Let’s get smart

Let’s get smart
Everyone wants to use energy more efficiently. So it’s no wonder the race is on to put the “smart” into electricity grids. And the Campus is buzzing with innovative energy.

Smarter grids, smarter consumption

Does your clothes dryer let you know how much the next load will cost? One day, it might well do that.  Smart grids – combined with smart meters and dynamic pricing – open the way to all sorts of possibilities. Like your clothes dryer telling you “not now, the best price will be in three hours time”!

Unlike traditional grids, smart grids facilitate a 2-way flow of energy and information between the utility companies and energy users. As the world tries to save energy and reduce emissions, they could make a big difference.

Smart grids can monitor, analyze and control energy flows to balance supply and demand. That includes making the most of generation from decentralized renewable sources. And possibly, even using electric vehicles as distributed plug-in storage.

In short, smart grids have the potential to help us all use electricity efficiently and economically, and keep CO2 emissions under control. That also makes them big business. CleanTech Market Intelligence consultants, Pike Research, forecast that cumulative European investment in smart grid technologies from 2010 to 2020 will reach US$ 80.3 billion. 

Campus buzzes with ideas

Among Campus residents buzzing with innovation for smart grids is NXP Semiconductors. It’s working on a variety of ICs to address key challenges of smart grids, including the big issue – making them secure. The goal is to ensure consumer appliances can buy energy safely, with the right balance of cost and convenience.

Together with Atos Worldline, NXP has created a unique end-to-end security and authentication solution to protect smart grid networks against energy theft, privacy breaches and grid attacks. To help create consumer appliances that “talk” to the grid, NXP has also developed ICs that enable appliances to report on their energy consumption.

“Countries all over the world are working to make smart grids a reality, with new ideas on how to use them popping up daily. NXP is deeply involved, in our role as a supplier of communication, security and digital processing technologies. The Campus eco-system helps us to operate faster and keep communication lines short and face to face. It certainly helped speed the development with Atos, and our application lab uses companies on the Campus for quick turnaround of PCB designs, proto-type assembly, and so on,” says Jan Willem Vogel, Marketing Director Industrial Segment.

Other companies on the Campus active in smart grids, smart lighting, intelligent building controls and related areas include Philips Lighting, Research and Philips Innovation Services. NXP and Philips are members of the Smart Energy Collective in the Netherlands.