The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) convened the third meeting of the Smart House Standardization Study Group, which was established on November 7 to promote standardization of interfaces for smart houses between (1) house energy management system (HEMS) and electrical devices at home and (2) HEMS and smart meters. METI hereby announces the summary of studied subjects so far, that was compiled at the meeting.

The Study Group was established to provide occasions for specialized study under the International Standardization Working Group of the Japan Smart Community Alliance (JSCA) on the basis of the decision at the meeting on November 1, 2011 of the Energy and Environment Council.

The Study Group has private companies as members and is chaired by Mr. Hayashi, Professor at Waseda University and vice-chaired by Mr. Isshiki, Professor at Keio University. Through its integral industry-academia-government effort to promote standardization of smart meters and HEMS, the Study Group has, after concentrated discussion for a short period, achieved a final decision to be announced on February 24.

• Customers cannot smoothly understand data regarding the use of electricity etc.
  ⇒Obtaining data from the smart meter will lead to electricity saving and energy conservation through visualization and control.
• HEMS and devices from other companies cannot be connected
  ⇒Standardization will enable mutual connection among devices from different manufacturers and development of various electricity saving services
• Participants in the smart house market are limited to large companies with their own standard
  ⇒Standardization will facilitate participation by new entrepreneurs such as small and medium enterprises and ventures.

[Decided matters]

- Introduction of HEMS; Recommendation of ECHONET-Lite ^* as the standard interface among electrical devices at home, HEMS and the smart meter

- Popularization in the domestic market and promotion of international standardization toward exploitation of overseas markets

[Application of decided matters]

- Work toward procurement of smart meters

- The matters decided at this Study Meeting are considered requirements for the projects to promote introduction of an energy management system under the FY 2012 Third Supplementary Budget

^* ECHONET-Lite is the standard formulated by ECHONET Consortium established in 1997, which:
- was formulated on August 11, 2011 and provides for control of about 80 types of devices including home appliances, smart meters and solar batteries, and
- was disclosed to general public on December 21, 2011.

February 24, 2012

• Information Economy Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau
• Electricity Market Division, Electricity and Gas Industry Department, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy