Intellon Gets $4.9M DOE Grant for HomePlug

HomePlug – the would-be hard-wired technology alternative to wireless networks for home energy management systems – just got a $4.9 million Department of Energy boost.

That's the value of the grant given to Intellon Corp. on Tuesday – one of a handful of grants from the DOE's $3.4 billion smart grid program given to a company that isn't a utility (see DOE's $3.4B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners).

Intellon announced Wednesday it intends to match that grant with $4.9 million of its own to make an integrated circuit to match a new set of specifications coming out of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance.

The idea is to use a home's existing wiring to carry data between smart meters and the smart thermostats, smart appliances, smart energy displays and other gadgets envisioned for the home.

Those could work in tandem with or independently of wireless systems like ZigBee, but might be the best choice for places like apartments, where basement smart meters could be separated from apartments by yards of concrete, industry watchers say (see The Smart Home, Part I).

Intellon's new integrated circuit is intended to meet the requirements of HomePlug's "Green PHY" powerline communications specification expected to be finished later this year, the company announced Wednesday.

That new specification "modifies the industry-leading HomePlug AV powerline technology to create a lower data rate, lower power and lower cost smart grid solution," Intellon announced. In other words, HomePlug wants to make its technology cheaper and less power-hungry to meet utilities needs for an ultra-cheap solution for linking millions of customers homes (see Utilities Mull Price Points, Policies for Home Energy Management).

HomePlug has aligned its efforts with the ZigBee Alliance, another group that's seeking to popularize the low-power ZigBee wireless protocol to link up all those in-home energy management devices.

So far, ZigBee has had a lot of success in getting utilities to try it out, though WiFi, Z-Wave and other wireless technology providers are also working on that market (see More WiFi For Home Energy Controls and RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).