The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) launches a smart grid committee to start the standardisation of the Modular Communications Interface (MCI)-- a move the CEA says will lead to more smart grid-ready products working in any service territory.
The MCI specification comes from the Universal Smart Network Access Port (USNAP) Alliance and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and enables manufacturers to build Smart-Grid ready products able to obtain energy information from all kinds of digital meters and energy system interfaces.
The USNAP Alliance will work with the CEA, creating certification and test programs, while EPRI will provide research, interoperability workshops and demand response programs.
A number of USNAP products are already available, while the Zonoff Z-Wave Bridge Platform uses both USNAP and EPRI standards to allow Z-Wave products to communicate with technologies such as ZigBee.