Tendril will achieve an industry milestone at Plug-In at Grid-Interop this week when its extensible platform is used in conjunction with multiple smart grid interoperability standards. The company's platform, both in the cloud and at the network edge, is the first to work with Smart Energy Profile (SEP) 1.x and SEP 2.0 standards to communicate to in-home devices using ZigBee and WiFi communication protocols at the same time. This successful demonstration of a migration path to SEP 2.0 removes the critical utility and regulatory concern that deploying technology with existing standards will result in stranded assets as future standards are rolled out. Additionally, it signals the arrival of the next wave of communications between smart energy devices for consumers, and utilities and other energy service providers.

"This is a pivotal moment not only for Tendril, but for consumers and the Smart Grid industry as a whole," said Kent Dickson, CTO at Tendril. "It's a 'Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you' moment and represents the culmination of years of industry collaboration. The interoperability standards now exist so that we can meaningfully engage consumers in Demand Response programs and deliver on the promise of the Smart Grid's benefits to utilities and consumers. This industry first is the direct result of our open-standards based platform approach to home energy management."

The demonstration shows an A-to-Z Demand Response event from a utility through to several in-home smart devices, including a WiFi thermostat. It uses the OpenADR standard and a proof-of-concept of Tendril's next generation broadband embedded gateway platform to send direct load control and price signals between utility back office systems, and third-party Demand Response systems from vendors including Honeywell and Lockheed Martin, to smart devices in the home including a MMB Research enabled programmable thermostat and Tendril's smart plugs and load control devices. Tendril's next generation gateway supports both SEP 1.x and SEP 2.0 (pre-release) concurrently.

Utilities licensing the open-standards based, extensible Tendril Connect cloud platform can leverage existing investment in SEP 1.x-based technology as well as begin to deploy SEP 2.0-based technology, knowing that Tendril's technology can support both. This means utilities can avoid stranding assets, continue to provide consumers with the benefits of the Smart Grid and be confident that Tendril's open, flexible platform allows a path forward for both the migration to SEP 2.0 as well as the co-existence of technologies using both standards.

Tendril will also demonstrate a prototype smart energy application that delivers a consumer's energy usage data in a simple, common, electronic format, a concept advocated by U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, known as the "Green Button" initiative. In October, the three largest utilities in California agreed to an action plan to make the Green Button a reality by the end of 2011. The demonstration will showcase how any utility using the Tendril Connect platform can generate a Green Button file for their customers. Tendril has already opened its APIs to app developers, who in turn can use Green Button data to create new energy applications.

Organized by the GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC), Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Clasma Events, the Plug-In at Grid-Interop is designed to demonstrate to the Smart Grid community that standards-based, end-to-end application interoperability among multiple vendors is not only feasible, but is being delivered today by the vendor community in a competitive marketplace. The event takes place from December 5-8 at the Phoenix Convention Center.