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Networking Inside the Plug

by

Ken Pyle

A Smart Energy HAN Consortium is how Alan Weissberger titled his blog post about an alliance of alliances that consists of the WiFi Alliance, the Home Grid Forum, Zigbee  Alliance and the HomePlug Alliance.  As Alan explains, the intent of this super group is to help companies that provide products that communicate over IP to certify to SEP 2 (Smart Energy Profile 2) via a consistent test plan.  The big picture is that these groups want to ensure an inner-operable smart grid.

In this interview at the Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit, Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Alliance, alluded to the idea that different home networking technologies are complementary and hinted of the opportunity to use these networks for the smart grid.  He explains how HomePlug overcomes some of the earlier limitations of communications over powerline and how one European utility integrated a variation of HomePlug technology into its smart meters; eliminating the need for wireless transceivers at the meter.

This video was filmed in January 2011 at the Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit and is brought to you by Parks Associates.

4 responses to “Networking Inside the Plug”

  1. RobertWilliams Avatar
    RobertWilliams

    MUST-SEE 4-minute youtube video on Smart meters:

    Reply
  2. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    This is an interesting video commentary. There are definitely household electricity signatures that provide a great deal of meta-data and could be very valuable to various parties, including electricity distributors, advertisers and law enforcement agencies. As a result, there are privacy implications regarding the meta-data associated with a household’s electricity consumption.

    The fact that this video, at least at the time I write this, has 10x the number of likes versus dislikes, indicates that insuring the privacy of customer’s metadata and gaining their trust may be increasingly important in making the Smart Grid a success.

    Reply
  3. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    One thing that should be pointed out is that in California the customer owns their meta-data –

    Report to the Governor and the Legislature on Smart Grid Plans and Recommendations and Energy Meta Data Privacy and the Impact of Vehicle Electrification

    Here is some recent insight on an order issued last week from California’s PUC on an already passed Senate Bill SB 1476 dealing with customer privacy in the smart metering infrastructure.

    Cracking the Data Access and Security Nut

    Parks indicates that privacy will be a topic of discussion at their Smart Energy Summit

    Reply
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