WSN Buzz
Fresh updates on wireless networks standards and new technologies
Archive for January, 2010
January 29, 2010 at 4:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
BACnet International and the EnOcean Alliance, an international consortium of 130 companies from the building sector, announced its cooperation with BACnet’s Wireless Networking-Working Group (WN-WG) to develop a vendor independent gateway specification for integrating EnOcean-based wireless energy-harvesting nodes into the world’s leading data communications protocol for building automation and control. As the only wireless standard offering self-powered operation, EnOcean technology requires neither batteries nor maintenance, thus opening the floodgate to wide-scale deployment of wireless sensing-solutions in commercial buildings, including BACnet-based building automation systems.
Recent meetings between the two organizations have opened the door to the full integration of wireless EnOcean and wired BACnet-enabled technologies, with the result that an EnOcean interoperability proposal has been drafted for the BACnet committee meeting at AHR Expo in Orlando, FL. BACnet—a data communication protocol for building automation and control networks is defined in the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2008 and also the international standard ISO 16484-5.
More here.
January 28, 2010 at 8:22 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
If everyone in Los Angeles put solar panels on their roofs, plugged electric cars into their garages and used smart power-meters today, something interesting would happen.
The electric grid would collapse.
L.A.’s aging grid simply isn’t stable enough to handle environmentalism from everyone, but policy-makers are eager to make that green future feasible. Now, a $60-million stimulus grant from the federal Department of Energy to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), plus $60 million in matching funds from the LADWP, will help local academic powerhouses create a “smart grid” that will take the existing grid to the next level.
More here.
January 28, 2010 at 8:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
As “SNL”’s Seth and Amy used to say: Really?! That was my reaction when I first read the findings from a report issued by NanoMarkets this morning; it claims that U.S. government’s policies and regulations are slowing down the smart grid market. Specifically the report says that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) efforts to set standards for the smart grid is acting as a drag on the market. While governments setting standards for a market isn’t ideal, there’s a couple clear reasons why NIST has stepped in when it comes to the smart grid. First and foremost is that the U.S. government is providing the domestic smart grid market the largest injection of capital in the industry’s history — over $4 billion — in order to kick-start it. Without those funds, which are just starting to trickle down to projects, the smart grid industry would be moving much more slowly, if at all (and a lot more slowly than I think NIST interference would cause).
More here.
January 26, 2010 at 6:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Siemens, the German energy and engineering giant, has been slower to move into the smart grid than fellow competitors like GE and Swiss-based ABB. But over the past year Siemens has seemed to be making up for lost time, announcing a flurry of new projects and partnerships, and saying that it wants to double its current growth rate in the smart grid sector to capture €6 billion ($8.48 billion) in global business over the next five years, compared to its current €1 billion ($1.41 billion) in estimated smart grid related revenues in the fiscal year ending Sept. 2009. So how exactly does Siemens plan to generate all that money? Well, as with fellow giant energy conglomerate General Electric, it’s sometimes easier to point to what Siemens is not doing than what it is doing in industries where it has a broad and sprawling interest. Here are our takeaways for what Siemens is, and isn’t, doing for the smart grid.
More here.
January 26, 2010 at 6:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
MEMSIC, Inc., the leading MEMS solution provider, today announced the completion of its acquisition of selected product lines, intellectual property and fixed assets from Crossbow Technology, Inc. The transaction extends MEMSIC’s sensor integration and solution capabilities, expands its product lines, and strengthens its sales and marketing capabilities.
“This acquisition is a major milestone in MEMSIC’s strategy to move beyond component manufacturing. It offers a myriad of opportunities to develop high-end products and drive revenue and margin growth,” said Dr. Yang Zhao, President and CEO of MEMSIC. “Crossbow’s state-of-the-art technology has applications in many sectors, and its leading-edge solutions will enable us to tap opportunities in the industrial and aerospace markets worldwide. An important goal of the acquisition will be to drive down the cost of Crossbow’s products by taking full advantage of MEMSIC’s manufacturing platform in China. The acquisition will also enable MEMSIC to leverage the many financial incentives offered by the Chinese government to attract high-tech growth.”
More here.
January 26, 2010 at 6:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The IPv6 Forum and IEC agreed to partner in the promotion of SmartGRID solutions at the inaugural event of the Grid ComForum to take place February 2-3 in Santa Clara.
Grid ComForum targets the needs of electric power industry managers and executives responsible for the deployment of smart grid technology, with a particular focus on the communications layer. Grid ComForum provides a unique focus on technology selection and management as well as addresses business case development, market drivers and marketing, operations, and policy concerns.
“The IEC and IPv6 Forum have partnered for the past 10 years in the ICT sector throughout the development of IPv6. Today the IEC is focusing on the challenges of energy efficiency and management with the introduction of the Grid ComForum event. The IEC’s Grid ComForum supports networking and the IPv6 Forum looks forward to participating and promoting IPv6 to make the powergrid smarter. We endorse this great initiative to make it a success worldwide,” states Latif Ladid, President IPv6 Forum & Senior Researcher at University of Luxembourg.
More here.
January 21, 2010 at 11:21 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Wednesday released additional details on requirements for developing the smart electric grid.
The NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0 addresses more than 400 public comments in response to a draft document published in September 2009. The draft proposed standards for the security and technical capabilities of the smart grid.
“One of the major differences in this revision is that we’ve addressed all those comments,” most notably by developing “action plans that come up with gateways and mappings between different networking technologies already in use with grid,” said George Arnold, deputy director of technology services at NIST.
More here.
January 20, 2010 at 10:46 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today that John D. McDonald, general manager of marketing for GE Energy’s transmission and distribution business and an IEEE Fellow, will serve as chair of the governing board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, the organization launched by NIST in November to sustain and coordinate development of interoperability standards for a modernized electric power grid.
The unanimous choice of governing board members, McDonald will serve as the board’s chief spokesperson and will have primary responsibility for organizing its meetings and activities. As required by the SGIP bylaws, McDonald’s selection to lead the board was confirmed by George Arnold, NIST’s national coordinator for Smart Grid interoperability.
More on Freaklabs link.
January 20, 2010 at 10:44 am · Filed under Uncategorized
2009 continued to be a buzzing year for the world of ultra low power wireless sensor networks. More people, up to the president and down to normal consumers, started to realize how these technologies could improve their daily lives, thanks to the efforts of companies and organization from different sections all coming together. Two prominent forces are from smart energy / green power and health / fitness.
In response, in 2009 the WSN world left us with
1. Many new open standards announced and released
2. Fast ever growth of proprietary solutions, many of which have completely morphed into “open” standards, widely admitted or not.
More here.
January 20, 2010 at 10:42 am · Filed under Uncategorized
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, today launched the IEEE Smart Grid Web Portal (http://smartgrid.ieee.org), an integrated gateway to Smart Grid intelligence, education and news from IEEE and other expert sources. The Web Portal is designed for manufacturers, policymakers, educators, academics, governments, engineers, computer scientists, researchers and other stakeholders in the power and energy, information technology (IT), and communications industries.
The IEEE Smart Grid Web Portal is the first phase of IEEE Smart Grid, created to bring together IEEE’s broad array of resources to provide expertise and guidance for those involved in Smart Grid worldwide.
More here.
Next entries »
