Standards are evolving to serve home-area networks (HANs), advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and energy management. To ensure that it offers a comprehensive standard with broad support for energy management and efficiency in homes, the ZigBee Alliance is asking for feedback from the smart-grid community on current revisions of the ZigBee smart energy version 2.0 Technical Requirements Document (TRD) and Public Application Profile. In addition to these technical documents, the alliance has made available public comments received last year for both documents and alliance responses.
The alliance received thousands of comments from around the world, which were carefully reviewed and evaluated for inclusion in the updated documents. The revised documents reflect the work of many stakeholders in the industry, such as product manufacturers, utilities, chip makers, and meter manufacturers. Contributions to the proposed standard also came from the HomePlug Alliance, International Society of Automotive Engineers, SunSpec Alliance, and Wi-Fi Alliance, among many others.
Public comments on the ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0 TRD and Public Application Profile are being accepted through online submission. all documents can be found online. Comments must be received by april 26. The Alliance will announce future public-comment periods based on the successful completion of development milestones.
The Public Application Profile and TRD are driven by the Market Requirements Document that was made publicly available in June 2009. The ZigBee Smart Energy version 1.0 standard has been publicly available since May 2008. ZigBee Smart Energy enables energy service providers and utilities to wirelessly communicate with and manage common household devices, such as smart thermostats and appliances. It promises to aid utilities and energy providers as they implement advanced-metering and demand-response programs to drive greater energy management and efficiency. ZigBee Smart Energy also enables consumers to manage their energy consumption using automation and near-real-time information.