By Managing Home Power Loads Via Automation.
June 3, 2009

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, "President Obama has made a smart electrical grid a key element of his plan to lower energy costs for consumers, achieve energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions".

The Initial Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework, Release 1.0 includes the ZigBee/HomePlug Smart Energy Profile standard for defining a Home Area Network (HAN) Device Communications and Information Model. Smart Power Meters are the interface to the Smart Grid in each home. The above mentioned framework has targeted ZigBee as the communication protocol between the Smart Meter and home devices that control power consumption in the home.

This places ZigBee, defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 specification and promoted by the ZigBee Alliance, at the center of future home automation products designed to manage home power consumption. However, the immediate issue is those companies who have already designed automation systems using the ZigBee spec have not consistently implemented the protocol to a level that ensures interoperability between ZigBee products from competing firms.

Recently CEPro published an interview with Eric Smith, CTO of Control4. Control4 was the first company to offer home automation products based on ZigBee, and has formed partnerships with a number of key manufacturers to integrate TVs and other devcies with the Control4 system. Per the CEPro article: "In October 2007, the ZigBee Alliance ratified ZigBee Pro, which makes mandatory certain elements of the once-optional ZigBee stack. Under ZigBee Pro, the alliance began to create profiles for specific applications including home automation". Thus, those companies that implement the ZigBee Pro home automation profile will achieve interoperability with devices from other conforming companies.

Control4 will also be the first to implement ZigBee Pro, which will provide better performance for large networks, with its next software/firmware release to be available in a couple of months to current customers. Eric Smith says that partners LG Electronics (TVs), Black & Decker (door locks) and Mechoshade (blinds) also intend to implement ZigBee Pro.

Perhaps more interesting to those wanting to automate home power consumption is ZigBee is currently being installed in over 36 million electric meters for residential use per Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. Eric Smith says that "quite a few smart meters" already employ the Smart Energy profile within ZigBee Pro. But it isn't so simple to translate that into smart automation devices. However, you can bet Control4 is working on an interface to translate the Smart Energy profile into a form enabling its home controllers to manage ZigBee Pro lighting devices, thermostats, and other components for an integrated home power control solution.