Newly ZigBee certified products join ZigBee Smart Energy lineup more than 100 products strong.
The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of organizations creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer applications, announced that an update to ZigBee Smart Energy version 1, the first and only widely available Advanced Metering Infrastructure standard, is now available for product development and public download.
ZigBee Smart Energy is the industry leading standard helping to create greener homes by giving consumers the information and automation they need to easily reduce their energy consumption and save money. ZigBee Smart Energy version 1.1 adds several important features including dynamic pricing enhancements, tunneling of other protocols, prepayment features, over-the-air updates and backwards compatibility with certified ZigBee Smart Energy products version 1.0. These features not only make it easier for consumers to use, but also make it ideal for utilities and energy service providers to deploy and operate. Plus, the over-the-air update feature enables easy upgrades to existing installations.
Pike Research projects a $26.1 billion global market for smart energy devices and appliances by 2019, and anticipates that ZigBee will lead in wireless connections to smart appliances. Additionally, ON World estimates that ZigBee Smart Energy will account for half of global revenues for home energy management equipment and services, aggressively projected at $3.3 billion by 2014, among both wired and wireless systems.
“The new features of ZigBee Smart Energy reflect real-world Smart Grid experience gained from the millions of implementations of ZigBee Smart Energy in the market today,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “ZigBee Smart Energy products that have been ZigBee Certified make it easy for utilities and governments to deploy smart home solutions that are secure, easy-to-install, interoperable and most importantly, consumer friendly.”
Utilities and consumers can select from a growing list of interoperable ZigBee Smart Energy Certified products ranging from thermostats to meters. The new ZigBee Smart Energy 1.1 products below have been independently verified to be fully interoperable and have earned the right to be branded with the ZigBee Certified logo and the ZigBee Smart Energy icon on product packaging and advertisements. These marks are designed to clearly communicate interoperability.
- Alektrona Corporation: Z-Aperture Energy Management Hub ZA07-200 is an open energy management hub allowing energy solution providers to build best of breed energy management systems that best meets their customers’ needs and budget.
- Cooper Power Systems: UtilityPRO is a Honeywell touchscreen programmable thermostat designed for utility-sponsored demand response programs and is equipped with a Cooper demand response module.
- Digi International: ConnectPort X2 ESP is an energy services portal enabling energy service providers to deploy HAN devices controlled over broadband or cellular connection, allowing Smart Grid services to be deployed in areas not covered by Smart Metering networks.
- Ember Corporation: EM35x Development Kit can be used for EM351 and EM357 system-on-chips (SoC) or Network Co-Processor based development.
- Elster Solutions: REX2 / gREX Meter is an advanced meter supporting emerging needs of smart grid initiatives, such as enhanced memory, greater security and remote upgradeability.
- MMB Research: RapidSE is a drop-in platform that fully automates ZigBee Smart Energy and is easily adapted to OEMs’ existing protocols, allowing device manufacturers to leapfrog application development and rapidly deliver products to multiple markets.