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Direct Energy and Exceptional Innovation Team Up With Cable Industry to Show Consumer Energy Management Application on tru2way(TM) Platform

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 April 2009, 13:16 CDT

WASHINGTON, April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Direct Energy unveiled a new energy management dashboard solution for consumers and service providers with the focus on reducing energy consumption and lowering energy costs. The solution, developed in partnership with Exceptional Innovation, is showcased as part of the Connected Suburban Home within the Broadband Nation Exhibit at The Cable Show '09 and runs as an application on the cable industry's tru2way(TM) common platform.

This innovative method of allowing consumers to view their energy consumption via the television was developed as a result of extensive consumer research and trials with existing solutions. The home energy-management dashboard includes easy-to-understand graphics that display real-time use, cost, and ecological impact, along with selected appliance usage, current and projected utility bill costs, comparison charts, management tools, energy savings data and tips for consumers. The energy management dashboard data and services will ultimately be provided to consumers via remote access from any broadband-enabled and connected device such as smart phones or PCs.

"This is an early example of what we believe will be a variety of applications built to cable's tru2way platform for innovation," said Don Dulchinos, SVP of Advanced Platforms and Services at CableLabs(R). "The cable industry already supports a variety of green initiatives, and will be eager to learn more about the potential of this solution for helping cable customers save energy." The application has been through preliminary interoperability testing at CableLabs.

"Presenting consumers with energy consumption data in a clear, concise way, and being able to directly associate that information with how it will impact their monthly and yearly expenses in dollars and cents, has proven to motivate consumers to conserve in a long-term, sustainable way," said David Dollihite, Vice President of Product and Business Development, Direct Energy. "Homeowners are looking for a consumer-friendly, energy management solution and this dashboard brings us one step closer to delivering the entire solution to consumers."

The dashboard was created using technology from Exceptional Innovation which takes advantage of the latest in Web services and cloud-based SOA applications that will allow service providers to connect the homeowner to the utility company and to other devices on the network through their TV. This simple approach makes every broadband-capable home an immediate candidate for an energy information service versus consumers having to wait for devices to become available and integrated into their home environment.

"Using the television to provide consumers a friendly, easy-to-use dashboard for monitoring energy use and managing utility costs promotes a behavior change toward greener living," said Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer at Exceptional Innovation. "We have created a highly flexible software application that leverages devices, data, services, and analytics that are sitting out across the network and also provides an on-screen energy-management experience via the set-top cable box."

Direct Energy and Exceptional Innovation cite the numerous benefits of bringing a product like this to market through service providers, including a strong installation force, the installed base of existing subscribers, and secure networks that already connect the home to the web. The two companies are working with some of the nation's largest service providers and will be engaging in numerous technical trials in 2009.

The set-top being used in Broadband Nation to demonstrate the applications is the ADB-6880CDX. Francois Pogodalla, CEO of Advanced Digital Broadcast commented, "Life|ware's innovations are the type of breakthrough applications that ADB's advanced set-tops were designed to support. We are excited to see solutions that use the full potential of tru2way and the ADB-6880CDX HD Set-top."

Consumers and service providers can see the combined Direct Energy and Exceptional Innovation energy management dashboard solution in action at the Broadband Nation exhibit, Booth 100, at The Cable Show this week.

For more information, logos and images, please visit www.life-ware.com, www.directenergy.com, www.cablelabs.com, and www.adbglobal.com.

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers with over 5 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Direct Energy provides customers with choice and support in managing their energy costs through a portfolio of innovative products and services. A subsidiary of Centrica plc (LSE: CNA), one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, Direct Energy operates in 21 states plus the District of Columbia and 10 provinces in Canada. For more information, visit www.directenergy.com.

About Life|ware, from Exceptional Innovation

Based in the Columbus suburb of Westerville, Ohio, Exceptional Innovation produces Life|ware(TM) software and hardware automation and entertainment solutions focused on digital living. Life|ware creates a lifestyle experience that allows consumers to enjoy their digital entertainment and manage their lighting, multi-room audio, HVAC, security, appliances and other subsystems, as well as energy monitoring and metering devices and home healthcare devices through a single user interface. Led by software industry professionals with extensive experience in distributed computing based on open standards and architecture, Exceptional Innovation combines development expertise with years of control experience to deliver simple, seamless, life-enhancing solutions. For more information on Exceptional Innovation and the portfolio of Life|ware products, visit www.life-ware.com.

About ADB

Advanced Digital Broadcast (www.adbglobal.com) is a leader in the design, development and supply of high-quality products to the world-wide digital television market. The Company has deployed over 12 million set-top boxes, across high-volume markets, incorporating the industry's pioneering middleware, conditional access and hardware technologies.

ADB has established itself as a trusted partner to television operators supporting them to launch new services using state-of-the-art technology. Through its unique end-to-end understanding of set-top box software, ADB is able to design and supply highly efficient and optimized hardware platforms ahead of the competition.

Approximately 70% of ADB's workforce is dedicated to engineering; developing products across all the digital television technology platforms including cable, Internet Protocol (IP), satellite and terrestrial. The company is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with its main Research and Development facility in Zielona Gora, Poland and Operations division in Taipei, Taiwan. ADB has local representation in Australia, Italy, Singapore, Spain, the Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom.

ADB is a member of ADB Group; ADB Group (www.adbholdings.com) is publicly listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX:ADBN).

SOURCE Direct Energy

Source: PR Newswire

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