EWT: Briefly explain how the need for greater energy management and efficiency has impacted, and continues to impact, your organization.

Hackney: CenterPoint Energy is pursuing an advanced metering system (AMS) that can be leveraged by multiple market stakeholders in the Texas deregulated energy market in a way that enables greater energy management and efficiency. The AMS CenterPoint Energy would be deploying under this strategy uses an advanced meter with the ability to communicate with appliances inside a business or home through the use of ZigBee. This system architecture is viewed by the marketplace as an enabler for entities like retail electric providers (REPs) to provide energy management and control services to consumers. For example, the system could be used to send a ZigBee command to an in-home device (e.g., a ZigBee-enabled smart thermostat) to curtail the customer's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system during a critical time interval. It could also be used for something as simple as updating an in-home display to allow the customer to see their usage since the last billing meter read.

EWT: Please explain why your organization selected ZigBee technology? Did you consider any other alternatives?

Hackney: CenterPoint Energy is in the process of evaluating ZigBee-enabled advanced metering solutions to approximately two million electric customers and one million gas customers for several reasons. To begin with, having ZigBee communication chips embedded in the electric meter allows us to leverage a single, robust bi-directional system for accessing the meter as well as to provide access to monitoring and control of home energy appliances. Second, the ZigBee system is designed with an open architecture protocol that has been agreed to and is supported by the ZigBee Alliance. Finally, the ZigBee firmware is remotely upgradable and creates a home area network (HAN) environment.

We expect that open protocols and the collaboration of manufacturers through the ZigBee Alliance will allow the market to provide and continue to evolve ZigBee-enabled products. Given that ZigBee comes embedded in the electric meter solution and is wireless, communication to gas meters and other devices is much more easily established as compared to today's more conventional wired solutions. The reasons cited above could, therefore, help establish an enabling platform that has a transformational effect on demand response and energy conservation in the Houston metro consumer market on a large scale.

EWT: How is your organization benefiting from ZigBee?

Hackney: CenterPoint Energy benefits come from being recognized as a responsive company that will build the enabling platform necessary for consumers to achieve energy conservation and efficiency.

EWT: Can you explain how ZigBee is helping your customers?

Hackney: ZigBee-enabled home area networks associated with advanced metering solutions will benefit customers by enabling the retail energy providers the means to offer new and innovative services for a wider range of service offerings. Consumers will benefit from greater knowledge of their energy usage from which they can make informed decisions.

EWT: Are there any new opportunities that the adoption of ZigBee has brought to your organization?

Hackney: CenterPoint Energy, as a member of the ZigBee Alliance, and through its establishment of a CenterPoint Energy Technology Center, is exploring existing and emerging opportunities that would facilitate broader use and adoption of ZigBee technology products by our consumers. We are evaluating ZigBee-based products and solutions in our tech center such as lighting, in-home displays, multiple thermostat types and sensors to assure they integrate properly. CenterPoint's adoption of ZigBee in an advanced meter solution has established CenterPoint Energy as a leader on how consumer energy management, advanced meter data collection, demand response, and smart grid are being brought together and implemented as one seamless system across multiple energy market business stakeholders.

CenterPoint Energy Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a domestic energy delivery company that includes electric transmission & distribution, natural gas distribution, competitive natural gas sales and services, interstate pipelines and field services operations. The company serves more than five million metered customers primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Assets total more than $17 billion. With about 8,600 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 130 years. For more information, visit the web site at www.CenterPointEnergy.com.

Chuck Hackney is the director of telecommunications, regulated operations technology, at CenterPoint Energy Inc. He manages the engineering, operations, and revenue-generation aspects of CenterPoint Energy's telecommunications network. In addition, Hackney is responsible for directing the efforts of engineering and development teams in researching emerging communications and information services-related technologies with the objective of identifying business, growth, and transformational opportunities. As such, he is currently leading CenterPoint Energy's Distribution Automation “Intelligent Grid” pilot, which includes implementing broadband over power line (BPL) technology for communications, electric grid diagnostics and automation, and advanced meter infrastructure (AMI). Hackney joined CenterPoint Energy in 1981 after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State University. He managed the engineering and design of electric transmission and substation structures prior to his moving into more IT-related areas of CenterPoint Energy. Hackney is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.