Cisco Home Energy Management Solution

At the end of June, 2010 Cisco announced a new solution for management of house energy consumption - Home Energy Management Solution. The solution allows residents to obtain detailed information on power consumption in real time. Direct access to this functionality provides the home power controller (Home Energy Controller). It represents the flat touch screen which is installed on a table and contacts other home devices – "smart" counters, "smart" switches and programmable thermostats, – optimizing management of energy consumption in the house.

In addition to providing information for adoption of reasonable solutions in the field of energy consumption, Home Energy Controller gives the chance to set rules and diagrams of use of energy on the basis of the data provided in real time, historical data and data on each home device. The controller can calculate the probable cost of energy and give useful tips on economy of expenses. As a result it is possible to achieve significant cost reduction and reduction of emissions of hydrocarbons.

Several months ago the Dutch municipal service of Nuon performed a pilot project on installation in households of the touch screens showing information on energy consumption in real time. As a result project participants reduced consumption of electricity by 9 percent, and gas consumption – for 14 percent. "Other pilot projects showed similar results, – Paul Fulton says. – According to IDC if home users obtain information on energy consumption in real time, the power consumption is cut from 4 to 15 percent".

Management of house energy consumption (Home Energy Management, HEM) using Smart Grid technology provides installation of "smart" counters.

According to IDC analytical company if the user obtains data on energy consumption in real time, he reduces energy consumption by 4-15 percent. According to other analytical company - Zogby International, 74 percent of residents of the USA are ready to change usual methods of energy consumption to cut down the expenses if the relevant technological solutions appear.

As for municipal services, for them the solutions HEM open new opportunities for improvement of relationship with consumers, load control, protection against new competitors and formation of new sources of income from additional services. However, before the solutions HEM will be widely adopted, the industry should adjust convenient procedures of sale, installation, protection of new solutions and management of them. At the same time municipal services should select for themselves the place from a technology chain of HEM. Some municipal services, probably, will be limited to recommendations about acquisition of products and services at these or those trading companies, others will start own business selling the equipment of HEM and to providing related services to end users.

Management of house energy consumption

Treat number of factors on which the role and the place of utility company in distribution of products and services of HEM depend:

• Regulatory requirements and market conditions. Municipal services are under the growing pressure from the regulating authorities, consumers and the public requiring to increase efficiency of use of energy, to reduce emissions of hydrocarbons and to use more renewable energy sources, including in apartment houses and apartments. "Smart" counters and HEM devices play an important role in the solution of these tasks, reducing energy consumption, especially, in hours of peak load.
• Wide circulation of consumer "smart" counters. Considerable shifts in house energy consumption can achieve, obtaining detailed data about energy consumption from "smart" counters. By estimates of Parks Associates company, by 2014 in the USA in apartment houses more than 50 million such counters will be installed. Data on house energy consumption will be useful to municipal services which will be able to develop optimal rates for each time of day, to change habits of end users and to expand participation of consumers in issues of balancing of demand and supply. It is especially important for satisfaction of demand for the electric power in rush hours.
• New sources of income. Management of house energy consumption opens to municipal services of a possibility of formation of new sources of income due to implementation of new services and strengthening of the relations with users. Except sales of products and services of HEM, these solutions can raise a consumer interest to estimates of power efficiency, programs of reimbursement of expenses and to use of profitable environmentally friendly power sources.
• Fight for the consumer. In the future municipal services should compete with other retail energy suppliers and the companies of other types (for example, with telecom operators) who also aim to strengthen the relations with individual users. Service offering of HEM will help housing and communal services to increase loyalty of customers and to beat off the attacks of the competitors trying to enter the same market.
• Interests of customers. Showing the increasing interest in ecology, people expect from municipal services of implementation of the HEM functions because reduction of energy consumption - an important part of environmentally friendly vital style. The research conducted by Parks Associates company showed that the customers who are interested in the HEM functions represent very attractive segment of the market in terms of demography and average income (more than 50.000 dollars a year). They differ in the high level of education and activity in all age groupes. As municipal services implement the new rates considering time of day and other factors, consumers will begin to understand, how it is profitable to postpone power-intensive works since rush hours to other time.
• Electric vehicles. In the future the electric vehicles which are loaded via sockets of the electric network will extend. They will become a new potential source of income for municipal services and at the same time will create the new problems connected with balancing of load of home power supply networks.

