Newsletter – October 2014

THIS MONTH…..
–TRENDS
–EYE CATCHING
–ANNUAL PLAN
–DISCUSSIONS
–EXISTING CODE
–SECURITY
–LASTLY

–TRENDS
The stuff going on in the big picture now…..

United States Electricity Price per KWH
Current and Past

July	August	Trend	% Change
$0.143	$0.143	Same	0.00%

 

Year	August	Trend	% Change	% Since	Difference
2004	$0.100	Same	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
2005	$0.105	Increase	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
2006	$0.118	Increase	12.38%	18.00%	13.00%
2007	$0.121	Increase	2.54%	21.00%	3.00%
2008	$0.132	Increase	9.09%	32.00%	11.00%
2009	$0.130	Decrease	-1.52%	30.00%	-2.00%
2010	$0.133	Increase	2.31%	33.00%	3.00%
2011	$0.135	Increase	1.50%	35.00%	2.00%
2012	$0.133	Decrease	-1.48%	33.00%	-2.00%
2013	$0.137	Increase	3.01%	37.00%	4.00%
2014	$0.143	Increase	4.38%	43.00%	6.00%

United Kingdom Utility Prices
Current and Past

London by night, seen from the International Space Station

–EYE CATCHING
The stuff that has caught our eye…..

Demand Response

• A new product line, from Ecobee, with an API.
• An announcement, Echelon has sold their grid division. This bring the future of the LonWorks protocol into question.
• A brief, recommending how to increase customer demand for Demand Response.
• An article, identifying the Smart Grid as the next killer software application.

Smart Grid – Consumer

• An article, reporting Amazon is working on launching a Smart Home device product line.
• A conference, Demand Response World Forum 2014.
• An article, reporting the United States Department of Energy has a final determination strengthening energy-efficiency for commercial building codes.
• An article, reporting the United States Department of Energy has released a set of voluntary privacy recommendations for smart grid owners, operators, and third parties.
• An article, reporting the impact of electric vehicle charging on the coming Smart Grid.
• An article, reporting the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is studying electricity market reforms.
• An analysis, considering why consumers do not reduce their energy usage.
• An article, describing the debate of owning customer energy data.
• An article, discussing safety from hackers attacking Smart Home technologies.
• An opinion, asserting the lack of federal oversight of Demand Response will hamper growth of Demand Response.
• An article, discussing possibilities of Smart Grid mergers.
• An article, considering low income Smart Grid customers.

Smart Grid – Producer

• An article, reporting a federal appeals court upholds FERC Order 1000.
• A website, the OpenADR Demand Response Research Center.
• An article, discussing utilities needing to future-proof their mobile networks.
• A report, finding electric transmission and distribution challenges include aging assets, equipment and technology investments, upgrading capacity verses lessening susceptibility, and power delivery system redesign plans.

Smart Grid – Security

• A company, using proprietary technology to collect electric meter readings via small aircraft.
• An effort, to develop and test a next generation energy management system. This effort does not speak of a security component.
• An article, describing the need to secure the Smart Grid.
• An article, addressing the current security status of the United States Smart Grid effort.
• An article, describing the ten most dangerous Home Automation devices.
• An opinion, recommending what utilities should do with their customer data.
• A new Home Automation product line, having loads of interoperability, with little to no comprehensive security plan.

–ANNUAL PLAN
Status Update of our 2014 Plan…..

Demand Response

• Further discussions with members of the electronics industry.
• No other work since the April newsletter.

Unattended Server Side Automation

• No other work since the April newsletter.

Power Line Communication

• Further discussions with the members of the electronics industry.
• No other work since the January newsletter.

Talk to us with your comments and suggestions on our plan for this year.

–DISCUSSIONS
The stuff we are talking about now…..

FSF INTERVIEW
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) interviewed the GNU remotecontrol team. GNU remotecontrol is a member of the Free Software Foundation. The article is a comprehensiveness then-to-now writing, in combination with where the software project will most likely go in the future.

FIVE YEAR HOME EFFICIENCY EXPERIMENT
The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed a study of combining various energy efficiency approaches. This study is the first time these approaches have been combined to this extent, for this long of a period. The outcome is the efficiency benefits are there to be gained, without exerting much expense. The question each person must decide is how long they are willing to wait for their payback period to arrive.

OTHER TYPES OF THERMOSTATS?
Many people have asked us about adding other types of thermostats to GNU remotecontrol. There are three questions that need to be answered before we can offer GNU remotecontrol support for any IP thermostat. These questions are:

• How to CONNECT to it (NETWORK).
• How to READ from it (CODE).
• How to WRITE to it (CODE).

It is our hope to have dozens and dozens of thermostat types that work with GNU remotecontrol. Let us know if you designed or manufactured a device and you would like to test it with GNU remotecontrol.

–EXISTING CODE
The stuff you may want to consider…..

BUGS
We have 0 new bugs and 0 fixed bugs since our last Blog posting. Please review these changes and apply to your GNU remotecontrol installation, as appropriate.

TASKS
We have 1 new tasks and 0 completed tasks since our last Blog posting. Please review these changes and apply to your GNU remotecontrol installation, as appropriate.

–SECURITY
The stuff you REALLY want to consider…..

BLACK HAT USA 2014
Black Hat is the most technical and relevant global information security event series in the world. Their 2014 conference clearly demonstrates the electronics industry is not moving fast enough to secure Smart Home technologies. This problem is not only caused by the electronics industry. It is also caused by an end-user willingness to have functionality over security. The final result is often property theft or identity theft. The need for security of both the Smart Grid and the Smart Home cannot be overstated.

REMEMBER
GNU remotecontrol relies on OS file access restrictions, Apache authentication, MySQL authentication, and SSL encryption to secure your data. Talk to us you want to find out how you can further strengthen the security of your system, or you have suggestions for improving the security of our current system architecture.

–LASTLY
Whatever you do…..don’t get beat up over your Energy Management strategy. GNU remotecontrol is here to help simplify your life, not make it more complicated. Talk to us if you are stuck or cannot figure out the best option for your GNU remotecontrol framework. The chances are the answer you need is something we have already worked through. We would be happy to help you by discussing your situation with you.

…..UNTIL NEXT MONTH!

Why the Affero GPL?