Track Overview

Green Energy & Connected Homes

Track Leader:  Terry Mohn
Wednesday May 21, 2008

From energy cost concerns to power availability and blackout mitigation, a new dawn is emerging in the supply of energy to homes and residential consumers of energy. The emergence of the Smart Grid, an intelligent way for the electricity grid to automatically regulate the supply of electricity from generation to consumption, is creating incredible opportunities for homes to be connected in real-time to the grid and provide a solid infrastructure for homes to be truly green and energy efficient. This track will present the vision and deployment plans for connecting homes with each other and with energy suppliers through smart meters to create a flexible way to coordinate distributed energy generation, storage and usage strategies.

Smart Meters: A New Gateway into Homes

11:30 - 1:00

With millions of smart meters to be implemented in the U.S. alone in the next few years, this new information gateway into homes will introduce an era of real-time energy management for emergency curtailment and load management, integrated into consumers’ lifestyle requirements and other home automation and entertainment systems. This session will provide an update on the plans to roll out smart meters in California, North America and the world markets.

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HAN (Home Area Network)

2:30 - 4:00

With the increased number of smart devices in homes, a new term is emerging that focuses on the network infrastructure within the confines of the home. The HAN (Home Area Network) is a network that should encompass all manner of systems, applications, and technologies required within the home for efficient energy, convenience, lifestyle, security, and entertainment. This session will feature a panel of experts laying out the foundation of HAN, explaining the vision, realities, and expected timeframe and impact to many industries that operate in homes.

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Home Connectivity & Renewable Energy

4:30 - 6:00

From PV (Photovoltaic) to wind turbines and other distributed renewable energy generation technologies, the homes of tomorrow will make up the new paradigm of distributed energy that will be the hallmark of the Energy Revolution. Included in this view is a new breed of energy storage technologies from batteries, ice storage, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and maybe some day hydrogen. The dynamics of these generation, storage, and consuming appliances (all with their smart and intelligent controllers) will need to be coordinated so that generated energy can be maximized and appliances can operate when required. This is only possible with a pervasive connectivity of all such devices, with intelligence and logic to control their behavior for maximum performance. This session will present a panel of experts that will draw the picture of the role of connectivity in the future of green energy efficient homes.

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