Design Article
Meters evolve to bring the smart grid home
Brian Davis, Renesas Electronics America Inc.
7/4/2011 2:06 PM EDT
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This competitive ecosystem will likewise empower consumers to manage their home energy consumption with confidence and will provide certain levels of control to their selected energy providers, allowing the parties to optimize costs.
One aspect of the smart grid that is gaining momentum is the rollout of "smart appliances" that can adjust their operating parameters based on measurement feedback from consumers or utility companies. All of the major appliances in the connected home would have individual energy measurement capability, remote control and networking capability on the home area network (HAN).
In November, GE Appliances & Lighting announced the creation of a Home Energy Management business, whose offerings will link to the smart grid system to provide insight into and control over energy usage within the entire home. In a recent report, IMS research predicts nearly 10 million smart appliances will be installed in US homes by the end of 2020, a prospect that presents significant opportunities for consumers, technology developers, device manufacturers and service providers alike.
As gateways within the HAN, smart meters play a key role in smart grid power distribution networks. They monitor energy usage by smart appliances HVAC and other home systems, and they communicate the data to consumers and utilities in real-time, allowing energy providers and users alike to make more informed decisions.
Recognizing smart meters' critical role in modernizing the grid, Renesas Electronics America and other semiconductor leaders are developing silicon solutions that meet the specific design criteria for this market, including interoperability for ZigBee, Wi-Fi, powerline communications and other networking protocols. Companies are fielding optimized microcontrollers and tailored system designs that integrate everything from the MCU and voltage metering systems to data storage and displays.
Dynamic pricing will also be a key factor in broad consumer adoption of smart grid systems within the home and, ultimately, full deployment of the smart grid. Leveraging the data provided by smart meter systems, energy resellers could actively broker from a range of power generation technologies, packaging energy from the most cost-efficient generation sources to supply energy efficiently to a wide user demographic.
While the smart grid is still in the early stages of deployment, stakeholders from across the spectrum have committed to smart energy.
The targeted end result –full implementation of the smart grid – will enable orders-of-magnitude gains in efficiency and, ultimately, a wiser allocation of resources.
About the author:
Brian Davis is director of the Segment Marketing, Consumer & Industrial Business Unit at Renesas Electronics America Inc.
This article was originally published in EE Times' special digital issue entitled: "The connected home"
This competitive ecosystem will likewise empower consumers to manage their home energy consumption with confidence and will provide certain levels of control to their selected energy providers, allowing the parties to optimize costs.
One aspect of the smart grid that is gaining momentum is the rollout of "smart appliances" that can adjust their operating parameters based on measurement feedback from consumers or utility companies. All of the major appliances in the connected home would have individual energy measurement capability, remote control and networking capability on the home area network (HAN).
In November, GE Appliances & Lighting announced the creation of a Home Energy Management business, whose offerings will link to the smart grid system to provide insight into and control over energy usage within the entire home. In a recent report, IMS research predicts nearly 10 million smart appliances will be installed in US homes by the end of 2020, a prospect that presents significant opportunities for consumers, technology developers, device manufacturers and service providers alike.
As gateways within the HAN, smart meters play a key role in smart grid power distribution networks. They monitor energy usage by smart appliances HVAC and other home systems, and they communicate the data to consumers and utilities in real-time, allowing energy providers and users alike to make more informed decisions.
Recognizing smart meters' critical role in modernizing the grid, Renesas Electronics America and other semiconductor leaders are developing silicon solutions that meet the specific design criteria for this market, including interoperability for ZigBee, Wi-Fi, powerline communications and other networking protocols. Companies are fielding optimized microcontrollers and tailored system designs that integrate everything from the MCU and voltage metering systems to data storage and displays.
Dynamic pricing will also be a key factor in broad consumer adoption of smart grid systems within the home and, ultimately, full deployment of the smart grid. Leveraging the data provided by smart meter systems, energy resellers could actively broker from a range of power generation technologies, packaging energy from the most cost-efficient generation sources to supply energy efficiently to a wide user demographic.
While the smart grid is still in the early stages of deployment, stakeholders from across the spectrum have committed to smart energy.
The targeted end result –full implementation of the smart grid – will enable orders-of-magnitude gains in efficiency and, ultimately, a wiser allocation of resources.
About the author: Brian Davis is director of the Segment Marketing, Consumer & Industrial Business Unit at Renesas Electronics America Inc.
This article was originally published in EE Times' special digital issue entitled: "The connected home"
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mac_droz
7/5/2011 4:59 AM EDT
"Smart grid" is a buzz word of the current decade. It is used by politicians and all the sales people types. The only trouble is that it means nothing... There's no single definition of what the smart grid is... We have a feeling that it has something to do with renewables, dynamic tariffs and so on but how do you actually imagine that? I am very afraid that in our pursuit of getting thing working better we actually can make it worse.
Just imagine having one of those "smart" meters (why the ...beep... is everything called smart these days?), right? Your tariffs are changing during the day, whenever the sun goes up and wind starts blowing. Now you as a concerned citizen (concerned with your bill) spend half of the day looking at your meter and waiting for price to go down to start your washing. How will you get billed? Will it be something like:
10.3 kWh @ $0.15 (from 01/01/2020 10:15 to 10:17)
1.77 kWh @ $0.147 (from 01/01/2020 10:17 to 10:21)
.... and so on, the list goes through 200 pages....
And what if you say "I do not agree! I remember looking at the meter from 10:17 and it was showing $0.13!!!". Will there be any log available on the net? This thing becomes so complicated that NOBODY will ever be able to use it. Maybe it is actually the point. You'll just stop controlling your bill (because you'll never understand it) or maybe you'll hire a company to put an automation in place that would "lower your bill". From the history we know that very often when we start complicating things the outcome is quite different.
Why not have one tariff for all and just allow people to generate some amount of energy that might offset their use? One meter, on tariff. If your roof is filled with solar panels and you get a lot of sun, the meter spins the other way. Simple, efficient, understandable for all. The only problem is that it may not be so profitable for the semiconductor companies and all the new industry that might be build around it.
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cdhmanning
7/5/2011 4:15 PM EDT
I fully agree with you that smart metering is unlikely to change electricity consumption habits.
If you want to watch TV you want to do it when the popcorn is hot. You won't get up at 3 am to get better rates.
But the people pushing Smart Grid etc in Congress are not bothered with reality. If they get pressured enough, and the voters start saying they want it, then Smart Grid will be forced onto the populace whether it makes sense or not.
If that happens there is going to be a huge market that many people want to profit from.
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B.V.Rao
7/9/2011 2:28 AM EDT
Smart Meters appropriately employed in distribution systems of power deficit, developing countries where certain sections of people are given power at a subsidy or no cost will greatly help in managing the available resources. While I concur with the view above, time of day metering and tariff greatly helps the utilities to optimally utilize the generating resources. One can always set a timer for washing machine or dryer to use power in lower tariff time zone. Dynamic billing like the tariff changes by minute is meaningless and would create only confusion for user and business for IT companies and semiconductor companies.
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