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Smart Meter Summit -- an announcement made today by Telepathx Ltd the Melbourne based smart grid & wireless sensor network provider said that it will begin conditional licensing of its RFID (radio frequency identification) wireless sensor network (WSN) & communications aggregation technology to Smart meter & Broadband over power line technology original equipment manufactures (OEMs). A move the company said that will allow energy providers and BPL operators a faster return on infrastructure investments.
James Eades Telepathx Chairman & CEO said in his address to energy officials today the move was necessary because it was clear to many in the industry that there is no one clear solution available for developing the smart grid, and that the consolidation of technologies was necessary to physically enable distribution asset communications.
“It’s very evident that both smart meter & BPL platforms are falling short on delivering the intelligent energy grid said Eades and that by integrating the sensory network platform into smart meter and BPL platforms it would fill the tremendous gap left behind in the distribution network and deliver an intelligent energy grid from end to end.”
We and many switchgear OEMs look at the state of these platforms specifically the current generation of smart meters and just see another wasted opportunity; simply because they just haven’t gone far enough from a grid automation perspective, it’s a single use system and given the cost involved we think future smart meter deployments should have the capacity to go beyond the grid & generate revenues to cover the cost of these multi billion dollar AMR/AMI rollouts being planned; and this is what our platform was designed to do.
Market analyst April Sommers said ‘’from the hardware and software we have seen this development would be very significant and she predicts it may be enough too persuade many energy companies currently sitting on the AMI fence to start implementing their smart meter strategies sooner because there is now a clear path and solution available for every appliance on the distribution network” this is very exciting news for meter manufacturers.
Sommers added “this is a very complete and well thought out asset tracking and logistics platform, from edge sensory components on the grid all the way through the supply chain. Telepathx sensors monitor fuses, insulators and cables and they have developers embedding this technology into distribution transformers, as shown last week at the IEEE PES show in Chicago, they are also developing the industries next generation switchgear with built in self managing intelligence; these are the core appliances that make up the distribution network and from an automation standpoint this would be highly beneficial to network operators to get these devices talking to meters and BPL routers as soon as possible.
What this platform does beyond energy grid management is just down right cleaver Sommers added it provides monitoring services via very innovative sensors to virtually every utility and public essential service provider imaginable, even local business and residents benefit and this is how it generates revenue.
Need your fire, burglar or car alarm monitored? No problem, how about monitoring the environment for floods, mudslides, ice, blocked sewers, contamination or bush fires? No problem, how about monitoring faulty or full parking meters or monitoring transportation or other fixed road side assets such as switches or power poles for auto collisions? No problem.
It just makes you think how smart, smart meters will become because this is just the tip of the iceberg on what this platform can deliver, and the company predicts that many well placed electric meters have the capacity to be cash positive in just months.
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information[.]telepathx.com 
