Intamac sponsors SMART Energy Summit 2010

Parks Associates welcome Intamac as a sponsor for Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27.

Intamac Systems offers a unique service platform through which consumers can manage and control devices in their home or business (SOHO) using a range of different devices from mobile phones to picture frames.

Together with device manufacturers Intamacoffers a range of innovative and exciting new services for the home including Security, Video, Smart Energy, Care and Control. These services allow their partners to exploit their core capabilities to generate strong new revenue streams. They now have platforms deployed to support the rollout of these new services on three continents; Europe, North America and Australia.

For more information about Intamac, please click here.

George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at NIST, to keynote Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit

Parks Associates announced today that George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, will deliver the afternoon keynote “NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards and the Home Area Network” at Smart Energy Summit.

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Tex., focuses on the opportunities and challenges in residential energy technologies and identifies business strategies for in-home energy monitoring and management systems.

Sessions will include research from Parks Associates’ Residential Energy Management project, which features nationwide consumer surveys and industry profiles to assess the market for energy-related digital systems and services. The most recent consumer survey reports 80-85% of U.S. households are willing to pay for in-home energy monitors if these solutions can lower their electric bills.

In his keynote on January 26, 1:45 p.m., Dr. Arnold will discuss the challenges that need to be addressed in developing the interface between the Smart Grid and the Home Area Network. NIST is coordinating the development of a robust, interoperable framework of technical standards that will help transform the nation’s electric infrastructure into an “energy internet.”

Dr. Arnold was appointed National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at the NIST in April 2009. He is responsible for leading the development of standards underpinning the nation’s Smart Grid. He joined NIST in September 2006 after a 33-year career in the telecommunications and information technology industry.

For the full press release, click here.

The Road Ahead

President Barak Obama has compared the development of the smart grid to that of the national highway system and to support this effort the government has committed over $3.4 billion in smart grid investment grants through the stimulus bill.

On October 27^th, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced winners of the grant program and also announced loan guarantee programs over $16 billion for utilities and technology developers who did not receive any funding. The White House has, on a regular, basis indicated the need to tackle energy challenges and the importance of being independent from foreign sources of energy. Parks Associates will hold a work shop at the Smart Energy Summit on January 27^th 2009 that will shed light on the activities and initiatives being undertaken by utilities involved in the smart grid and what the impact of the stimulus funding will be on smart meter and other technology deployments.

Why a Smart Grid and why now?

The growing interest and media coverage around the smart grid has led a number of people inquiring about what the buzz is all about, why is the smart grid so important and why now?

This topic is very large to be covered in one blog post, but to give as broad of an overview as possible; here is why the smart grid is important.

- The cost of energy is rising and there is no turning back

- Natural energy resources are limited and are being depleted

- The power grid is over 100 years old and is in dire need for an upgrade

- Carbon emission and environmental hazards are going to cause a greater strain on the already tight energy crisis

- The population is growing and so is the demand of energy

These are some of the energy challenges we face today. The above seem like an amalgamation of all the fears bunched into one single paragraph but with the existing technology and research being conducted they are not insurmountable. Can a smart interconnected power grid solve all problems? No, but it is one of the most critical components to tackling all these challenges. It helps us address all of the above and gives us greater insight into how we can address and come together to resolve them. The smart grid is just one of piece of the puzzle.

An intelligent interconnected power grid offers stakeholders and consumers the ability to manage energy with real-time data, utilities can now deploy energy efficient programs with more insight into customer usage and based on the cost of electricity. A smart grid will make renewable energy apart of everyday life by integrating wind and solar power with the grid. Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit will include leading smart grid experts who will share their thoughts on the development of the smart grid and what we can expect.

Parks Associates welcomes Smart Energy Summit Sponsors

Direct Energy, Exceptional Innovation, HAI, iControl Networks, INSTEON, and OpenPeak support industry event

Parks Associates today announced the early sponsors for Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Tex. The conference focuses on the opportunities and challenges in residential energy technologies and identifies business strategies for in-home energy monitoring and management systems.

Direct Energy, Exceptional Innovation, HAI, iControl Networks, INSTEON, and OpenPeak are all early sponsors of the event.

Direct Energy is one of North America’s largest providers of energy and energy-related services. The company has over five million residential and commercial customer relationships, providing choice and support in managing their energy costs through innovative products and services.

Exceptional Innovation manufactures Life|ware®, enterprise software solutions designed to seamlessly connect data and devices for integrated automation and control. Life|ware’s Energy Management Solution provides an efficient, elegant approach to complete residential management, benefiting both energy consumers and utility providers alike.

