ZigBee Updates Its Smart Energy Standard
The ZigBee Alliance has updated ZigBee Smart Energy version 1. The advanced metering infrastructure standard is now available for product development and public download.
ZigBee Smart Energy is a standard helping to create greener homes by giving consumers the information and automation they need to reduce their energy consumption. ZigBee Smart Energy version 1.1 adds several features including dynamic pricing enhancements, tunneling of other protocols, prepayment features, over-the-air updates and backwards compatibility with certified ZigBee Smart Energy products version 1.0.
"The new features of ZigBee Smart Energy reflect real-world smart grid experience gained from the millions of implementations of ZigBee Smart Energy in the market today," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, in a statement.
ZigBee Smart Energy enables energy service providers and utilities to wirelessly communicate with and manage common household devices such as smart thermostats, in-home displays and appliances. It improves energy efficiency by allowing consumers the means to manage their energy consumption more precisely using automation and near real-time information. Consumers have the ability to choose from more than 100 ZigBee Certified products using ZigBee Smart Energy. It also helps utilities and energy providers implement new advanced metering and demand response programs to drive greater energy efficiency.
The new ZigBee Smart Energy 1.1 products have been independently verified to be fully interoperable and have earned the right to be branded with the ZigBee Certified logo and the ZigBee Smart Energy icon on product packaging and advertisements.