Digi International has introduced a comprehensive Smart Energy product family, including the industry’s first ZigBee Smart Energy ready modules and certified Energy Service Portal (ESP) gateways built on these modules. The ZigBee Smart Energy public profile defines how a collection of devices works cooperatively within a network, enabling utilities to intelligently manage energy loads, monitor energy use and optimize consumption.
Digi ZigBee Smart Energy products also expand the recently launched iDigi Energy wireless M2M solutions bundle, which features the hardware, hosted software and services necessary to quickly and easily integrate Smart Grid devices. iDigi now includes Smart Energy ready hardware as well as Smart Energy software support through the iDigi platform, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that connects remote assets to a customer’s applications.
XBee and XBee-PRO ZB ZigBee modules feature ZigBee Smart Energy-ready firmware for supporting the implementation of each of the eight devices defined in the ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile. These include ESPs, metering devices, in-premise display devices, programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs), load controllers, range extenders, smart appliances and prepayment terminals. Developers making these devices can now use Digi’s Smart Energy products and iDigi Energy bundle to dramatically reduce the development and certification time, and overall expertise required, to produce a ZigBee Smart Energy product.
Additionally, XBee and XBee-PRO ZB ZigBee modules handle networking, joining, authentication and key establishment functions, and provide simple network and module configuration via the XBee Application Programming Interface (API). Customers can also upgrade their existing XBee and XBee-PRO ZB modules with Smart Energy firmware free of charge.
The ConnectPort X2 ESP enables energy service providers to deploy HAN devices that are completely managed by the Digi gateway over a broadband or cellular connection, allowing Smart Grid services to be deployed in areas not covered by Smart Metering networks. Once a Smart Meter is installed, the gateway can join that network providing programmable energy services in the home and secondary communication paths over public networks for enhanced energy service offerings. The ConnectPort X2 ESP was tested and certified using National Technical Systems' (NTS) ZigBee Smart Energy (SE) Test Harness.
