Today the US Department of Energy released a news article that outlines the Obama Administration's efforts for new energy efficiency efforts. This news release identifies a wide range of incentives programs, funding programs, and objectives that directly links smarter buildings to cost savings. LonMark members are extremely well positione to repsond to these initiatives. A link to the full article can be ffound here: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=194.

The program highlights the following funded areas:

Advanced Building Systems Research

Residential Buildings Development and Deployment

Commercial Buildings Initiative

Buildings and Appliance Market Transformation

Solid State Lighting Research and Development

Of particular interest are some of the proposed objectives:

"Today's announcement includes major changes to energy conservation standards for numerous household and commercial lamps and lighting equipment. Seven percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. is for lighting.

The final rule has numerous benefits, including:

• Avoiding the emission of up to 594 million tons of CO2 from 2012 through 2042—roughly equivalent to removing 166 million cars from the road for a year;
• Saving consumers $1 to $4 billion annually from 2012 through 2042;
• Saving enough electricity from 2012 through 2042 to power every home in the U.S. for up to ten months;
• Eliminating the need for up to 7.3 gigawatts of new generating capacity by 2042—equivalent to as many as 14 500MW coal-fired power plants;
• Decreasing the electricity used in GSFLs by 15%, saving consumers up to $8.66 per lamp over its lifetime; decreasing electricity used by IRLs by 25%, saving consumers $7.95 per lamp over its lifetime.

In February 2009, President Obama tasked the Department of Energy with quickening the pace of energy conservation standards for appliances, while continuing to meet legal and statutory deadlines. Today's announcement, which takes effect in 2012, focuses on General Service Fluorescent Lamps (GSFL), which are commonly found in residential and commercial buildings, and Incandescent Reflector Lamps (IRL), which are commonly used in recessed and track lighting. These fluorescent and incandescent lamps represent approximately 38 and 7 percent of total lighting energy use respectively.

The final rule, as issued by the Secretary of Energy on June 26, 2009, can be viewed and downloaded from the Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Web site."

I encourage you to take a look at the news release and related web sites, and stay current on this program especially if you do business in the US.

Respectfully,

Ron Bernstein

NIST (the National Institute for Science and Technology in the USA) has released this week a report from EPRI (the Electric Power Research Institute).  The report, titled, "Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap," is to serve as "input into the first phase: engaging utilities, equipment suppliers, consumers, standards developers and other stakeholders in a participatory public process to identify applicable Smart Grid interoperability standards, gaps in currently available standards and priorities for new standardization activities", as stated within the pages that proceed the report.

LonMark International has been involved in the NIST Smart Grid effort since the very beginning in early 2007.  To-date, sitting at over two years into the process, there is a great deal that's been hashed-out and accomplished but much more on the plate for everyone.  This is a monumental undertaking with many things at stake for many players -- the least of whom is the end consumer; the one that must not be forgotten in the process.

NIST has done a fine job of pulling this together with EPRI and their team of contractors, with utilities and local governments, and with groups like LonMark through Domain Expert Working Groups (DEWGs) that comprise various experts in several vertical markets related to grid interaction with buildings, homes, factories, and vehicles; further: policy makers, transmission and distribution folks, and experts in CyberSecurity.
I write about this today to bring attention to the report for greater dissemination and review.  The report identifies many gaps in the winding chain of standards, protocols, and ad hoc fusions of solutions.  That's its goal, really: to help identify what's already there, what's not there, what can we piece together, and what must be created. Our community -- the LonWorks Controls Networking Community -- knows LonWorks controls networking the best, of course.  It is, therefore, our job to help point-out where LonWorks can be used to make the grid smart; to make it all that NIST wishes it to be without having to create everything from scratch. After all, there are 10s-of-millions of electric meters installed today with LonWorks and roughly 100 million devices in total with LonWorks inside.  That's a fairly good start, in my mind.  But not everyone knows those facts and not everyone knows LonWorks is open, freely licensed, and also a set of international standards.

I could go on (and I probably will as time itself goes on) but you can look into what LonMark is doing -- and how you can get involved -- by checking the LonMark Energy Solutions page: http://www.lonmark.org/energy

I hope this weblog proves useful for the LonWorks community and serves to be informative.  Let us know how we can help you with opportunites such as these.

- Jeremy J. Roberts,
LonMark International

Welcome to the LONMARK International Blog, a brand-new way for us to share information with the LONMARK community and for you as a member to voice your opinion!

Here you will be able to post your ideas, comments, and questions about LONMARK and LONWORKS^®, as well find news updates posted by LONMARK staff.

Please check back soon!