SETTING THE SMART METER STANDARD

ZigBee for Smart Energy; Market Dynamics for ZigBee SEP 1.X and the Transition to SEP 2.0 for Smart Meters, Home Area Networks, Programmable Communicating Thermostats, Load Control Devices, In-Home Displays, and Gateways

1Q 2013 (Navigant Research)

“A widely deployed wireless communications technology, ZigBee is the basis for radios and software embedded in millions of smart meters and other smart energy devices, such as programmable communicating thermostats and gateways.

“The latest version of the ZigBee Smart Energy Profile (SEP 2.0) software, expected to become commercially available later in 2013, represents an important shift: it will…[internet-based and] enable ZigBee devices to communicate with non-ZigBee devices, such as those using Wi-Fi or HomePlug. This opens up a new world for ZigBee, and poses market risks as other home networking technologies contend for relevance in the energy management sector.”

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“ZigBee still has momentum…Some leading U.S. utilities have deployed ZigBee-enabled meters, and have encouraged customers to purchase home area network (HAN) devices that can connect to those smart meters for improved energy management. Around the world, ZigBee smart meter deployments are taking hold…in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom…

“Navigant Research forecasts that the worldwide installed base of ZigBee-enabled devices will grow from 39.5 million at the end of 2012 to 219.2 million devices by 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of 24%...”

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