Home smart meter developments

Technology companies have been busy recently announcing products to help homeowners monitor and manage their energy usage. Networking companies, cable providers, telecoms, and utilities are all vying for a piece of the nascent, yet rapidly growing, home energy management market made possible by the installation of millions of residential smart meters. Competition is intense as there’s a lot at stake.

Case in point is Cisco Systems. In June, the company unveiled its home energy controller, which is part of a much larger end-to-end play in the smart grid market that spans solutions for utilities, substation networks, smart meter networks, and the home network. Cisco is currently in trials with utilities for the home energy controller.

Whether one company such as Cisco dominates in the home or a multitude of providers and technologies coexist remains to be seen. But one thing’s for certain: the land grab is underway. And semiconductor companies such as Freescale Semiconductor and Intel are positioning to be the technology provider-of-choice for whoever wins.

Market studies and householder surveys predict rapid growth in the smart-metering market over the next few years. IMS Research, for instance, forecasts more than 100 million smart meters with home area network (HAN) connectivity will be installed globally by 2014.

Pike Research predicts a wholesale replacement of over 45% of the North American and European installed base of home meters with smart meters by 2015, representing a 19% CAGR growth and valued at nearly $20 billion. Similarly, GTM Research anticipates a 48% national deployment of smart meters in the U.S. by 2015 and roughly 4 million home energy management HAN systems deployed by 2015, valued at $250 million.

The adoption of home energy management systems is driven by the adoption rate of smart meters and home area networks (HANs). GTM Research projects the HAN penetration rate will grow to 1 in 8 homes in the U.S. by 2015 up from 1 in 40 in 2010, representing 4 million units and a $250 million market.

As for householder demand, a survey by Zogby International found that 74% of Americans would likely change their energy use to save money. Indeed, a yearlong study by the U.S. Department of Energy at its Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that consumers with smart meters saved 10% on their power bills and cut their power usage by 15% during peak hours.

In order to enable householders to manage their appliances, set their thermostat, and regulate power usage, they need a home energy management system (HEM) that, ideally, is compliant with the ZigBee Alliance wireless standard. HEMs either provide their own network or connect into the existing home area network (HAN), which communicates with the utility through the home’s smart meter. The HEM wirelessly communicates with the appliances, thermostats, and smart plugs throughout the home so homeowner can monitor and manage power consumption.

Within the past month, both Freescale Semiconductor and Intel have announced reference designs targeting the HEM market. Freescale demonstrated its Home Energy Gateway (HEG) reference platform in September 2010 in Europe. Intel announced its Home Energy Management reference design earlier in October 2010.

Powered by its I.MX ARM9 processor, Freescale’s HEG includes a central hub that links smart meters, smart appliances, and smart devices in the home area network (HAN) and collects and reports power usage data. The HEG links to a WAN for remote control and monitoring by the utility and communications service provider. It supports ZigBee Smart Energy 1.0.

Freescale’s Home Energy Gateway reference platform is based on the i.MX ARM9 SoC that is both flexible and scalable and based on ZigBee mesh architecture for bidirectional control. The HEG’s controller integration allows for a low bill-of-materials cost.

Freescale’s reference platform is available now through its systems integrator partner Adeneo Embedded, which will provide hardware manufacturing and board support package (BSP) customization and support. The HEG used a four-layer PCB and boasts a low-cost bill of materials, according to the company.

Freescale expects to announce its first OEM customers in early 2011, according to Matt Maupin, Freescale’s senior technical marketer in the Industrial and Multi-Market group. “Several key OEM players are interested,” he said.

Close on the heels of Freescale, Intel’s HEM reference design is based on the Atom processor Z6XX series and Intel’s Platform Controller Hub MP20. The reference design is manufacturing ready and supports both Wi-Fi and ZigBee. The processor integrates a DDR2 memory controller that can accommodate up to 2 Gbytes of memory.

Intel’s Home Energy Management reference design is build around the Atom processor Z6xx series and integrates a DDR2 memory controller for up to 2 Gbytes of memory. The HEM supports both Wi-Fi and ZigBee wireless connectivity.

Intel is marketing the reference design as providing more than just energy management, with the ability to add new applications as they are available. Embedded apps on the dashboard currently include a family message board, weather reports, and home security.

Intel expects to report OEM customers toward the end of Q1 2011, according to Ryan Parker, director of energy for Intel’s Embedded and Communications Group. While rapid growth is expected, just how quickly the market for HEMs takes off will be dependent on a variety of enabling factors from the health of the economy as reflected in the number of housing starts and consumer spending, to system security issues, to the development of smart appliances.

In Europe, Freescale announced this summer a smart grid demonstration project with the Indesit Company, an Italian maker of white goods. Indesit’s Smart Washer was equipped with a Freescale ZigBee node that enables it to adjust its cycle starting time according to energy cost and availability of green power. The washer retrieves this information from the local utility via a ZigBee-enabled Internet connection to the smart grid. ■