HAI (Home Automation, Inc.) manufactures integrated automation and security products for residential and commercial use. Its solutions allow utilities to implement time-of-use rating structures, manage demand response during peak demand events, and send custom messages to customers.

iControl Networks, a leader in broadband home management, recently announced its ConnectedLife Energy Management solution enabling utilities and service providers to offer customers the ability to monitor, control and automate their energy usage via the web, mobile phone or touchscreen.

INSTEON is an award-winning home area networking (HAN) technology, currently in trials with four of the top 10 U.S. utilities. Its unique dual-band, mesh, wireless network makes it ultra-reliable and cost effective for energy management, demand response and load-shedding.

OpenPeak Inc. creates, designs, and develops innovative systems and devices that enable simple control of home energy usage, VoIP telephony, digital media, Internet content, and consumer electronics on a single touchscreen device.

Other supporters include AltEnergyMag, CABA, CEDIA, Energy Priorities, Home Toys, Mercom Capital Group, Smart Grid Today, VB/Research, and WinSmartGrid.

For more information, visit www.smartenergysummit2010.com.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Austin Energy to keynote Smart Energy Summit

International research firm Parks Associates announced executives from Austin Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will keynote the Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. The two keynotes provide unique perspectives from business and governmental sides of the residential energy management (REM) industry, offering expert insight on successful deployment strategies and the impact of U.S. funding for smart grid projects.

Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $3 billion in funding for smart grid projects, with matching private-sector funds pushing the total over $8 billion. This funding has implications for technology developers, utilities, and end users, and today there is the right mix of government incentive, competition, and societal pressure to make smart energy solutions viable.

Dr. George W. Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, NIST, U.S. Department of Commerce, will be the luncheon keynote on Tuesday, January 26. He will provide insight into government initiatives for promoting smart grid projects.

Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy, will present the morning keynote “A New Journey: Utility 2.0” on January 26. He will share his vision of the utility of the future, informed by his company’s experiences developing and deploying its Smart Grid. Mr. Carvallo will also highlight new business models and technologies designed to transform consumers into “prosumers” - producers and consumers all in one.

For more information, visit www.energysmartsummit2010.com

INSTEON sponsors SMART Energy Summit 2010

Parks Associates and the SMART Energy Summit welcomes INSTEON as a new 2010 sponsor.

INSTEON is a proven, award-winning home area networking (HAN) technology that is currently in trials with 4 of the top 10 U.S. utilities, serving over 10 million customers. INSTEON has been used in homes since 2005 and has a record of over 28 billion successful messages. Its unique dual-band (radio frequency and powerline), mesh, wireless network makes it ultra-reliable. Its innovative simulcast design allows it to be the most cost-effective HAN available. INSTEON enables energy management, demand response, scheduled load-shedding, real-time email reporting and alerts, daylight harvesting and automated control or response. With over 100 INSTEON products selling in the marketplace – all of which are completely backwards and forwards compatible - INSTEON is the proven HAN solution.

For more information, visit www.insteonsmartgrid.com.

HAI sponsors SMART Energy Summit 2010

The SMART Energy Summit welcome HAI Smartgrid Solutions as its newest sponsor for the January 2010 event.

HAI (Home Automation, Inc.) is a privately held manufacturer of integrated automation and security products for residential and commercial use based in New Orleans, LA. Incorporated in 1985, HAI has developed a full line of Home Area Network (HAN) products for utility customers including Programmable Communicating Thermostats (PCT), In Home Displays (IHD), and Load Control Modules (LCM). The HAI HAN products allow utility customers to implement time of use rating structures, manage demand response by shedding load during peak demand events, and send common custom informational messages to the customer.

For more information, visit smartgrid.homeauto.com.

SMART Energy Summit - Speakers & Advisory Board Announced

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates has announced the preliminary list of speakers and Advisory Board members.

Confirmed speakers:

Susan Cashen, VP, Marketing, Control4
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
David Dollihite, VP, Direct Energy
David Friedman, Senior Director, Strategic Marketing, ZeroG Wireless, Inc.
Dan Gittleman, Chairman & CEO, OpenPeak
Vince Groff, Executive Director, Cox Communications
Jim Johnson, President & CEO, uControl
Thomas Pickral, Business Development, HAI

Current Smart Energy Summit Advisory Board participants:

Andres Carvallo, Chief Information Officer, Austin Energy
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
Ken Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy
Brian Woods, CMO, OpenPeak

The event, January 25-27, 2010, in Austin, Tex., features a unique combination of market research, featuring results from Parks Associates' landmark Residential Energy Management service, and real-world expertise derived from Austin Energy's Smart Grid, the largest working Smart Grid in the U.S.

For more information, visit www.smartenergysummit2010.com.

