Home Gateway Initiative supports smart grid solutions with Home Energy Management

The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) has presented detailed use cases at a special event with the hope of speeding the global roll-out of Home Energy Management (HEM) services.

Utilities address a range of issues with smart grid approaches from reduction of peak energy demand and distribution to finer granularity of pricing during peak versus off-peak times. There are different ways to provide visualization and control services associated with these approaches. Although some of these technologies are in fact quite mature, it is their use in combination that is cutting edge.

"HGI is addressing these in a way that will work together with smart grid solutions from utilities, and also allow consumers to better manage and understand their energy use, schedule smart appliances, and take advantage of differential tariffs from utilities so as to minimize energy bills," said Chief Technical and Business Officer for HGI, Duncan Bees, in an interview.

From both a generation and distribution point of view, utilities are motivated to reduce peak as it relates to average consumption. HEM increases the ability of consumers to shift consumption to off-peak hours to the benefit of the utility. Besides monetary savings achieved through intelligent control of home appliances, heating and other high-load services, most customers attach value to eco-friendly practices. Utilities that facilitate green approaches are viewed more positively. The success of reducing peak power consumption could delay or even avoid having to bring new power generation capacity on line, which has both cost and security of supply benefits to utilities and consumers.

The HEM service is just one of a number of potentially related applications such as security, remote monitoring, home automation, etc. These services rely on interconnection within the home, as well as service intelligence located both in home and in the "cloud." Challenges include standardization of home interconnection technology, availability of flexible application logic within an always-on home gateway, and selecting appropriate security and configuration approaches. One particular challenge is the standardization, acceptance and availability of open interfaces between the smart meter and home gateway. There are also issues with data ownership and privacy.

Industry groups are working to address these challenges, including wired and wireless interfaces, appropriate smart energy APIs and software application technology for home gateways. HGI is bringing commonly agreed requirements for home gateways as well as industry test events to assist manufacturers to bring the appropriate products and features to the marketplace. This technology can provide the energy industry with much more information about and control over energy usage. It can help the management and control of locally generated or feed-in electricity, leading to a more flexible, controllable and environmentally friendly energy industry.

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