Cisco and Control4, two of the connected home heavy weights have entered into a strategic partnership around the creation of smart home energy management solutions. Both companies already have their own platform; control4 has its EMS 100 Suite and Cisco has the Home Energy Controller (HEC). Control4 recently announced that it was going through another round of funding, which could be the drive behind this partnership with Cisco.
Sunverge Energy (Sunverge) is pleased to announce the nation's first simple, cost-effective energy management system that intelligently distributes generation and storage of renewable energy. Capturing solar energy and storing it for use when it's needed most, Sunverge is addressing the inherent barrier to widespread adoption of renewable energy.
Verizon is in another grid partnership, this time it is with eMeter, an application provider to the utility industry. Both companies have announced their collaborative effort to provide a cloud base smart meter data management solution to utility companies. The solution will be offered through Verizon’s IP Network by eMeter smart meter data management platform, offering utilities the peace of mind that their data will be secure and reliably delivered.
Alvarion, a provider of 4G networks in the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) market, announced that Pennsylvania's PPL Electric Utilities is deploying Alvarion's BreezeMAX Extreme 3650 WiMAX solution as part of its smart grid communications network.
Leading smart grid innovator Portus has announced that it has commenced a project with Queensland’s Ergon Energy to trial electric vehicle integration with the electricity grid.
Fuji and GE have created a new Smart Grid solution company (GE Fuji Meter Ltd) to provide smart grid technology to the Japanese market. According to both companies the joint venture is to design, build, market and service a new generation of electric meters, supporting Japan’s advancement to a smart grid infrastructure. The joint venture was finalized on February 1, 2011 and they have selected GE Energy’s Daniel T. Nakano to head the new venture.
Tendril and Whirlpool have announced that they are going to collaborate on the development of a range of smart home appliances capable of interacting with the Smart Grid, like the LG Electronics THINQ range. Whirlpool will integrate Tendril’s energy platform into the Whirlpool range of home appliances for the American market. Both companies are at this year’s DistribuTECH showing prototypes of these products.
Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, along with Hydro One, GE, IBM and Telvent, today released a highly-anticipated report that shows the way forward for utilities working to embed privacy into the emerging Smart Grid.
Sierra Wireless announced that Ambient Corporation has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime embedded modules to provide 3G wireless connectivity for Ambient's latest X-series smart grid communications node, used by energy and utilities companies. The X-series smart grid node is part of the Ambient Smart Grid communications platform, which provides utilities with a critical link in building a modern energy infrastructure that enables connection with micro-generation and renewable energy sources.