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By Jesse Berst

 

In case you haven't noticed, the smart grid is turning into the world's first example of machine-to-machine (M2M) at scale. It behooves us, therefore, to pay attention to M2M tools and technologies.

 

M2M (also known as the Internet of Things) describes the coming world where there will eventually be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. Connected to the Internet and talking to each other.

 

How M2M tools benefit electric power

The M2M world has been slow to accelerate, although it is now beginning to take off in smart grid, health care and telematics (vehicles). It has already spawned technologies of great value to electric power. For instance, Digi International seeks to be the middleware that can talk to any kind of device.

 

A new kind of development tool

The communications and connectivity piece is important. But that still leaves a need for tools to build connected apps. The most interesting new tool I've seen in the past year comes from a young Pennsylvania company called ThingWorx.

ThingWorx assumes connectivity. It focuses on building applications that take advantage of that connectivity, calling itself an "application development platform for the connected world." Although support for connected devices is at the heart, the firm can also model connected people and connected business applications.

 

Connected people and connected software too

That's right, ThingWorx embraces businesses and people as well as things. A utility, therefore, could use it to build an app that talks to any and every device on the network. But that app could also know the business rules of the back office software those devices talk to. And it could also know key facts about, for instance, every member of a work crew (specialties, skills, certifications, physical limitations, languages spoken, etc.)

 

"When people build on our platform," CEO Russ Fadel explained to me, "everything gets its own API." For instance, if you model a smart building with the ThingWorx tool, "every single device in the building gets exposed to any application that has permission."

 

Sensei Solutions of Charlotte, NC uses the ThingWorx tool to build asset management software that correlates data from thousands of sensors and monitors. The software is already at work at utilities in the Northeast and Southwest.

Page 2: The four key facets of the ThingWorx development platform >>

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Smart Grid

Jesse – I wholeheartedly believe in the strong affinity between M2M and the smart grid and how smart grid deployments are going to revolutionize the Internet of Things. M2M has been the focus of KORE Telematics for years, going back to the earliest large-scale AMI deployments. One of the bigger questions as relates to connectivity, however, is how to get connected applications working consistently and reliably, even the most out-of-the-way locations, while maintaining low recurring costs. The natural concern here is “What will happen if national wireless carriers issue end-of-life to 2G connections?” (2G being the most cost-effective means for machine-to-machine network connectivity). At some point, it might be possible that government mandates some sliver of 2G spectrum remain in place in order to protect utility and public sector investments in M2M-driven services. Or maybe utility companies and logistics providers would need to lobby to keep the network around … it is definitely food for thought in either case. We write more about the issue here: http://blog.koretelematics.com/2012/04/impressionsnew-report-talks-networking-for-a-multitude-of-devices.html

Stein Soelberg - 04/19/2012 - 13:53

Thingworx for smart water networks

Jesse, I endorse your conclusions on Thingworx, I've been using the platform for developing Waterworx - a standards based integration of operational control and asset management for water networks. I had been searching for an intuitive modelling tool and Thingworx provided it. When you add on top the 'always-on' messaging, the search and mash-up it becomes a very powerful toolset. But I think the key to the power and scalability which you didnt mention in your review is the graph or NoSQL database. Utility networks whether water, gas or electric are inherently formed from complex arrangements of interconnected nodes which more closely match a graph structure than an RDBMS does. I reckon the power of graphical database for network optimisation will be huge.

Laurie Reynolds - 04/20/2012 - 01:08

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