hnem standards can be utilized in a wide variety of smart grid usage models. When finalized, applications such as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure), Demand Response (DR), Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) and any other Smart Grid application/service that needs a reliable Home Area Network (HAN) or distribution/access network will benefit.
"ZigBee Smart Energy is a leading home area network and AMI standard that helps consumers gain greater control of their energy use," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "Working with HomeGrid will give energy service providers, utilities and consumers another wired choice when implementing either wired or wireless home area networks or utility links to smart meters."
The organizations have a history of working together. HomeGrid Forum contributed to the ZigBee Smart Energy version 2 technical requirements document and both Alliances are leading members of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), a U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) group that includes industry leaders dedicated to developing and harmonizing technology and standards recommendations for the Smart Grid.
"HomeGrid Forum has teamed with ZigBee to help create a greater choice of networking technologies that could be used for smart grid applications in the home and for utility links to smart meters. Through the inclusion of G.hn’s high-speed data networking and G.hnem’s lower-speed smart energy applications, network designers, appliance manufacturers and consumers have the tools available to build robust, ’service anywhere’ networks," commented Matt Theall, President of HomeGrid Forum. "The ZigBee liaison further underlines HomeGrid Forum’s commitment to collaborate with other industry-leading organizations to combine forces, and develop leading, best-in-class solutions that speed the mass deployment of the Smart Grid."
ZigBee Smart Energy enables energy service providers and utilities to wirelessly communicate with and manage common household devices such as smart thermostats, in home displays and appliances. It improves energy efficiency by allowing consumers the means to manage their energy consumption more precisely using automation and near real-time information and additionally gives consumers the ability to choose interoperable energy saving ZigBee Certified products from a variety of different manufacturers and connect them into a home energy management network. It also helps utilities and energy providers implement new advanced metering and demand response programs to drive greater energy management and efficiency, while responding to changing government requirements.
