Dive Summary:
- The Consumer Electronics Association and the Electric Power Research Institute have announced a new standard that is designed to make every household appliance ready for the smart grid.
- Standard CEA-2045 defines a modular communications interface (MCI) for four types of appliances: water heaters, air conditioning units, pool pumps, and electric vehicle chargers.
- The new smart appliances are being built in such a way that will lead seamlessly to mass manufacturing, which has lead participating companies building these new MCI-standardized ports into every appliance, potentially one day eliminating the distinction between "smart" and non-"smart" appliances.
From the article:
But unlike the smart appliances we've seen piloted by utilities and rolled out at trade shows like CES year after year, these new CEA 2045-compliant appliances are being built in a way that should lead seamlessly to mass manufacturing, Seal said. That means that participating companies are investing in everything from the tooling, plastic molding and sheet metal fabrication to build these MCI ports into every appliance, to the UL certifications and other key validations needed to move the MCI-equipped appliances into commercial and retail markets, he said.
“I believe you’re likely to look back in five years and say, this was a turning point -- a very basic, simple thing that turned the corner for demand response,” Seal said. Of course, it’s taken a long time to get to this point -- EPRI, CEA and the USNAP Alliance, an industry group that’s been championing modular comms for years now, started work on what's become the 2045 standard back in 2011 -- and there’s a long way yet to go. ...