(Credit:
SmartSynch)
SmartSynch announced Wednesday night that it has a plan for allowing universal communications between appliances, smart grids, and utilities, regardless of which communication protocol is used.
In May 2008, the Jackson, Miss.-company garnered $20 million in a funding round led by Credit Suisse to develop its communications devices and software for smart meters.
What has emerged is the GridRouter, an Internet Protocol-based universal router with an open platform that can communicate with public and private networks whether they be using WiMax, municipal Wi-Fi, or a proprietary network system.
The GridRouter device could become a darling of utilities by enabling them to connect existing proprietary networks to the GridRouter without having to upgrade their entire system, and using existing off-the-self IT management tools to do it.
The company's public relations team has been telling the press that "SmartSynch sees this product doing for the smart grid what Cisco did for the Internet."
While such grid and appliance interoperability claims might only catch the eye of industry wonks, average consumers should also perk up their ears and listen. Progress on that front could mean the difference between paying a premium for a smart-grid-enabled appliance, or having it come standard on most mass-produced appliances within the next half-dozen years.
SmartSynch's upgradable GridRouter is built to allow utilities to add multiple communications technologies from difference companies and make them all interoperable.
(Credit: SmartSynch)Currently, companies and organizations are jockeying to back what they hope will be the standard of choice for smart-grid interaction when it comes to software and communications tools. The Wi-Fi Alliance announced in November, for instance, that it has a smart-grid task force reviewing how its standards might be modified to become the best choice for smart grids. Google's PowerMeter, while using its existing Web-based portal to provide a platform for smart-grid home data, has partnered with AlertMe, which uses ZigBee instead of Wi-Fi for home devices to communicate with a central hub and smart meter.
Appliance manufacturers like GE and Whirlpool have publicly expressed enthusiasm about incorporating smart technology into their products.
GE announced in July that it's testing Tendril as possible smart appliance software and started several pilot projects in places like Masdar City and Hawaii.
But there has also been some hesitation. Whirlpool said it would like to phase out all "dumb" appliances by 2015, but won't do so until a clear standard communications winner emerges.
Who could blame them? No one wants to be the one left with noncompliant technology once clear winners begin to emerge. But because of this, standardization squabbles could become a hold-up in the smart-grid evolution.
If SmartSynch's GridRouter can provide an easy an out-of-the-box solution to syncing everyone up, as the company claims, it could be the grease needed to quicken the smart-grid build-out.
The University of Mississippi is letting the world in to observe its power consumption in real time.
As part of a green initiative guided by its Office of Campus Sustainability, the university is installing SmartSynch's SmartMeters to monitor and transmit data on the power consumption of lights, appliances, computers, and climate control systems in its buildings.
The SmartMeters contain software and hardware that give electrical meters their own Internet Protocol (IP) address and communicate data via the types of wireless networks used for cell phones back to a centralized virtual dashboard that can be accessed by utilities or customers.
Lyceum's August 13 Facebook status: "(10.46kWh usage, 0.15 kWh peak) Bad day all around. Usage up 7.93% and peak up 6.67%."
(Credit: Facebook/University of Mississippi)The University of Mississippi is already monitoring its historic Lyceum, the John Davis Williams Library, the Gillom Sports Complex, and some of its stadium facilities, and has plans to install SmartMeters in more buildings in the coming months.
In the spirit of social-networking transparency, the ongoing collection of data for the university often known as Ole Miss will also be published in real time on public Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Each building will have its own Twitter channel and Facebook page. Details on where students, faculty, alumni, and others can subscribe will be posted to the school's green initiative Web site, according to the University.
Besides providing the community with a glimpse of how much energy university buildings can consume, the data will be archived for further analysis. The university hopes to determine how things like weather and the habits of its population effect power consumption, and what it can do to lower that consumption.
Monitoring buildings to determine usage patterns--such as the use of Sentilla devices at San Francisco's Moscone Center to look at power and temperature changes during the JavaOne 2008 conference--has become a little more common in the last few years. But Ole Miss seems to be to be one of the first to put its community usage out there for all to see.
Is it wise to let people observe (and pass judgment on) how much power a university's old and new buildings consume?
I'm guessing that the University of Mississippi is no more wasteful than the next institution of higher learning. But if reader responses on past stories of energy consumption are any indication, the general public does not realize how much energy is collectively consumed.
Of course, maybe that is part of Ole Miss' plan.
SmartSynch CEO Stephen Johnston has insisted through several public statements that the biggest catalyst for conservation he's seen is when people come face-to-face with their own usage data.
If SmartSynch gets its way, your utility meter will have its own address on the Internet.
The smart-grid company on Thursday announced that it has raised $20 million, led by Credit Suisse, to invest in development and sales of its networked utility meter technology. To date, the 8-year-old company, based on Jackson, Miss., has raised $80 million.
Joining the Internet: an electricity meter.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)Technologies to upgrade the electricity grid is one of the most active of the clean-tech area. A number of smart-grid companies are building software to better operate the power grid or build "smart meters" that can communicate usage information between customers and utilities.
SmartSynch makes communications devices and software that go into smart meters.
Its gear gives meters their own Internet Protocol (IP) address and uses wireless networks used for cell phones to communicate information back to utilities.
Using the existing wireless networks gives two big advantages to utilities, said the company's CEO Stephen Johnston.
First, they don't need to build their own network, either by upgrading existing infrastructure or establishing a broadband-over-powerline network.
Secondly, utilities can take advantage of new wireless networks, such as WiMax or municipal Wi-Fi, as they become available since SmartSynch uses IP, he said.
Its systems are used by 75 utilities, which are using the metering technology mostly to cater to commercial and industrial customers. For example, a business could sign up for an energy efficiency program where it agrees to let a utility dial-down usage during peak times.
SmartSynch introduced a residential smart meter, which will double or triple the number of products installed in the next few years, Johnston said. It now has 120,000 installed.
In a statement, Nadim Barakat, a managing director in Credit Suisse's Customized Fund Investment Group, said that its investment was driven by the anticipated demand in smart-grid technologies.
"Utilities are deploying smart-meter technology at a rapid rate to avoid the difficulty of building and permitting new power plants, to prepare for impending carbon regulation and more importantly because managing electricity use at a granular level opens up new business opportunities with customers," he said in a statement.
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