The Energy@home and EEBus associations presented at the Utility Week Exhibition in Barcelona a new standard that, at the European level, will allow to manage the energy demand in the smart home. Integrated in Spine (Smart Premises Interoperable Neutral-messages Exchange), this language was applied as a demonstrator to an energy manager that oversaw the activity of a group of connected products (a major domestic appliance, an electric car charger, an inverter for photovoltaic panels and a smart meter), simulating a smart home. The development of this common language was born from a project for the appliances interoperability, supported by the European Commission. “People talk a lot about the Internet of Things, they guess its charm, but we don’t forget that this announced revolution can really happen only if it will be accessible to the users, if the technological devices (even appliances produced by different brands) will communicate – explains Marco Signa, Energy@home’s director -. For this reason a common European language is important, it’s essential in order to develop the great market potential of the connected products and services”. This language can be applied to different protocols, e.g. Spine. In the moment in which the connected devices in this configuration are able to dialogue each other, it’s possible for the energy manager to optimize the energy use, considering the availability of renewable energy sources or the best market prices.
