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COMMERCIAL FEATURE The key to unlocking customer engagement! Home Energy Management? Home Automation? Or both? Smart Grid infrastructure and Distribution Automation solutions have been widely deployed in the past few years, providing strong benefits to utilities and the energy sector as a whole. Conditions are reaching maturity for wide-scale introduction of Automatic Demand Response mechanisms and active customer engagement to maximize the value of Smart Grid deployment. However, on one hand, sole government legislation and a mandated pilot project do not seem to be an effective approach to creating real commitment from the utility side; on the other, an insurmountable barrier has long existed between the industry and its end customers. Customer education, free devices, and even monetary incentives do not seem capable of breaking the ice and fundamentally inspiring the passion of the majority of end customers. So what is the way out of this impasse? Utilities might merely cope with government-mandated projects, but they could be very serious about a campaign that brings real benefit to their day-to-day operation and customer satisfaction; as for customers, they do not care about “free stuff,” but would even be willing to pay for what they perceive to be valuable. Therefore, value is the key driver for game change. OWON aims at providing substantial benefit to utilities while bringing intuitive value to end customers at the same time. • Provide the technical platform for future Subscriber-side Billing Systems, allowing paperless billing, thereby enhancing the utility’s collection cycle and improving cost efficiencies. Bottom-Up Pull: Inspire end customers with our vivid and user-friendly system, encouraging them to participate in energy- management activities, and thus further benefit in terms of money saving and convenience, eventually contributing to the energy conservation campaign as a whole. • Upgrade the Energy Management System from a mere “monitoring tool” to a powerful “control centre” allowing end users to physically take control of their energy consumption rather than just “watching.” • Integrate practical HA (Home Automation) features and HA entertaining gadgets into the “boring” Home Energy Management System to increase the customer’s willingness to be involved. • Introduce home-friendly industrial designs and user-friendly interfaces to enhance the attractiveness and user experience of the system. • Deliver mobile apps to convert personal mobile devices into a Smart Energy / Smart Home control platform, which would increase early adopter market penetration with limited hardware investment. All-in-One Smart Energy Gateway SEG-X7 Along comes the emergence of SEG-X7, the all-in-one Smart Energy Gateway, which integrates customers’ Home Area Networks on one side with the utility Wide Area Network on the other. Such topology enables Demand Response to be conducted from both sides and also ensures a seamless two-way information flow in between. The utilities are then able to extend and diversify the Demand Response level backed up by this “home energy management terminal,” while end users are given the possibility to better control and optimize their living spaces due to this “home automation platform.” Strategic Objects and Approaches Top-Down Push: Firmly align with utilities and offer utilities many value-added services and support, thereby offloading the additional demands and work the new customer interface and products place on the utility. • Help in communicating multi-tariff pricing notifications to raise end customers’ awareness in line with the utility’s specific energy-distribution goals. • Integrate Auto Demand Response features into the In-Home Devices, offering the utility an entry portal to manage peak demand load control pursuant to specific tariff structures, and allowing the customer opt-out procedures consistent with regulatory policy. 50 SEG-X7 Device Highlights • Modular Design: High extensibility and flexibility to versatile connectivity standard including ZigBee, WiFi, 433MHz, Ethernet and 3G. • Dual ZigBee Modules: ZigBee SE module for Smart Meter interoperability; ZigBee HA module for Home Automation application. METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE - 4 | 2013