New members expand PRIME Alliance’s smart grid community to 53 companies
With membership now reaching 53 companies, representing a balanced sample of stakeholders involved in the smart metering field, PRIME Alliance welcomes utility HC Energia (EDP group, joined 2012), Polish utility Energa-Operator (joined 2012), who are in the process of installing their first 310,000 PRIME smart meters and its newest member E.ON. They join other expert partners working together to further enhance the PRIME standard.
“Developing and implementing a common communication standard will reduce prices of smart meters and increase the level of independence of network companies from suppliers of specific equipment and technology, “ said Rafał Czyżewski, Energa-Operator’s Chairman of the Board.
In the last few months PRIME Alliance confirmed regular memberships for energy management solutions company Shenzhen Kaifa, Australian headquartered Semitech Semiconductor, silicon manufacturer Maxim Integrated, electronics and equipment manufacturer Fideltronik, energy management company Telecontrol STM, meter manufacturer Shenzhen Inhemeter, Egyptian power solutions company El Sewedy and engineering company Nucleo de Comunicaciones Y Control.
“Maxim’s strategy in the smart grid is to support a flexible architecture that makes it easier for our customers to support any communication standard they may need in any market. Joining the PRIME Alliance helps us develop products that are flexible enough to address multiple end markets with a single hardware platform,” stated Kristopher Ardis, Director of Smart Grid Solutions, Maxim Integrated.
”The concerted effort over the last 4 years, by our Members, means that the PRIME standard is the most advanced technology in its field being currently deployed. And this effort continues, as more Members contribute and PRIME expands. The next step is to further enhance the current PRIME standards so it can be fully utilised in the American and Asian markets, which will mean a new version of the standard at some stage in the future,” commented Tom Willie, PRIME Alliance’s Vice President. “Work is currently taking place to finalise the inclusion of robust mode functionality and the extension to the FCC band/use of the 500 KHz frequency range as well as security enhancements and implementations with respect to DLMS. All of this work will both contribute to the applicability of PRIME to new markets as well as adding to the comprehensiveness of the current solution.”
With the recent (February) announcement that PRIME is a worldwide standard currently in force by the International Telecommunication Union published as Recommendation ITU-T G.9904 , PRIME is the only OFDM PLC technology that is the at the same time an approved international standard and a proven technology with millions of smart meter deployed in the field.
With expansion comes change and today PRIME Alliance launches a fresh new website, www.prime-alliance.org.
Open, royalty free and not attached to a single market or company, are contributing factors for PRIME’s effective deployments and this new website aims to keep the smart grid community in touch with the growing number of PRIME certified meters deployed worldwide and abreast of the expanding geographic deployments. As deployments take PRIME into mission critical activities and therefore, interact with additional real-time advanced smart grid solutions, the website will show that PRIME is a future proven investment as this open standard eases the integration of future additional services, technologies and applications. These key messages going forward will flow through all of PRIME Alliance’s future communication tools.
New Members Website Details:
El Sewedy www.sewedy.com.eg
Energa-Operator www.energa-operator.pl
E.ON www.eon-eneergie.com
Fideltronik www.fideltronik.com
HC Energia www.hcenergia.com
Maxim Integrated www.maximintegrated.com
Nucleo www.nucleocc.com
Semitech Semiconductor www.semitechsemi.com
Shenzhen Inhmeter www.inhemeter.com
Shenzhen Kaifa www.kaifa.cn
Telecontrol STM www.telecontrolstm.com
PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) Alliance was created in 2009 to define an open and future-proofed communications PLC-based infrastructure to support large scale smart metering and other smart grid deployments. The goal of the Alliance is to provide a framework in which the smart metering and smart grid industry have access to open detailed technical specifications in order to develop fully interoperable solutions, which would allow multiple vendors to be operational within the same distribution network in one common system architecture. Detailed technical specs include Physical PHY layer and Medium Access Control MAC layer specifications.
PRIME Alliance provides a forum for the definition, maintenance and support of an open and comprehensive standard for narrowband power line for Smart Grid products and services. The mission of the Alliance is to accelerate the demand for products and services based on this worldwide standard and promote the broad adoption and use of the specification while certifying multi-vendor interoperability and compatibility with the global standard. The Alliance is open to all potential partners who agree to actively support and promote an open and public specification for the benefit of the end-user and all industry stakeholders.
Visit the PRIME Alliance at www.prime-alliance.org
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