A jointly developed demand-response system for the Smart Grid – which combines Honeywell’s (News - Alert) UtilityPRO thermostat with Cooper Power Systems’ Yukon software and communications technology – is among the first to receive certification for ZigBee Smart Energy, version 1.1, released on July 20.

ZigBee Smart Energy is the global wireless standard for interoperable products that monitor, control, inform, and automate the delivery and use of energy and water. The new release, version 1.1, adds several important features, including dynamic pricing enhancements, tunneling of other protocols, prepayment features, and over-the-air updates; as well as guaranteed backward compatibility with certified ZigBee Smart Energy products version 1.0.

In addition, the San Ramon, California-based ZigBee Alliance – the non-profit organization that manages the Smart Energy standard–has designated the collaborative Honeywell/Cooper Power demand-response system as a “golden unit,” making it a benchmark that the alliance will use to test other products for certification.

Effective demand response strategies help utilities to temporarily reduce load on the electric grid when energy usage and prices spike – typically on the hottest days of the year. The UtilityPRO/Yukon platform facilitates a variety of control strategies that enable utilities to improve energy management through two-way communication. The resultant decrease in demand helps to stabilize costs, prevent disruptive brownouts and blackouts, and reduce the need for additional power plants.

The new certification means that the touch screen, programmable thermostat from Minneapolis-based Honeywell can receive signals from the utility via the customer’s smart meter or in-home gateway. As a result, both utilities and homeowners can get detailed insight into energy consumption, and maximize the benefits of demand response technology and smart meter deployments.

The Cooper Power Systems Yukon advanced energy services software is the engine behind the thermostat. It is a robust platform with an integrated delivery process and Web-based management dashboards that provide visibility into program performance and other metrics. The software offers utilities more communication choices than any other solution, according to Cooper Power, along with additional two-way features and a solid migration path for the future.

“Cooper Power Systems has a proven history of delivering solutions that enable utilities to maximize their investment, reliability, and customer participation,” said Mike Stoessl, president of Waukesha, Wisconsin-based Cooper Power Systems. “Our technologies add intelligence and automation to the grid, from the substation to the home. This next generation of demand-response communications demonstrates interoperability among solution providers, plus it provides utilities with more real-time load forecasting, verification, and customer feedback.”

“An electrical grid that’s more intelligent and robust will engage the consumer in new ways,” said Kevin McDonough, director of Honeywell Utility Solutions. “Adding ZigBee communication to UtilityPRO empowers smart energy users, and helps maximize the investment utilities and regulators are making to modernize the grid. It’s an important link between the smart metering infrastructure and utility customers in the home.”

To date, 33 utilities in the United States and Canada have selected UtilityPRO and Yukon for their demand-response platforms, providing combined control of more than 500 megawatts of peak energy usage. The long-term collaboration between Honeywell and Cooper has delivered more than 500,000 programmable communicating thermostats for programs across North America.

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