After being a little rough with Zigbee in the past and complaining about the lack of products compatible with the Home Automation profile, I must admit that this standard has done a lot of progresses in the Energy Management area during the last year. Whilst the big companies don't dare to release Zigbee compatible devices for the Home Automation market, other smaller companies specialized in the Energy sector are surprising us with smart solutions for saving energy and controlling our bills. It's obvious that the offer of solutions for energy management applications has traditionally been much smaller than the portfolio of technologies commercialized around the Home Automation market. This fact translates into a less exposed market, less competitiveness and a lack of primitive prejudices. We also may take into account how vertical is the Energy sector compared with the sometimes ambiguity of the Home Automation environment. Even though, nobody will be shocked if we include the energy management as a part of the home automation ecosystem. But the reality is that a dozen of companies, sponsored by utility companies in some cases, have decided to release specific products for Energy Management applications. Most of these smart energy solutions have been certified by the Zigbee alliance and claim to be strictly compatible with the Zigbee Smart Energy profile, meaning that the products are interoperable between them.

Plug-in modules measuring the energy consumed by the appliance connected to the outlet, thermostats displaying temperature and energy costs, energy meters transmitting data to a central point, are some of the offers designed under the Zigbee logo. Around this range of products, utilities, web portals and end users are offered a way to control and monitor the energy consumption (and production, of course) and saving resources in the interest of a better sustainable development.

Link to the list of Zigbee Smart Energy Certified Products