Schneider Electric and Philips will today launch a new vision for interoperability in home automation and building control at the ZigBee Alliance’s European Smart Energy Forum in Dublin, Ireland. This is the first demonstration from the HOMES programme, a
European industry collaboration, and will showcase the programme’s future technology development platform. As part of the launch, Schneider Electric and Philips will demonstrate innovative multivendor system components operating seamlessly in ZigBee wireless networks.

The demonstrations are targeted at energy suppliers and infrastructure installers. Highlights include:
• Intelligent energy-efficiency platform
A new platform that allows end-users and third-parties to manage systems both locally and
remotely. It enables new task automation and management solutions to reduce power
consumption and increase user convenience. It will allow users to see how energy could be
used in a smarter way to promote even greater savings.
• Combined power-line / ZigBee wireless network
By combining power line technology with ZigBee wireless solutions, power lines can be
easily and efficiently re-used for new services.
• World’s first self-powered ZigBee-based wireless switches
No wires and no batteries, self-powered ZigBee-based switches will enable more flexible
and more efficient solutions that need less maintenance.
The innovations demonstrated use ZigBee wireless technology as it is the only open standard that enables true system interoperability and multi-sourcing for sensor and control applications in home / building network.