Itron Extends Smart Grid
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
Itron Has Taken the Next Logical Step in Its Push to Embed Computing Power and Analytics Capabilities in the Devices That Make up the Smart Grid -- by Moving Beyond the Grid Itself and Into the Devices that Use Its Power
Itron announcedthat it's expanding its "edge intelligence" platform to include smart thermostats, pool pumps, water heater and air conditioner controllers, and a host of other load control devices. It's the first set of devices to be linked through Itron's Riva platform -- the IPv6-capable, Linux-programmabledistributed technology platform it developedwith partner Cisco Systems over the past few years andofficially unveiled last week.
Right now, all of Itron's available devices are built bypartner Corporate Systems Engineering, but it's working with other potential device partners, as well as with several utility clients interested in putting them to use, Stephen Johnson, Itron's consumer energy management product line manager, said in a Monday interview.
Itron is also embedding its intelligence in agricultural pumps and remote terminal units (RTUs) that control grid or factory equipment. Itron's display of connected devices at its annual Utility Week users conference this week in San Antonio, Texas, also includednetworked streetlights, although the company hasn't officially announced a Riva-embedded streetlight control product yet, Johnson noted.
Technology to allow utilities to turn down air conditioners, water heaters and other devices isn't new, of course. Demand response companies have been using one-way pager or radio networks for decades to control them. Today's smart meter networks offer another way to reach them, with the additional benefit of two-way communications to ensure they're getting the signal and reacting as ordered. And software can help utilities integrate different smart thermostats from different vendors into a single system, as startupAutoGrid has been doing with Texas utility Austin Energy.
What makes Itron's load control devices different is that they're using the same chipsets, the same internet protocols, and the same open-source programming that are being used today for its smart meters and Cisco's grid routers, Johnson explained. This provides several advantages over legacy load control architectures, he said. For example, because Itron's devices have their own IP addresses, they can be organized and managed much more simply and quickly than different devices using different technologies.
Because each device is part of the same Itron-Cisco network, they can be constantly monitored for connectivity, latency, responsiveness and other key quality of service measures, he added. Itron's demo showed how a set of devices using Cisco's IPv6 wireless mesh networking technology could be controlled alongside devices using cellular connectivity from Verizon, all from the same control screen, and all reporting back their status and power consumption in real time.
Finally, each device can be reprogrammed using Linux, the world's most popular open-source operating system, he said. That should make writing "apps" for these devices much fast and simpler, compared to writing new application programing interfaces (APIs) to link up the proprietary technologies being used in most of today's load control systems.
"We don't know what the control hierarchy is going to be in five to ten years," Johnson said. Building in the flexibility to adapt to new ways to use these devices should help prevent them from becoming stranded assets in the future. Newstandardized energy control interfacesfor big household appliances like water heaters and air conditioners could also serve as a connection point for Itron's technology, he added.
Itron's move into distributed computing for grid devices is being matched by a few key competitors, including Silver Spring Networks, whichlaunched its SilverLink Sensor Networkearly this year. Both companies have lined up many different software and hardware partners to work with them on using the capabilities inherent in their distributed architectures, though neither has named any utilities that may be testing or deploying yet.
Cisco'sIOx platform and "fog computing" architectureplay an important role in enabling Itron's distributed intelligence platform. The two haveco-deployed with utilitiesincluding inaugural customer BC Hydro,Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,Hong Kong's China Light & PowerandNational Grid.
Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here
Media
Taxonomy
- Business Development
- Technology
- Smart Grid