Wednesday, February 15, 2012

No. 437: An electrical outlet for power management by user and by electric appliance (February 15, 2012)

Technology
Sony developed an electrical outlet that manages power consumption for each user and for each electric appliance. The company applied its Felica technology, a noncontact IC technology used in the ticket gate of railway stations, to the new electrical outlet. The IC chip incorporated in a power plug trades data with an electric outlet to manage power consumption. The system can confirm what appliance consumes how much power and control the power consumption of each appliance.

The company developed two types for this authentification electrical outlet. One allows for wireless information trading between the plug and the outlet, and the other trades information via electric power line. A server manages the information traded between appliance and electric outlet intensively via a network. This system will make it possible to supply power to medical devices and refrigerators on a priority basis when power is in short supply. In addition, a car owner can pay for charging fee even if he has his car charged by his friend or acquaintance because the system can tell the power consumption of each user. 

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