Tomorrow’s Intelligent Energy Services

Intelligent Energy Services is a Vinnova funded cross-industry project in which heat-pump suppliers, home alarm providers, energy companies and service developers collaborate in order to create sustainable IT-platforms and services as well as drive standardisation.

Challenge
Today there are many different companies delivering home appliances such as heating and ventilation systems, home alarm systems, and electric metering. Now they all are making their appliances accessible on Internet for visualization and control, developing apps for easy customer use. These companies rarely cooperate with each other and the result is a plethora of proprietary platforms and home services: apps for the alarm system, apps for electricity metering, apps for heating control with different apps provided by different companies. One added complication is the existence of a number of competing home automation systems developed before Internet and used as control systems in large properties. The companies providing these systems now try to move into the individual home market with expensive, complex solutions, making their systems accessible on Internet. Eventually, most of these platforms and services will be weeded out and one or a few service deliverers will become dominant, similar to what has happened to mobile services, beginning with the Apple iOS in 2007. When that happens independent service developers will perhaps be able to help increase the supply of home services. But how long shall we have to wait for this to happen? Can we speed up the transition to such a situation?

Solution
To meet the challenge of providing platforms and home services which are inexpensive and easy to install and use, we have formed a coalition of companies for joint development of open platforms and services. Instead of developing proprietary platforms and services we have urged our partners to participate in the development of open platforms, using widely accessible standard solutions, always choosing the most direct connection to Internet, inviting independent service developers to provide their services. We have chosen XMPP as our communication protocol conceiving of the intelligent home as a dynamic, open community of chat clients, and we have put a lot of effort into promoting this protocol as a standard for energy services.

Users in focus
We create a uniform standard that enables the user to access several different technologies, products and services, with a common and easy to understand interface. Our new and complex technical system should not complicate for the user but instead make everyday tasks easier. Homes, residental and commercial properties will become smarter, safer and more energy efficient through automation.

 The Intelligent Energy Seervices project is a collaboration between:

Vattenfall, Riksbyggen, Maingate, Securitas, Verisure, CTC Enertech, Viessmann, Systemair, H & D Wireless, Ngenic, Sust and Sics. Vinnova provides funding through its program Challenge-driven innovation. Sust is managing the project.