TEPCO adopts G3-PLC Specification for Home Energy Management Systems
G3-PLC Alliance participated in CEATEC Keynote speech, Smart house innovation, in Tokyo, on October the 4th, with METI, HEMS TF, TEPCO, Toshiba, Panasonic, and WISUN Alliance. METI and TEPCO announced the selection of WISUN and G3-PLC for smart meter Route B technology through appropriate decision process. It will be deployed for 27 million customers between 2014 and 2024. TEPCO is the largest Japanese utility, with 30% of the market, and, according to the CEATEC event, other utilities are expected to make the same decision.
"The G3-PLC Alliance is honored by the decision made by TEPCO and the Japanese authorities. This first success in Japan is a major one for the G3-PLC Alliance", said Chairman Marc Boillot. "This is recognition of the strong investment made by over 50 experts from 20 entities, from Japan, Europe, and the United States, for the last two years". The Alliance experts will go on working with all the Japanese entities, to accompany TEPCO's smart meter rollout for the next ten years.
At the conclusion, Richard Schomberg, Chair of G3-Alliance specification group, and representatives from TEPCO and Japanese authorities' entities, joined hands to symbolize the cooperation to make the future of smart homes a success for Japan. G3-PLC specification is an ITU standard since December 2011, and the latest version adopted in May 2013 by the 44 members of the G3-PLC Alliance finalized the convergence of the specifications between the G3-PLC Alliance reference version, ITU G9903 and IEEE P1901.2
The G3-PLC Alliance version 3 specification is designed for all the frequency bands: ARIB, FCC and CENELEC. Furthermore, the G3-PLC Alliance has developed and secured the interoperability processes, tests and tools for the PHY, MAC, and 6Lowpan layers, for the 3 main regulatory world bands and the first round of tests were passed by several vendors, members of the G3-PLC Alliance.