That management of house energy consumption will bring to municipal services

In the United States apartment houses can give to municipal services to a half of economy of energy. Besides, reduction in demand will allow housing and communal services to save on purchases of the expensive equipment and to reduce emissions in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases in an electric power production process.

Installation of the first "smart" counters showed need of transparency and exact informing users on energy consumption. The solution HEM maintains transparency of indications of "smart" counters and gives to municipal services new opportunities for reduction of energy consumption using the stimulating rates and useful tips.

Installation of the consumer solutions HEM will provide to utility companies and other advantages connected with load control and strengthening of customer relations:

• Programs of response to demand. Involving home users in programs of response to demand, municipal services will be able to increase considerably the capacity of the transferring networks and load of resources in rush hours and also to lower load of the generating and distribution capacities. Traditional solutions of response to demand rely on the systems of one-sided communication and cannot transfer information on decrease in real energy consumption. Unlike them, the solution HEM provides to municipal services all information necessary for effective response to the fluctuations in demand. Researches rendered that timely informing consumers on economy of energy and decrease in power costs at once after the event promotes bigger involvement of users in programs of the energy supplier.
• Dynamic rates. Special rates for hours of peak load and other periods of a daily cycle help municipal services to create incentives which induce consumers to reduce energy consumption and to shift it since rush hours for other time. However this system of tariffing can seem to some users difficult and tangled because of what the number of participants of this program can appear less expected. Using the solution HEM the municipal service can explain to consumers of feature of tariff plans, transfer anticipatory notifications and give ampler opportunities on management of energy consumption. All this, in addition, increases the level of satisfaction of customers.
• Connection to a broadband network. Today "smart" counters are connected to narrowband networks that limits possibilities of municipal services on interaction with other home "smart" devices. Installation of the solution HEM in the apartment house will become the successful addition to the AMI program (Advanced Metering Initiative is the installation program of modern counters implemented in the USA). It will make available to municipal services home broadband networks and will allow to interact with home users much better. Besides, broadband access can become an alternative method of delivery of tariff information to the house in case of lack of the "smart" counter.
• Additional services with added value. The solutions HEM open before municipal services a possibility of use of advertizing and services, attractive to the user, with added value. Here prepayment-based programs, use of environmentally friendly power sources, control of gas and water meters, tariff warnings and tools for management of the family budget enter.

Solution HEM role

The complete solution HEM proposed by municipal services includes the hardware devices, network connections, data and services helping users to monitor energy consumption and to manage it. This solution pays special attention to the most power-intensive house systems: to heating, ventilation and conditioners and also boilers and large home devices (see the drawing below).

The complete solution HEM from the point of view of municipal service.

The solution HEM gives to the consumer the chance to carry out the following tasks:

• browse data on energy consumption;
• manage thermostats in heating systems, ventilation and conditioning;
• get advice on economy of energy;
• manage the profile in programs of response to the fluctuations in demand;
• browse the account and information on billing;
• manage all home devices.

The complete solution HEM set in the apartment house consists of the following components:

• The home power controller (Home energy controller, HEC) - the hardware device with the desktop display including applications for monitoring and energy management of each house system and each home device. It has interfaces for connection of networks, peripheral devices, "smart" connectors and the "smart" counter.
• The "smart" counter provided by municipal service (considers energy consumption and transfers data retrieveds to the HEC device).
• Network connections. The home network connects among themselves programmable thermostats, home devices, "smart" counters and the HEC controller. Broadband Internet connection is used for transmission of messages from municipal service on the HEC device, for loading of new applications and software versions from municipal service and external suppliers and for technical support of hardware components.
• Involvement of users. Information on use of energy and the message of municipal service are displayed by HEC. The solution HEM supports applications of the external companies and provides to the user access to HEC via smartphones and other mobile devices.
• "Smart" connectors and "smart" devices. The wireless managed sensors of external suppliers monitor work and manage energy consumption of normal, "nonintellectual" devices and devices (for example, heaters of water and pumps) using "smart" connectors. These connectors transfer to traditional, "nonintellectual" devices control signals, allowing to control their work.
• The programmable communication thermostat (Programmable Communicating Thermostat, PCT) - the home thermostat from the external supplier with the interface for contact with the HEC controller. He allows to monitor work of heating systems and coolings and to manage them.
• Services of a hosting - selection of the HEC resources and management of these resources, application integration from external suppliers, support of the portals focused on users and municipal services.

