The technology is being used by more utilities
as a way to both manage and bill for energy consumption.

ZigBee, the low-power short-range wireless mesh technology standardized by the IEEE, has reached one of those inflection points pushing the technology forward in the marketplace. Although ZigBee is usually considered an in-building technology, however, the driver for this growth spurt is coming from outside.

Home automation has been one of ZigBee’s markets, but utility companies and their suppliers are starting to use the technology as a way of monitoring in-building power use to help cut down on brown-outs and cut utility use during worrisome periods. ZigBee is starting to be used in this way in California, Florida and Texas, as well as in several Swedish cities.

ZigBee, defined under the IEEE 802.15.4 specification, uses license-free 2.4 GHz spectrum and was set up to offer very low power consumption at low cost and relatively low data rates. For building automation, this is perfect because it can transmit and receive the data necessary to run controls like light switches, heating and cooling thermostats, and a host of other controls.

But utility companies are starting to see ZigBee as a way into the home, helping them monitor what energy is being used, bill according to energy used at specific times of the day, alert home or building owners of high-usage events, and – if the owner agrees – regulate usage.

“This is the rising tide,” says Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “This is the demand driver. And this is not a luxury decision.” The latter point refers to some views that home automation is used in McMansions and homes built by Bill Gates.

Gothenburg, Sweden, plans on installing ZigBee throughout the city, becoming the world’s first “ZigBee City,” while Stockholm also is looking at the technology. Southern California Edison has started on a project to install 2-way meter communications to about 5 million homes and businesses, potentially linking to control systems via ZigBee. And Texas and Florida utilities are on the same path.

ZIGBEE BULLS
Analysts are bullish about the ZigBee marketplace.

Chris Kissel, research analyst for In-Stat, expects between 70 million and 90 million ZigBee chipsets will be sold in 2010, used mostly in a combination of routers, end points and gateways. He estimates the average chipset will cost $10 by 2010, making a market of $7 to $9 billion.

In the shorter term, Kirsten West, principal analyst for West Technology Research Solutions is forecasting chip sales totaling $21.5 million in 2008. She says the biggest ZigBee market then, at $6.4 million, will be in home automation applications, followed by building automation at $3 million and utilities at $1.5 million. West Technology also is forecasting there will be 120 million ZigBee devices by 2010.

California utilities are being pushed to become more energy efficient under a state law that went into effect in 2005, called Title 24. Among other things, the law mandated that any new building construction or remodel must enable utilities to communicate inside the home through a programmable computing thermostat.

Southern Cal Edison decided in late 2006 to use ZigBee for the in-home network. The utility started field tests on the advanced meter system this summer in a few thousand homes and hopes to have full-scale deployment taking place between 2009 and 2012.

California’s initiative was prompted because the state doesn’t want another round of rolling blackouts, and the utilities also see it as a way of controlling their costs. Heile says the utilities, by knowing what the energy use is in the home at any time, could notify the home or building owner to turn off some of their power-consumptive equipment. If the building owners grant permission, the utilities could even remotely turn down power consumption at the building.

Texas and Florida utilities also are looking at using ZigBee as part of their metering process, although neither state has mandated the use of networked programmable thermostats.

In Sweden there is a new law requiring utilities to read electrical meters at least once a month and some utilities are using that as an opportunity to save costs by cutting down on manual meter reading and getting real-time information for differential pricing.

The city of Gothenburg in central Sweden and its utility Gothenburg Energi, are going to use ZigBee both for home controls and as an outdoor wireless link back to the utility. Energi plans on installing about 8,000 ZigBee access points around the city of 500,000 people to link the meters to the central office. Energi then will use the real-time metering for billing on actual energy consumption. Gothenburg started installing the first of 270,000 ZigBee-enabled meters this year and hopes to have the job completed by 2009.

Heile says utilities globally also are starting to use ZigBee as the wireless link to other meter systems, such as gas and water meters.

DIGITAL HOME
Inside the home, ZigBee continues to find uses in home automation products. LG Electronics announced it will use chipmaker Ember’s technology in its digital home technology.

LG plans on using Ember’s EM250 ZigBee system-on-chip in its HomNet home networking system, which the company says will give homeowners the ability to check and control appliances and home automation devices throughout the house, as well as manage utilities, monitor the outside of the home, and provide a central communications hub.

Bob Gohn, marketing vice president for Ember, says commercial building automation, home automation and home security are the three hottest areas for ZigBee now. The home security application often is offered through an operator, he says, such as SK Telecom in South Korea.

Ember also is supplying a ZigBee solution used by France’s Orange for remote medical monitoring of patients. Orange is developing a system that allows caregivers to track the movement of elderly relatives who are living independently, as well as nursing home residents. The elderly wear a ZigBee tagging sensor that sends notifications of location as the patients move about. It includes a “panic call” feature if the person becomes incapacitated.

Gohn says Orange also is considering using the system with health monitors to keep track and report on vital signs.

But, Gohn says, “the market we’re seeing the most excitement about is advanced metering and infrastructure. Utilities are trying to get greener and control demand in their utility network.”

In other words, ZigBee is generating a lot of energy now.