May 16, 2014 –
G.P. Li shares CalPlug’s goals with the audience.
The California Plug Load Research Center (CalPlug) this week hosted its fifth in a series of workshops at CALIT2. Like its predecessors, this daylong event aimed to unite academia, business, government agencies, utilities and other stakeholders in the pursuit of energy efficiency.
Eighteen presenters shared ongoing research, product design, and information about regulations and incentives with the highly engaged audience, who asked questions, made suggestions and used breaks between presentations to network with each other.
CALIT2 Irvine Director G.P. Li, who also directs CalPlug, opened the workshop by setting the stage for the day’s agenda. “Let’s work together to make a more energy-efficient society,” he told the group.
Arthur Zhang, CalPlug technical director, presented the center’s set-top box research, including its 5W5s (five watts, five seconds) power-management device, which employs sensors and a behavior algorithm to collect, interpret and store users’ television-watching behaviors; the device can determine and change a set-top box’s power state based on that information, while ensuring security of the content required by the industry. “It’s always a tradeoff between power consumption and consumers’ frustration thresholds,” he said, alluding to the time it takes a sleeping device to return to full power.
Zhang also shared CalPlug’s successes in streaming information from utility smart meters directly to consumers’ televisions. “We’re using the set-top box as a pipeline to deliver data about energy usage directly to consumers in a convenient, trustworthy way,” he said, adding that soon, these smart systems will be scaled up and extended to many other plug load devices.
Gary Langille from EchoStar Technologies shares trends in pay TV.
Questions and discussion
are an important element of the workshop’s goal of stakeholder collaboration.
A packed room listens raptly to 18 speakers. Many common themes emerged during the day-long session.
The day-long workshop included presentations that addressed:
• CalPlug’s ongoing computer power-management study;
• Behavioral and psychological approaches – the most effective ways to report and display energy information to consumers;
• Plug load efficiency in Zero Net Energy buildings;
• Latest design developments for optimizing consumer electronics’ electricity usage;
• Emerging medical device markets;
• Proposed regulatory initiatives; and
• Consumer education, motivation and incentive decisions.
A recurring theme was the shift in the way television – and other types of programming – is being delivered to consumers. Within the next few years, several presenters said, programming will be delivered exclusively by IP over Internet connections. Cable companies are losing customers while telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T are gaining them. DVRs are being replaced with network-based server farms that store programming in the cloud. And gateway devices – small, compact and possibly tucked away in a closet – will control appliances, electronics, and home security while streaming all necessary information into smart homes.
“A single device will be the brains of the whole home,” said Gary Langille from EchoStar Technologies. “My guess is we will add all this capability without adding power requirements. We may even decrease [required] power.”
Another recurring theme was the need to design power-saving devices that people will actually want to use. “We must focus on user convenience,” said Domenico Gelonese from Embertec. “Energy efficiency is a journey, a path for the consumer. In time, it becomes clear where this path leads.”
This is true not only of electronics and other plug load devices, but the oncoming proliferation of healthcare devices, according to William Feaster, M.D., the chief medical information officer at CHOC Children’s Hospital, who said the rising cost of care in the U.S. is not sustainable. Creating better care and more patient satisfaction while reducing costs is “a BHAG – a big, hairy, audacious goal,” he said to laughter, but technology can provide assistance.
People won’t use devices that don’t meet their needs, however. “The future of healthcare technology is not about bigger, better, more expensive devices,” he said. “People need to want to be healthy. Unless we can keep people well we’re going to go broke.”
SCE’s Charles Kim suggests ways to educate consumers and change the way they think about making purchases.
The day’s last speaker was Charles Kim from Southern California Edison, who discussed human behavior and energy savings. “Who here knows how to tie these two together? If you know, please call me,” he deadpanned.
Kim’s message was that consumers are conditioned to think in specific ways when making purchase decisions. Through research and education, however, they can be trained to think more prudently. “We need to think of different ways to educate consumers,” Kim said. “We need to make energy savings decisions as simple as possible for our customers.”
He suggested that stakeholders develop a common (and easily understandable) framework, incorporate energy savings into product design and brand themselves as “green,” using that designation to differentiate themselves from other companies.
“We’re all in this business together,” he summarized. “We have challenges but we can overcome them one watt at a time. Let’s collaborate; let’s do it.”
The workshop was followed by a tour of CalPlug, where participants saw for themselves the center’s ongoing projects, and a networking reception. Attendees felt the day’s events were productive.
“This was the best workshop we have had to date,” summed up Ken Lowe, Vizio co-founder and vice president.
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
