The alliance will focus on the European Union’s smart grid programs and on meeting the needs of the EU implementation of ZigBee Smart Energy in the Home Area Network (HAN).
The alliance with more than 90 European-based organizations from 19 different European countries representing 27% of membership will establish a European headquarters to that end.
The headquarters will be ensure that ZigBee standards meet the needs of the European standards organizations. It will also enable these participating organizations to understand, and respond to, the changing needs of the EU market.
The ZigBee Alliance said that it is focused on enabling more choice for consumers, energy service providers and regulators with the ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile, an energy management standard that allows in-home devices to communicate with each other to reduce home and business energy consumption.
At present ZigBee Alliance has agreements with the European Smart Metering Industry (ESMIG) and Device Language Message Specification (DLMS) User Association focused on this effort. The Alliance’s European headquarters will also support European standards organizations in their work to develop plans to create market-ready systems and the evolving EU M441 mandate.
Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, said: “ZigBee has enjoyed widespread European support since its inception and expanding our efforts there will allow us to be more available to European standards organizations as they plan for the future.
”We believe that deeper and broader collaboration will allow ZigBee Smart Energy to emerge as the best wireless HAN choice for European Smart Grid standardization.”
