@ UTF: Connected home, grid to change energy management

HERSHEY, Pa.—There may be disputes about what the connected home will look like, or how utilities will use wireless technologies to better manage their networks, but most everyone agrees that both the connected home and the smart grid will redefine how people manage their lives. At the Utility Telecom Forum this week sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Wireless Association in Hershey, Pa., participants touched on smart grids, smart buildings, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and connected homes.
Unruffled by a major snow storm that rattled much of the northeast, UTF participants forged ahead with speakers who had to call in to give presentations, stand-in presenters from other companies presenting slide decks they hadn’t seen before and missing panelists – but it worked. People still exchanged information, asked intelligent questions and gave thoughtful answers and networked. In fact, during one presentation where a stand-in guest was presenting another company’s slides, he asked the audience how many of them had had to present something they had not seen before. Surprisingly, about half of the audience had.
Verizon Communications Inc.’s Bob Heffron, who was unable to physically get to the conference because of the snowstorm, presented Verizon’s version of a connected home. The Home Monitoring and Control project, introduced earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, offers an affordable way to families to securely manage their home with surveillance cameras, alerts and status reports for things like energy use and the like, all via a broadband-agnostic platform that can be controlled from the laptop or smart phone, Heffron noted.
Users can watch movie on their TV and at the same time see status reports on the lights on in the home, weather outside, energy consumption in the home and who is at the front door via a video surveillance camera. The company is conducting a pilot program now in New Jersey and is planning to commercially launch in the second quarter.
Smart buildings
Beyond residential applications, Verizon is offering software as a service to large building owners to help them remotely control the amount of energy that is consumed in commercial buildings and data centers. It is estimated that 40% of all of the energy consumption in the United States is from buildings. By lowering a company’s energy bill, that company gets a lower operating expense and can defer some capital expenses. The company is targeting data centers, multi-dwelling units and big-box retail and warehouses. Sensors in the building through a device gateway unit allow the I.T. department at the company to monitor and manage energy consumption from laptops and smart phones.
Verizon also noted its LTE network is going to change the game on smart grids and connected homes. The 700 MHz frequency propagates into homes better and also will allow Quality of Service agreements with utility companies for a smart grid solution, said Tom Whitaker, manger of enterprise data sales for Verizon Wireless.
Consert is using smart-meter infrastructure with CDMA EV-DO and Zigbee chipsets inside to help consumers and utilities understand energy consumption better, said Charlie Mathys, business development manager with Consert. The company was formed in 2008, with investments from General Electric Co., Qualcomm Inc., Constellation Energy and Verizon.
Consert’s technology allows consumers to set their energy profiles, turning off the air conditioner when everyone is out of the house, for example, and turning it back on a half-hour before the family returns at the end of the day. The technology also helps utilities better control their networks in near real time. For every 400 homes using the technology, the utility takes about 1 megawatt of power off the grid.