Jun 25 2009

The Future of Home Energy Management on Display

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

This week Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is hosting its annual convention and expo in San Francisco. The conference focuses on the major public policy challenges now facing the electric utility sector and features such thought leaders as U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu and Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp. Hot topics on this year's agenda include the smart grid, the future of electric vehicles, renewable energy standards, carbon trading and energy efficiency.

As the host utility, PG&E created a special demonstration for attendees simulating how customers will one day communicate with PG&E through SmartMeter's Home Area Network (HAN) gateway. This demonstrated how customers can utilize the HAN to better manage their energy use and participate in voluntary demand response programs.

In the demonstration booth, a variety of smart energy devices were connected to the HAN, including a thermostat, in-home display, smart plug, demand response enabled refrigerator and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). PG&E then initiated a demand response signal to the HAN to reflect an energy curtailment event. Based on settings preset by the customer, the smart energy devices, refrigerator and PHEV automatically adjusted to reduce energy consumption. For example the thermostat automatically increased its set point temperature by five degrees and the PHEV disabled its charge. The demonstration also showed how customers can easily override a demand response event if needed. Check out pictures of the demonstration below.

As my colleague Jonathan Marshall has written before, electric customers stand to benefit greatly from a smarter grid, including more control over energy bills and better, faster service.

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"PG&E" refers to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation.