Ember-enabled smart meters are becoming increasingly pervasive in Europe as the company’s ZigBee wireless networking technology gets deployed in some of the largest smart meter projects across the continent. Ember’s low-power ZigBee wireless solutions – CMOS wireless system-on-chips (SoCs), networking co-processors (NCP) and ZigBee protocol software – are extensively used in the smart grid and Home Area Networks (HAN) as well as a variety of other sensor networking applications.
For example, the UK’s largest energy supplier, British Gas (parent company Centrica (LSE:CNA)) recently announced the UK’s first commercial-scale smart meter deployment. This initiative will help European homeowners reduce their carbon footprint using Ember-enabled ZigBee smart meters and ZigBee smart energy devices within homes.
In the UK’s largest smart energy initiative to date, British Gas, is planning to provide a million customers with electricity and gas smart meters, along with touch-screen in-home energy management displays.
“It’s the first step in our commitment to lead the UK into a new realm of energy management as part of which we will roll out two million smart meters to customers by 2012,” said Petter Allison, Director Smart Metering, British Gas. “ZigBee as the preferred standard for smart meters and Home Area Networks combined with the over-the-air upgradeability of Ember-enabled low-power networking solutions will ensure we can keep our consumers always up-to-date with the latest capabilities and performance improvements.”
Ember’s ZigBee networking systems – chips, ZigBee protocol software and tools – simplify the complexity of integrating embedded software, networking and RF for developing low-power, wireless products in smart energy, connected home and other remote monitoring and control applications. Ember has been an industry leader, future-proofing customers and partners with the most advanced features. Ember’s EM300 family of ARM Cortex-M3 processor based SoCs with an integrated radio, an outstanding link budget and a unique platform approach give Ember a leading position in Smart Energy and HAN technology.
“Europe is at the forefront of smart metering, driven largely by the European Union’s goal of having 80 percent of households enjoying the benefits of smart energy by 2020,” said Bert Lutje Berenbroek, Ember vice president of sales for EMEA. “Ember’s ZigBee technology is optimized for large-scale deployments like the ones in the UK and other parts of Europe, giving utilities and consumers new energy efficiency capabilities such as demand response, time-of-use pricing programs, energy monitoring, pay-as-you-use and net metering programs.”
See Ember’s ZigBee-based wireless solutions at Metering, Billing/CRM Europe 2010 in booth E-08.
ZigBee: Control your world
ZigBee is the global wireless language connecting dramatically different devices to work together and enhance everyday life. The ZigBee Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 300 member companies driving development of ZigBee wireless technology. The Alliance promotes world-wide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer electronics, energy, health care, home, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: www.zigbee.org.
About Ember
Ember Corporation (www.ember.com) develops wireless mesh networking technology – chips, software and tools – for Smart Energy, connected homes, and many other monitoring and control applications enabling greener living and work environments. The Boston-based company is a promoter of the ZigBee Alliance with an IC design center in Cambridge, England, an office in Hong Kong and sales channels and distributors worldwide.
