ZigBee Alliance and Energy@home ally on European residential energy platform

MILAN, ITALY & SAN RAMON, USA: The ZigBee Alliance and Energy@home will co-operate on the creation of an integrated residential energy value added services platform for Europe by leveraging four ZigBee standards. Under a liaison agreement, the groups will focus on blending the strengths of ZigBee Home Automation, ZigBee Smart Energy, ZigBee Telecom Services and ZigBee Gateway to create the platform.

The platform, proposed by Electrolux, Enel, Indesit Company and Telecom Italia, will offer control of consumer smart appliances, communication with broadband networks, and communication with Automatic Meter Management system. The platform will create value added services designed to help European consumers better manage energy use in their homes. These energy services will also give Europeans the ability to lead the way in the global energy efficiency challenge.

"Energy@home is focused on increasing consumers' awareness of their energy consumption, while also providing them with new tools to better control their energy use wherever they might be and at any time at all times." said Fabio Bellifemine, a member of the Steering Committee of Energy@home. "The ZigBee Alliance has done groundbreaking work by developing a variety of standards that will play an integral role in our proposed platform."

"The collaboration with Energy@home will increase the scope and value of ZigBee Home Automation," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "Energy@home recognizes the tremendous value of the growing family of standards developed by the ZigBee Alliance and we look forward to helping Energy@home seize the numerous time-to-market advantages our standards offer because improving the use of energy is a global issue."

ZigBee Smart Energy is the world's leading standard for home area networks used by Smart Grid programs to boost energy management and efficiency in homes around the world. ZigBee Telecom Services provides telecommunication network operators with a variety of value added services through the use of mobile devices. ZigBee Home Automation creates smart homes with more control conveniences that improve comfort, convenience and efficiency. ZigBee Gateway offers a global device standard for connecting ZigBee networks seamlessly to the Internet with service providers, including telecom operators.