BORE - the main device of this solution supporting control functions by house energy consumption:

• monitoring of consumption and cost of energy;
• monitoring of individual devices and management of them;
• information access on the user portal;
• participation in programs of response to the fluctuations in demand;
• participation in dynamic tariff programs (receiving from municipal service of information on rates and response to this information);
• personal data protection and home network.

The municipal service should not only care for functionality of each solution HEM, but also provide simplicity of its installation and management to them. Ideally the solution for management of house energy consumption should support:

• the attractive and simple interface in use (otherwise the user will lose interest in services and will forget about the "smart" device);
• full range of network functions and also functions of information security and personal data protection for optimal contact with the most different devices;
• internal services (back-end) allowing specialists of municipal services to manage home devices. These services should support automatic selection of resources, remote update of software versions, hierarchical control of groups of devices and implementation of analytic functions for identification of trends of use of energy.

Strategy of Cisco for management of house energy consumption

The solution portfolio of Cisco® Connected Grid intended for Smart Grid networks includes full-scale solutions for management of house energy consumption. The home power Cisco HEC controller – the device with the desktop display which is supporting a set of network protocols and having the special mechanism for work with applications is the cornerstone of these solutions. The touch screen allows to browse and control the most different systems, including programmable PCT thermostats, smart sockets and extenders and also "smart" devices - refrigerators and boilers.

The Cisco HEC controller is a part of broader architecture of management of house energy consumption (see fig. 2). It includes the HEC connections in the house of the customer, communication with the information network Smart Grid and approval of data with other utility systems and external applications.

This architecture allows municipal services to manage directly the solution HEM and to increase it, connecting new "smart" counters. The modular, based on standards design of the products Cisco entering architecture of Cisco HEC helps municipal services to strengthen the relations with consumers and the markets due to development and integration of new house services.

Cisco Home Energy Management: general solution architecture.

To provide to municipal services a flexible solution of HEM with complete functionality, Cisco together with some other the companies builds an ecosystem of compatible peripheral devices and applications. Within this initiative the companies of the following types cooperate with Cisco:

• the integrators of the energy companies and municipal services creating uniform power infrastructure;
• suppliers of technologies for "smart" counters, automation of networks of electricity transmissions and automation of corporate and house power solutions;
• the telecom operators providing network connections and network transport services;
• system integrators and consultants for business processes, applications and data management;
• the retail trading companies and other service providers with added value and support services.

Cisco offers municipal services the rich network experience and knowledge of home and large corporate networks. Network equipment (one of the best in the industry), computing platforms, the integrated software tools and professional services covering all range of functional requirements scalable, trusted and the Smart Grid safe networks enter a solution portfolio of Cisco. Cisco uses networks as the platform for providing the advanced services and applications to corporate customers and for an exit to consumer markets via channels of retail for a long time and successfully.

Over time the commitment to open standards and construction of the ecosystems including products of other companies will do advantages of Cisco HEM more and more notable. Cisco remains on a first line of development of the technologies opened, based on standards for IP communications and Smart Grid networks. In this Cisco area cooperates with such organizations as IETF, IEEE, alliance IPSO (IP for Smart Objects - IP for "smart" objects), Smart Grids EU, the Global initiative of the ex-U.S. President Clinton, EPRI Intelligrid, alliance Gridwise and Smart Energy Alliance (SEA).

More detailed information on the specialized products Cisco for management of house energy consumption and Smart Grid technologies can be received on the following web pages:

• [1] solutions Cisco for management of house energy consumption;
• [2] solutions Cisco Smart Grid.