Parks welcomes iControl Networks, 2010 Sponsor

Parks Associates welcomes iControl Networks as a new 2010 SMART Energy Summit Sponsor.

iControl Networks, a leader in broadband home management, recently announced its ConnectedLife Energy Management solution enabling broadband companies and other service providers to enhance interactive service offerings for a complete broadband home management experience. Additionally, it allows utilities to implement demand response and energy efficiency services to control peak energy usage, optimize existing infrastructure and minimize future investment.

An extension of iControl’s existing ConnectedLife broadband home management suite, iControl’s low-cost energy management solution provides enhanced functionality for its partners and enables consumers to monitor, control and automate their energy usage and maximize efficiency to meet their monthly expenditure and carbon footprint goals.

For more information, visit www.icontrol.com

Smart Energy Summit to focus on in-home energy management and control solutions U.S. Department of Commerce, Austin Energy to keynote conference

International research firm Parks Associates announced the preliminary agenda and current speakers, sponsors, and advisory board for the Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. This conference, hosted in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Tex., focuses on opportunities in residential energy management and the challenges of bringing Smart Grid technologies to U.S. households.

Sessions include the latest consumer research from Parks Associates’ landmark Residential Energy Management service, which surveys both consumers and utilities on attitudes and trends in this growing industry. Early sponsors for Smart Energy Summit include Direct Energy, Exceptional Innovation, HAI, iControl Networks, and OpenPeak. Event supporters include AltEnergyMag, CABA, Energy Priorities, Home Toys, SmartGrid Today, VB/Research, and WinSmartGrid.

Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy, will present the keynote “A New Journey: Utility 2.0” on Tuesday, January 26 at 9:30 a.m. He will share his vision of the utility of the future, informed by his company’s experiences developing and deploying its Smart Grid.

Dr. George W. Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, will also be a keynote speaker at the conference.

For more information, visit www.smartenergysummit2010.com.

What is the smart grid?

The term “Smart Grid” describes the infrastructure required and the resulting benefits when adding network communication and computer processing capabilities to electricity generation, distribution, and management systems.

Key Smart Grid benefits:

• Overall energy efficiency and accommodation of alternative energy
• Service reliability that ensures consistent delivery as population density increases
• Repair and maintenance capabilities to pinpoint issues and outages
• Peak-load and demand-response management

Utilities are investing in Smart Grid technologies to lower operating costs, avoid building new generation plants, and allow the use of alternate sources of energy, such as wind and solar power. Utilities plan to have about 50M AMI capable meters installed within the next 4-5 years; Parks Associates projects 44 M to be installed by 2012.

SMART Energy Summit welcomes Direct Energy & Exceptional Innovation

Parks Associates welcomes two new SMART Energy Summit sponsors, Direct Energy and Exceptional Innovation.

Direct Energy is one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers with over 5 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Direct Energy provides customers with choice and support in managing their energy costs through a portfolio of innovative products and services. A subsidiary of Centrica plc, one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, Direct Energy operates in 21 states plus the District of Columbia and 10 provinces in Canada.

Exceptional Innovation manufactures Life|ware®, enterprise software applications designed to seamlessly connect data and devices for energy management, security, control, and related device monitoring. Life|ware’s Energy Management Solution provides an efficient, elegant approach to complete residential management, integrating and monitoring systems and presenting owners the information they need to optimize their homes’ resources via an easy-to-use dashboard.

Designed on industry leading standards, Life|ware embraces the benefits of Web Services for graceful control of disparate devices or systems, leveraging the information on a simple user interface. Flexible and scalable, Life|ware is the perfect solution for homes, meeting rooms, hospitals, hotels, and more.

To learn more about Direct Energy, visit www.directenergy.com. And, to learn more information about Exceptional Innovation, visit www.exceptionalinnovation.com.

OpenPeak sponsors SMART Energy Summit 2010

Parks Associates welcomes OpenPeak Inc. as a new sponsor for the 2010 SMART Energy Summit in Austin, Texas.

OpenPeak Inc. creates, designs, and develops innovative systems and devices that enable simple control of home energy usage, VoIP telephony, digital media, Internet content, and consumer electronics on a single touch screen device. OpenPeak allows utilities to deliver service updates to users on demand today, and provides a platform for the deployment of future energy applications as they are developed. Through the OpenPeak App Shop, the same device can deliver a complete communications package including news, sports, weather, social networking, and instant messaging and is compatible with a variety of communication standards, including ZigBee and Wi-Fi.

For more visit www.openpeak.com.

