The ZigBee Alliance and Energy@home have detailed plans to cooperate on the creation of an integrated residential energy value added services platform for the European market.
ZigBee’s collaborator, Energy@home, is an Italian collaborative project focusing on communications infrastructure and involving Electrolux, Enel, Indesit Company and Telecom Italia.
The two groups will focus on blending the strengths of ZigBee Home Automation, ZigBee Smart Energy, ZigBee Telecom Services and ZigBee Gateway to forge the platform.
The technological approach resulting from this work will offer control of consumer smart appliances, communication with broadband networks, and communication with Automatic Meter Management system. The groups say that the platform will create value added services designed to help European consumers manage energy use in their homes more effectively.
“Energy@home is focused on increasing consumers’ awareness of their energy consumption, while also providing them with new tools to better control their energy use wherever they might be and at any time at all times,” said Fabio Bellifemine, a member of the Steering Committee of Energy@home. “The ZigBee Alliance has done groundbreaking work by developing a variety of standards that will play an integral role in our proposed platform.”
“The collaboration with Energy@home will increase the scope and value of ZigBee Home Automation,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “Energy@home recognises the tremendous value of the growing family of standards developed by the ZigBee Alliance and we look forward to helping Energy@home seize the numerous time-to-market advantages our standards offer because improving the use of energy is a global issue.”
