Home Energy Management: TED 5000 Provides Real Consumer Value – But Scores Low on Standards-Based Interoperability

Another nice feature was the ability to enter basic rate information so that my energy usage can be displayed in dollars rather than kWHrs – critical for my wife to actually get value from the system!  The system supports a few basic rate types – more than sufficient to get a reasonable indication of energy costs. But you would never try to use it to compare your results with the utility bill.  In my case, I have a flat rate ($0.07713 / kWHr) so the setup was easy.

 As a side note, there is quite a bit of controversy on this particular point.  Every vendor of in-home display devices for energy realizes that they need to provide an estimate of dollars spent rather than kWHrs used.  However, efforts to create a simple method of supplying rate information for this purpose by the utility are being strongly resisted.  The utilities are resistant to any idea of providing information used to estimate the rate and cost of consumption lest they be held accountable for that estimate when the consumer compares the output of their in-home display device from something like the TED 5000 and their actual bill at the end of the month.  So what is happening is that the display vendors provide their own method of estimating and require the consumer to enter the rate data themselves.  Like that’s going to be more accurate and less likely to cause calls to the utility!

Once the system is set up, there are a variety of display options on the embedded web interface as shown in Figure 1.  The displays are easy to use, support views in both dollars and kWHrs, provide estimates of energy costs expected for a period if consumption pattern continues – just about anything you would want to know to understand your energy consumption and see the results of behavior changes to minimize it.

Where the TED 5000 Falls Short

The administrative portion of the interface provides a means to upgrade the firmware in the gateway and other components.  You can download new firmware from their web site and specify the file locations in the web interface which then automatically distributes the firmware to the right components and restarts the system.  There is very little feedback on this part of the process and I can’t tell if firmware ever gets updated in the remote sensor modules or the separate display device.  In any case, even with the most recent firmware as of this writing, there are still a lot of bugs in the system – especially with the external wireless display monitor.

The system includes a ZigBee-connected wireless display monitor.  No information is provided on what flavor of ZigBee is being used and I didn’t have the time to sniff it and reverse engineer the data stream.  The radio link itself seems to work and no configuration was required other than telling the web interface on the gateway the serial number of the display device.  However, the display is often inaccurate, it never displays anything other than zeroes for the min/max values on the various screens, it updates instantaneous kW readings sporadically – all of which reduce its usefulness.  I only use the web interface.

I mentioned at the beginning that I have a HomeSeer based home automation system.  I thought that it would support the TED device but it turns out that it only supports an older version.  That was disappointing, but I hope a driver for the proprietary interface to the TED 5000 gateway will be developed. (Did you catch the word proprietary there?)

A really nice feature of the TED 5000 is its ability to send data to my Google PowerMeter account.  Figure 2 shows a typical display of two days of consumption for one of my two panels – in this case the one with my air conditioning units on it.  This is where there are more software bugs.  The upload to Google is very unreliable.  I had to go back many days before I found two days of consecutive data.  The other problem is that Google PowerMeter does not provide a means to sum the two panels like the TED 5000 gateway web interface does.  This would be a complaint about both the TED 5000 and Google PowerMeter.  The TED 5000 should provide an option to upload an additional channel with the summation – or allow selection of what channels including net to upload.  The Google PowerMeter portal should also provide an option for summation of multiple channels.

I mentioned earlier the problems with the proprietary PLC interface being impacted by outlet strip filters but I also noted interference with the operation of X10 and Insteon devices I have in my home – also proprietary although at least published PLC protocols.  This issue really needs to be resolved before these technologies can be used by a mass market;  it simply requires too much end user expertise to make it all work.  It turns out that this is a focus on the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Priority Action Plan (PAP) No. 15 working group on PLC coexistence.  Unfortunately, the focus is on broadband devices (like HomePlug) and not low-speed PLC such as that used by home automation systems.  PAP 15 is also not looking at the impact of passive filtering devices such as outlet strips and UPS.  This is a major problem that will prevent widespread adoption of these kinds of systems until addressed.

SGN’s Smart Grid Checklist:

The TED 5000 scores reasonably well on many of our metrics, but its use of proprietary technology in the communications results in low scores in those areas.  . 

GreenBox Technologies' Smart Grid Checklist scores -- total score of 74 (out of 100)

Metric	1-10 (10 is best)	Comments
Impact	10	Does it make the power system more reliable, efficient, predictive or interactive?   We rated highly within its scope of providing useful energy information to the consumer and making a simple means of converting kWHr to dollars or carbon.
Openness	5	Is the technology freely and widely available?   The technology is largely proprietary and not published.  The interface specifications are not implemented by many vendors (other than the basic ZigBee interface and the self-publishing live data XML interface), and the specifications are not reviewed and updated by users. .
Standardization	4	Are the interfaces defined according to recognized standards?   The display unit does use ZigBee but not a published profile.  The PLC interface is proprietary.  Support for SEP 1.0 and eventually 2.0 for the interface would be a real plus in the future and significantly increase the score.  A more well-documented XML interface would also be welcome.
Security	5	Does it protect critical information and manage who is authorized to access it?   Web security is basic.  No statements are made one way or another to the consumer on the privacy of the data being captured.  No intrusion detection or logging.  No role-based security.
Manageability	8	Does it permit the monitoring and control of performance, configuration, health, accounting and security?   The TED 5000 has a very simple diagnostic log for trouble shooting the connection to Google.  The web screens for configuration are very complete and easy to use.  .
Upgradeability	9	Does it permit adding, changing or improving key features later?   Yes, it provides a relatively simple means of downloading firmware updates for the devices and web interface.  I would like feedback on whether or not the in- home display device or voltage/current sensor units are being updated too.
Scalability	9	Does it permit future expansion?   Yes, it supports multiple service panel configurations (up to 8 CTs and 8 voltage connections – 4 240 volt, split phase circuits) for a wide variety of likely residential configurations.  The hardware is modular and future configurations (e.g. EV monitoring options) could be supported with appropriate firmware updates.
Extensibility	6	Does it make it easier to integrate new devices and applications?   The system is designed in small modules that make it extensible from a hardware point of view.  There is a proprietary API available for developers to write to (e.g. to allow HomeSeer integration).
Self-Healing	8	Does it recover automatically from failures?   It does seem to recover from power failures and interference without my intervention.  I am not pleased with the reliability of the uplink to Google but it does in fact self-heal.  I wish it didn’t break in the first place however, so it didn’t have to heal – self or otherwise.
Interactivity	10	Does it help the grid and its users react to each other’s needs?   System is very engaging.  Very likely a residential customer could use the system to understand how utility service is consumed within their home and their environmental impact as a result of sustained action.
Date of product: 6/1/10. The Energy Detective – firmware revs: GW 1.0.350, FP: 1.0.185

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Overall, we think this product is excellent in its ability to give a residential customer the information and understanding needed to remediate costly or environmentally unfriendly consumption behaviors.  The score would be much higher with closer attention to standards-based interoperability and security.  As the residential customer information economy emerges, expect to see consumers asking utilities to provide information direct from their smart meters rather than relying on the in-panel sensor modules.

Erich W. Gunther is co-founder and Chairman of EnerNex Corporation, founder and acting director of Smart Grid Labs. He is the chairman of the board of the UCA International Users Group, serves as chair of the UCAIug’s OpenSG OpenHAN Task force, serves on the DOE GridWise Architecture Council, and is the administrator for the NIST initiated SGIP effort.

Email Erich W. Gunther

Smart Grid Scorecard (PDF)

EPRI IntelliGrid Architecture Web site

GridWise Architecture Council

TED Website

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Energy Efficiency

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Smart Grid Standards