Smart grid announcements signal next stage in smart energy projects and smart appliances

The recent lull in smart meter deployments and smart grid projects has come to an end with last Tuesday’s announcement from the Obama administration. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $3 billion in funding for smart grid projects, which will be matched by private-sector funding to push the total amount of investment in smart grid project over $8 billion.

Read More - subscribe to Parks Associates Home Systems Newsletter.

Landmark “Pecan Street Project” Brings Together City of Austin To Design Energy System of the Future

Representatives from the City of Austin, Austin Energy, The University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) unveiled details of the Pecan Street Project, a bold effort to design a new, clean energy infrastructure, business model and proving ground for tomorrow’s energy technology. Corporate partnerships with Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor and GridPoint were also announced.

Austin is not the only city embarking on a “utility redesign” or “smart grid” project. But because Texas has its own grid, modifications to the power system do not require federal approval. And because the City Council is Austin Energy’s board of directors, Austin is in a unique position to implement technology changes more quickly and offer its electric grid as a real-world proving ground for tomorrow’s clean energy technology.

The project scope includes designing a system that: delivers plentiful, reliable and affordable energy to Austin’s growing citizenry; is responsible with Texas’ most precious natural resources, like air and water; can eliminate the need for more polluting power plants; produces a power plant’s worth of energy, generated within the city limits via renewable resources, and that;
Austin intends to share with cities across America and around the world. This project will help cities map out the creation of the infrastructure it will take to power their economies and preserve the environment.

Corporate partners will assist the project team by providing staff resources and strategic guidance within their areas of expertise. Partners will also help the project team identify technologies that can be pilot-tested on the local electrical grid once the initial phase of the project is completed.

For more information about the Pecan Street Project, visit www.pecanstreetproject.org.

Itron and OpenPeak Partner to Allow Utilities and Their Customers to More Actively Manage In-Home Energy Consumption

Itron Inc. announced a partnership with OpenPeak Inc. for integration of Itron’s industry-leading advanced metering systems with OpenPeak’s Home Energy Management Solution. Combining the technologies will allow utility companies and their customers to more actively manage in-home energy consumption to save money and help preserve the environment.

Itron is the first advanced metering vendor chosen by OpenPeak to incorporate its line of user-friendly, multimedia touch screen units into its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)/smart grid network. Under terms of the agreement, Itron will provide ERT reading technology to OpenPeak. This means a single reading device can be used with either an OpenWay installation or many of Itron’s legacy ERT-enabled devices for electric, gas or water service, helping customers leverage their existing Itron investment.

The OpenPeak Home Energy Management Solution provides a simple user-friendly display of the real-time energy usage and pricing data provided by Itron’s advanced metering systems. OpenPeak’s technology also provides a centralized user interface for thermostats and communication capabilities including demand response event notification. Its integration with OpenWay and ChoiceConnect enables utilities to better manage and communicate residential demand response programs to help conserve energy when demand is at its peak. For example, consumers who have signed up for a utility's demand response program can reduce their nonessential usage by cutting back on lighting and cooling in underused parts of their home when the electrical grid is near capacity.

Both companies’ technologies support a variety of communication standards including ZigBee and WiFi, allowing for true interoperability, which is foundational to the burgeoning smart grid.

For the full press release, please click here.

Smart Energy Summit addresses emerging market for in-home energy management devices and services

International research firm Parks Associates announced plans to host the inaugural Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, in cooperation with Austin Energy, on January 25-27, 2010. The event will feature expert speakers and analysts discussing the latest developments in residential energy management (REM) and the successful strategies capable of engaging consumers in new programs for energy conservation and cost savings.

Government initiatives and stimulus funds have stoked demand for REM technologies with their emphasis on energy conservation and greater efficiency in the home. Already over six percent of all U.S. meters are smart meters, and many U.S. utilities are announcing new deployments and pilot programs, which will push the number of smart meters to almost 50 million by 2012. This event identifies the business opportunities for in-home energy monitoring and management systems, accelerated by deployment of energy smart grids.

Early sponsors for Smart Energy Summit include Exceptional Innovation and OpenPeak. Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy, will present a keynote detailing his company’s experiences in developing and deploying its Smart Grid.

Event agenda:
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/energysummit/pages/agenda3.html

For more information, or to submit to speak at the event, visit www.smartenergysummit2010.com.

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates in cooperation with Austin Energy, is the premier conference studying the market for residential energy management enabled by Smart Grid technologies.

The event, January 25-27, 2010, in Austin, Texas, features a unique combination of market research, featuring results from Parks Associates' landmark Residential Energy Management service, and real-world expertise derived from Austin Energy's Smart Grid, the largest working Smart Grid in the U.S.

For more information, visit http://www.smartenergysummit2010.com